What do you assign to Mordor?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I'll agree with you if you're talking Status Quo (possibly one of the most cheesy, over-rated rock bands ever), but done well, being minimalist works wonders - and the end results are often not entirely different to pieces of music made involving as many notes as possible - see Atmospheres by Ligeti for an example of that!

Well, conversely, I will agree that overly ornate music (pretension for pretension's sake) is as annoying as simplicity without purpose (or talent).

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

EDIT
I've just seen what won X Factor this year and I send Simon Cowell not only to Mordor but to The Void. The cover version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah they've done is so awful, I can't even speak about it on here without cursing....

How sad, particularly since the renditions by John Cale (from the movie Shrek, of all places) or Jeff Buckley are both glorious. But Simon Cowell, as musically aware as he is puported to be, is rather ignorant when it comes to musical knowledge as far as I've seen. I imagine he listened to light-weight New Wave (like Depeche Mode or Duran Duran) and Broadway show tunes as a teenager. He was the type I'd have mocked in school. What a poseur.

We could probably start a separate thread dedicated to the worst cover songs ever recorded.

I'd assign Devo's 'Satisfaction' (Keith Richards would be rolling in his grave if he were dead -- or is he?) to Mordor for starters.

[Lalwendë]

Check out his track record of artists he signed on Wikipedia, it doesn't bode well for him having anything approaching 'taste'. I hate the whole thing of these 'talent' shows - it's just like karaoke. Yuk.

I'd also send to Mordor this thing where people like a singer "because they have a good voice". Well, Jeffrey Archer might have a nice typewriter but it doesn't mean his novels are worth reading, does it?