Task 1. Read, translate the text and make up 12
questions about the story.
Why do popstars fade away?
Why is it that so many of your favourite singers and
bands start out with songs that really strike a chord with you but end up
recording stuff that is unbelievably bland?
The really powerful songs are often those that express
the life of an individual for whom social reality is a problem. The individual
reacts either by wanting to give something a good kicking or by withdrawing.
From these different sources we get, on the one hand, aggressive rock music
with lots of angry guitar playing and drum thrashing, while, on the other hand,
we also have quieter songs that express the frailty of the individual lost,
alone and perplexed in the urban labyrinth.
The singers and bands that can give such a perfect
musical form to feelings like these generally lose their magical touch for one
or more of the following reasons:
1. Drugs. Contrary to popular belief drugs aren't a great
source of inspiration to the artist. Users are more likely to slip into a
routine of spending all their time watching daytime television in rooms with
the curtains drawn. Those who don't just dabble in drugs but develop a
full-blown addiction lose their creativity as they become more and more
obsessed with trying to keep the artificial high going. In the moments of
lucidity between popping pills, snorting coke or shooting up they feel so crap
there is no possiblity of a creative burst of songwriting. Since the members of
a band need to be working together on the same finely tuned wavelength, if any
of them are getting lost in their private hallucinatory worlds the music is
bound to suffer.
2. Losing touch with your
roots. The best pop
music is rooted in the hopes and fears and frustrations of ordinary guys on the
street. Before the band makes it really big their songs still speak of things
the rest of us can identify with. Once they make it, the original drive to be
sincere can lead to them writing songs about expensive hotels, limousines,
groupies, and all the trappings of stardom - songs that only other popstars can
identify with, and that consequently mean absolutely nothing to the rest of us.
3. Finding God. In the most powerful pop songs the individual is out
on a limb, relationships are fragile and the only thing that really matters is
the here and now. It's essentially an insecure world and, as such, it is
godless. Popstars who soothe their private angst by finding God or Allah or
Buddah or whatever no longer see the world in the way it has to be seen to
write powerful pop. The edge, the friction, the tension is lost and so the
music becomes bland.
4. Falling in love and
settling down. A careful
look at the history of pop reveals that this is the most common cause of
popstars losing their touch. Pop music is based on dissatisfaction, whether it
be with love, life or the state of the world - pop is an expression of need,
want and desire - so it follows logically that as soon as a popstar gets what
s/he wants, inspiration flies out of the window. A popstar loaded with money in
a villa with a pool and the love of their life by their side have nothing worth
singing about. Their musical repertoire narrows down to lullabies for their
newborn babies.
Task 2. Read some passage expressively and choose the
key facts of it.
Task 3. Retell the story as if you were a musical
critic.
Task 4. Write the summary of the story in a form of a
letter to your friend.
Task 5. Make up
a dialogue between an experienced singer and a young one who is just planning his
musical career.
Task 6. Prepare a
fact file about your favourite singer (use photos, a collage) and advertise him/her
as if you were a director of this singer.
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