The Concept

 

Welcome to the all new, all brilliant, completely immodest Punk Krow Musical Throwdown

This is the official launch of my new concept where I will be taking on… musical culture! Yes, musical culture! Each week I will be pitting two icons – from the pantheon of modern music – against each other to determine who is the very best. Each cultural behemoth will be judged using the following criteria:

·       That Voice – Could it be reading a shopping list and we’d still be spellbound? Or does it strip paint from forty yards distance?

·       Wordsmithery (lyrics) – Take away the musical background and what stacks up on the page? Can the words survive without the noise or will they wither in the silent empty white space like an abandoned penguin chick?

·       Pound of flesh – The voice may be that of an angel but what is the artist prepared to do with the fleshy vehicle of the body in service of its art? Arse out? Tits out? Full frontal or sneaky nipple peek?

·       Design Aesthetic – How much thought has gone into promotion of the band/brand? Are the T-shirts better than the songs? Sequins and feathers or everyone dressed in army surplus? Too grunge to choose an outfit? Not a problem but carving ‘No Future’ into your arm with a flick-knife is not a ‘look’…

·       Carved A Space – Here I will consider life without the singer/band. Is it almost impossible to remove them from history without the universe collapsing? Did they forge a path where others swarmed after them? Do they leave a legacy, man…?

And there you have it. For my own entertainment, I will be choosing two artists/bands from different planetary outposts so that we may compare and contrast unlike with dissimilar to better appreciate each of them.

So, first up: Kylie vs Morrissey. May the best icon sweep the board and render the other obsolete, cast into musical obscurity, a drop of water in the Spotify sound-lake and so on and so on…