Bigmouth Strikes Again: Carrie Marshall's blog

Must we throw this pop at our kids?

From last night’s Evening Times:

NEW boy band US5 have launched a tour of UK schools starting in Scotland. The band played their debut single Maria at Mearns Castle High School and Mearns Primary. Today it was the turn of Renfrew High and Cleveden Secondary to hear the quintet. 

OK, maybe I’m getting grumpy as I approach the grand old age of mumblemumblemumble, but how exactly does this benefit the schools? I can see how it benefits the extremely well-off record companies – schools tours are an established way of breaking new acts, whether it’s boy bands or lostprophets – but why should schools provide a promotional outlet for giant corporations to flog their wares?

I’d be interested to know the mechanics of these tours if anyone out there knows the ins and outs…

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Comments

0 responses to “Must we throw this pop at our kids?”

  1. Squander Two

    Schools, surely, should be exposing children to entertainment and creative arts. If some record company wants to invest in that, where’s the problem?

  2. Professor Batty

    …I seem to recall that the Beatles once did the very same thing, and found the audiences to be very attentive and receptive (although it was a boys school, so the screaming was minimal…)

  3. Gary

    Yeah, I understand the culture argument, but it’s hardly a sector of our culture that kids don’t already experience – the overwhelming majority of pop music is marketed at pre-teens anyway. Does this give them anything they don’t get from listening to the radio?

  4. Squander Two

    They don’t get to go to gigs on the radio. You may as well ask what’s the point of taking them to the Proms when you could just play them some Mozart.

  5. Gary

    Nope, I’m still not convinced. I can see the value of exposing kids to cultural things they might not otherwise experience – plays, the (spit!) opera, whatever – but judging by the recent Girls Aloud and Sugababes gigs, parents are quite happy to take their sprogs to gigs. And rock gigs often do all-ages shows, too.

  6. Squander Two

    I think you’ve got a good point if you’re talking about schools putting on these gigs instead of other stuff. If it’s as well as, though, then I can’t see a problem.

    If I were a headmaster, I’d allow the gigs on the proviso that the band talk to the musicians in the school.

  7. Linda

    The drummer from Status Quo is going into my daughters’ school today. It was never like that in my day.