This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/mar/03/jake-bugg-harry-styles-which-fake

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
So Jake Bugg is authentic and Harry Styles is a fake? I don't think so… So Jake Bugg is authentic and Harry Styles is a fake? I don't think so…
(7 months later)
The conflict between what is perceived as radiant, stable truth and what is merely fraudulent and dubious is a central element in the game of pop culture. There has to be some sort of dynamic to maintain momentum and fabricate interest, or the whole charade collapses. Pepsi versus Coke, Nicki Minaj versus Lil'Kim, Blur versus Oasis, Lily versus Cheryl, Apple versus Microsoft, vampires versus werewolves, Vans versus Converse, Backstreet Boys versus N'Sync. Last week, to really help us work out what's right and what's wrong in these shifting, shattering times, battle commenced in earnest between Harry Styles and Jake Bugg – between, so it seems, the fake and the authentic, the bright and the dull.The conflict between what is perceived as radiant, stable truth and what is merely fraudulent and dubious is a central element in the game of pop culture. There has to be some sort of dynamic to maintain momentum and fabricate interest, or the whole charade collapses. Pepsi versus Coke, Nicki Minaj versus Lil'Kim, Blur versus Oasis, Lily versus Cheryl, Apple versus Microsoft, vampires versus werewolves, Vans versus Converse, Backstreet Boys versus N'Sync. Last week, to really help us work out what's right and what's wrong in these shifting, shattering times, battle commenced in earnest between Harry Styles and Jake Bugg – between, so it seems, the fake and the authentic, the bright and the dull.
According to Bugg, Styles's band, One Direction, are not really a proper group at all. They don't write their own songs. They're just "there to look good". When Styles was voted "villain of the year" at last week's NME awards, Bugg observed that "villain" was too subtle a word for so superficial a performer. In online forums, One Direction's considerable army of supporters have been counterattacking with a will.According to Bugg, Styles's band, One Direction, are not really a proper group at all. They don't write their own songs. They're just "there to look good". When Styles was voted "villain of the year" at last week's NME awards, Bugg observed that "villain" was too subtle a word for so superficial a performer. In online forums, One Direction's considerable army of supporters have been counterattacking with a will.
This contest is about as real as the affair between Styles and Taylor Swift, but these days, these flares of publicity, these highly co-ordinated nonsensical campaigns, are where pop's remaining energy mostly resides. In that sense, poor Bugg follows Swift into the Styles zone: Styles remains in the news, and in prime place on the shelf. Your first thought is that he and Bugg share the same publicist, and it's all following a script written by a student of Amis, Brooker and Jackie Collins. The whole thing is arranged to create the equivalent of what in the vinyl era was properly called a single. These days, you don't have to release a single to create publicity and develop a career, you just have to find someone to argue with, and engage in a tabloid-amplified exchange of views about how ugly/stupid/pointless the other one is.This contest is about as real as the affair between Styles and Taylor Swift, but these days, these flares of publicity, these highly co-ordinated nonsensical campaigns, are where pop's remaining energy mostly resides. In that sense, poor Bugg follows Swift into the Styles zone: Styles remains in the news, and in prime place on the shelf. Your first thought is that he and Bugg share the same publicist, and it's all following a script written by a student of Amis, Brooker and Jackie Collins. The whole thing is arranged to create the equivalent of what in the vinyl era was properly called a single. These days, you don't have to release a single to create publicity and develop a career, you just have to find someone to argue with, and engage in a tabloid-amplified exchange of views about how ugly/stupid/pointless the other one is.
Both of these personalities do better having a nemesis, giving them a little old-style edge otherwise missing, and although in this battle it is meant to be clear who is Batman and who is the Joker, who is Beckham and who is Barton, either could take on both roles. The encounter roughs up Styles's scrubbed blandness and encourages the idea of him as the sort of appealing bad boy who will end up soloing with Robbie-ish gusto, and gives a rugged boost to Bugg's scruffy blandness, suggesting he may yet shake off his innocence and gain emotional heft. Possible endings include the pair of them appearing as buddies in a Danny Dyer remake of Slade in Flame, performing next year's Children in Need song as though they are the modern version of Bowie and Jagger, or being medically spliced together to become one freakish mini-icon, Stuggy Byle.Both of these personalities do better having a nemesis, giving them a little old-style edge otherwise missing, and although in this battle it is meant to be clear who is Batman and who is the Joker, who is Beckham and who is Barton, either could take on both roles. The encounter roughs up Styles's scrubbed blandness and encourages the idea of him as the sort of appealing bad boy who will end up soloing with Robbie-ish gusto, and gives a rugged boost to Bugg's scruffy blandness, suggesting he may yet shake off his innocence and gain emotional heft. Possible endings include the pair of them appearing as buddies in a Danny Dyer remake of Slade in Flame, performing next year's Children in Need song as though they are the modern version of Bowie and Jagger, or being medically spliced together to become one freakish mini-icon, Stuggy Byle.
Up to now, to be honest, I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to break into their fringes in order to tell them apart. If I had to choose one I would prefer to chuck a shoe at, whether for love or hate, I would have a little trouble. Neither make music I recognise as music, and even Bugg, supported by rock sentimentalists as a teenage gem with something on his non-X Factor mind, produced with conscientious MoR-indie care, writes songs that seem to leave quickly on a jet plane in the direction of John Denver.Up to now, to be honest, I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to break into their fringes in order to tell them apart. If I had to choose one I would prefer to chuck a shoe at, whether for love or hate, I would have a little trouble. Neither make music I recognise as music, and even Bugg, supported by rock sentimentalists as a teenage gem with something on his non-X Factor mind, produced with conscientious MoR-indie care, writes songs that seem to leave quickly on a jet plane in the direction of John Denver.
One Direction are closer to being an artificially flavoured soft drink, a flavour of Pringles, a living soft toy, floppy fodder for future reality shows than to a musical act of any interest to anyone with an interest in music. Bugg is touted as the Real Thing, Bragg-endorsed, very 6 Music, earnest working-class teenage angst, as though he is genuinely in the tradition of Cash and Strummer, with a voice pieced out of Pitney and Guthrie. It's hard to believe, though, if such judgments still have any worth, that for all his songwriting talent and decorous musical taste he's any less formulaic and ultimately futile than One Direction, except slanted towards Cast, Athlete and Snow Patrol.One Direction are closer to being an artificially flavoured soft drink, a flavour of Pringles, a living soft toy, floppy fodder for future reality shows than to a musical act of any interest to anyone with an interest in music. Bugg is touted as the Real Thing, Bragg-endorsed, very 6 Music, earnest working-class teenage angst, as though he is genuinely in the tradition of Cash and Strummer, with a voice pieced out of Pitney and Guthrie. It's hard to believe, though, if such judgments still have any worth, that for all his songwriting talent and decorous musical taste he's any less formulaic and ultimately futile than One Direction, except slanted towards Cast, Athlete and Snow Patrol.
Bugg's description of One Direction as "not really a band", up there with his shruggy comment that Mumford and Sons look like posh farmers with banjos, suggests he doesn't have all the wit and insight some reviewers claim. Or, perhaps, that he hasn't got the heart for confrontation. He's been forced into a corner by a media that prefers playground fights to artistic dignity, and he doesn't want to get too involved in this sort of sniping, which drags attention away from his sincere singer-songwriting and his commentary on modern life that may or may not set the world on fire. Once you are tangled up in stunt warfare with a well-trained teen idol it is very hard to act as if what you do is serious.Bugg's description of One Direction as "not really a band", up there with his shruggy comment that Mumford and Sons look like posh farmers with banjos, suggests he doesn't have all the wit and insight some reviewers claim. Or, perhaps, that he hasn't got the heart for confrontation. He's been forced into a corner by a media that prefers playground fights to artistic dignity, and he doesn't want to get too involved in this sort of sniping, which drags attention away from his sincere singer-songwriting and his commentary on modern life that may or may not set the world on fire. Once you are tangled up in stunt warfare with a well-trained teen idol it is very hard to act as if what you do is serious.
In that sense, Bugg cannot win. It's Styles all the way, because such set-up bitching and overexcited headlines cannot hurt his work, which is not concerned with the kind of credibility those born before 1990 would recognise. He does nothing conventionally creative, except for playing the role of Harry Styles. He plays Styles, odious and irritating to some, adorable and heroic to those more likely to be looking in his eyes or at his groin, with reasonable flair and neat timing. As a performer in the guise of a performer following orders in order to make a name for himself, he has an elastic, narcissistic presence that we will probably look back on as being more of a comment on the queasy, sleazy times than model moody lad Bugg's sweet, underwhelming and deeply conventional desire to channel Buddy Holly, Donovan and Noel Gallagher.In that sense, Bugg cannot win. It's Styles all the way, because such set-up bitching and overexcited headlines cannot hurt his work, which is not concerned with the kind of credibility those born before 1990 would recognise. He does nothing conventionally creative, except for playing the role of Harry Styles. He plays Styles, odious and irritating to some, adorable and heroic to those more likely to be looking in his eyes or at his groin, with reasonable flair and neat timing. As a performer in the guise of a performer following orders in order to make a name for himself, he has an elastic, narcissistic presence that we will probably look back on as being more of a comment on the queasy, sleazy times than model moody lad Bugg's sweet, underwhelming and deeply conventional desire to channel Buddy Holly, Donovan and Noel Gallagher.
On some showbusiness scale that allow us to actually measure the truth, Styles is closer to the Beatles than Bugg is to Dylan. His getting matey with society philosopher Alain de Botton and Russell Brand and ripping Socrates from Wikipedia and tweeting it out is more militant than Bugg rambling on about booze and fags. And if pop is all about the pose, the masquerade, then again Styles is way out in front; Bugg stuck in a square rock'n'roll past now as quaint-seeming as George Formby, Styles effortlessly streaming through the liquid entertainmentscape as modern as a ruined reputation, a Piers Morgan insult or a food scandal.On some showbusiness scale that allow us to actually measure the truth, Styles is closer to the Beatles than Bugg is to Dylan. His getting matey with society philosopher Alain de Botton and Russell Brand and ripping Socrates from Wikipedia and tweeting it out is more militant than Bugg rambling on about booze and fags. And if pop is all about the pose, the masquerade, then again Styles is way out in front; Bugg stuck in a square rock'n'roll past now as quaint-seeming as George Formby, Styles effortlessly streaming through the liquid entertainmentscape as modern as a ruined reputation, a Piers Morgan insult or a food scandal.
Ultimately, Bugg's presence, promoted as authentic and council-estate solid, lacks the complexity required to embody the kind of artistic integrity that makes sense now, rather than sort of in 1956, 1966 or 1996. He can only work for those who wish pop life was how it used to be, back when life was safely seven inches and chart-fixated.Ultimately, Bugg's presence, promoted as authentic and council-estate solid, lacks the complexity required to embody the kind of artistic integrity that makes sense now, rather than sort of in 1956, 1966 or 1996. He can only work for those who wish pop life was how it used to be, back when life was safely seven inches and chart-fixated.
It's difficult to appreciate if you might pine for the 60s of the Stones or the 90s of Oasis but, as things are now, Styles is the truth – authentic, perversely sophisticated, a groomed blank symbol of what's left of pop, the daily hype, monstrous turnover and aimless, targeted pressure. Bugg is the plastic, phoney contestant, a weedy echo of an echo of an echo of the idea that to write your own songs based on personal experience of a local world and a wider universe can lead to genius. Pop is now about nothing other than generating the sort of publicity that can keep the idea of pop going for those still keen on wringing money out of the traditional concept of the teenage fan's desire for the teen idol. Songs are souvenirs of the generated publicity.It's difficult to appreciate if you might pine for the 60s of the Stones or the 90s of Oasis but, as things are now, Styles is the truth – authentic, perversely sophisticated, a groomed blank symbol of what's left of pop, the daily hype, monstrous turnover and aimless, targeted pressure. Bugg is the plastic, phoney contestant, a weedy echo of an echo of an echo of the idea that to write your own songs based on personal experience of a local world and a wider universe can lead to genius. Pop is now about nothing other than generating the sort of publicity that can keep the idea of pop going for those still keen on wringing money out of the traditional concept of the teenage fan's desire for the teen idol. Songs are souvenirs of the generated publicity.
We should be able to vote on the result of these skirmishes, with the loser consigned to permanent obscurity. Now that this particular Bugg v Styles tiff is happening right in front of me, and I find myself starting to actually care, as if it's all for real, I realise that I would vote for Styles, because I will enjoy more over the next few years seeing him professionally negotiate his future fame and desperately chasing real purpose, perhaps to the point of personal risk. Troubadour Jake will just churn out more and more pasty, at best quite decent, songs that rhyme, written for and about a world that doesn't exist any more.We should be able to vote on the result of these skirmishes, with the loser consigned to permanent obscurity. Now that this particular Bugg v Styles tiff is happening right in front of me, and I find myself starting to actually care, as if it's all for real, I realise that I would vote for Styles, because I will enjoy more over the next few years seeing him professionally negotiate his future fame and desperately chasing real purpose, perhaps to the point of personal risk. Troubadour Jake will just churn out more and more pasty, at best quite decent, songs that rhyme, written for and about a world that doesn't exist any more.
Paul Morley's new book Earthbound, part of the Penguin Underground Lines series, is published on 7 MarchPaul Morley's new book Earthbound, part of the Penguin Underground Lines series, is published on 7 March
Bugg vs Styles: the factsBugg vs Styles: the facts
JAKE BUGG
Born February 1994, Nottingham.
Background Father was a nurse, mother worked in sales; they separated when he was a child. Grew up on a council estate in Clifton. Educated at Fairham Community College and Clifton Technology College.
Big break Signed with Mercury Records aged 17, after being spotted playing the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury Festival.
Success so far Self-titled debut album went straight to No 1. Has supported Noel Gallagher and the Stone Roses.		JAKE BUGG
Born February 1994, Nottingham.
Background Father was a nurse, mother worked in sales; they separated when he was a child. Grew up on a council estate in Clifton. Educated at Fairham Community College and Clifton Technology College.
Big break Signed with Mercury Records aged 17, after being spotted playing the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury Festival.
Success so far Self-titled debut album went straight to No 1. Has supported Noel Gallagher and the Stone Roses.
HARRY STYLES
Born February 1994, Cheshire.
Background Father was an engineer and parents divorced when he was seven. Educated at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School.
Big break Auditioned for The X Factor as a solo artist in 2010 and became one-fifth of boyband One Direction. They finished third.
Success so far One Direction's first single, What Makes You Beautiful, was the UK's fastest-selling of 2011. In 2012 their album Up All Night debuted at No 1 in the US. They have sold 22 million records worldwide.		HARRY STYLES
Born February 1994, Cheshire.
Background Father was an engineer and parents divorced when he was seven. Educated at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School.
Big break Auditioned for The X Factor as a solo artist in 2010 and became one-fifth of boyband One Direction. They finished third.
Success so far One Direction's first single, What Makes You Beautiful, was the UK's fastest-selling of 2011. In 2012 their album Up All Night debuted at No 1 in the US. They have sold 22 million records worldwide.
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.