Shirley Manson Quits Music

[Ean]

MANSON QUITS MUSIC

Former Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson has revealed that she has quit the music business in favour of acting. Recently she has become best known for her role in TV series 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles', but speaking at the WonderCon convention in America she revealed that the change of career is permanent.

She told the audience at the convention: "I was sickened by my record company's approach, which was, to me, essentially an uncreative process. I felt like there was nothing I was ever going to be able to do that was going to please them. I didn't want to play the corporate music gig where they want women to make nursery rhymes. I wasn't prepared to do that. They keep churning out pop hits that no one gives a fuck about a year later. The business is not being run in a smart fashion".

[Ilsa]

Boo hiss

Gotta admire her integrity though. Hopefully she won't stay disillusioned with the industry from this experience and perhaps in the future she'll find a positive collaborative arrangment for her creativity. Would be a real waste if not. Time will tell....

[Ean]

She was halfway through a solo album too. And I wasn't aware that Garbage had split for good - I knew they were on hiatus 'cos Butch Vig produced nearly every rekkid that came out last year.

Can't even admire her, erm... 'integrity' on the telly 'cos I can't get Virgin 1 yet (too far from the transmitter for a usable signal until they crank up the juice in about 3 years' time).

[spoon_of_grimbo]

well that's the pot calling the kettle gay! she's criticising the label "churning out pop hits" when garbage were always very much a POP-rock band, with emphasis on singles.

and how typical to completely ignore the fact that there's a million independent labels that'd probably gladly put out her music if she wanted to continue making it, but she'd rather cut off her nose to spite her face and just jack it in completely.

[Mattie]

and how typical to completely ignore the fact that there's a million independent labels that'd probably gladly put out her music if she wanted to continue making it, but she'd rather cut off her nose to spite her face and just jack it in completely.

That's how I saw it too.

I've never actually been a fan of Garbage anyway, never took the time to listen to them though tbh

Plus if she has a career in acting (in a large, high profile show) she could always pay for the fucker herself, truly independent (yes I know it's probably hard to find the time, but plenty of others have had to)

It just reads as an excuse really.

[Ilsa]

Plus if she has a career in acting (in a large, high profile show) she could always pay for the fucker herself, truly independent (yes I know it's probably hard to find the time, but plenty of others have had to)

Good point, fingers crossed

[Ean]

well that's the pot calling the kettle gay! she's criticising the label "churning out pop hits" when garbage were always very much a POP-rock band, with emphasis on singles.

and how typical to completely ignore the fact that there's a million independent labels that'd probably gladly put out her music if she wanted to continue making it, but she'd rather cut off her nose to spite her face and just jack it in completely.

Not really, there's a big difference between labels churning out pop-by-numbers with artists who have a ten second shelf life and a band like Garbage who actually tried to say something with their music while utilising some aspects of the 'Pop' style of writing and sound to keep things accessible. You're using 'Pop' as a derogatory term when its ratio of good:bad is no worse than any other genre.

There's nothing wrong with being a singles band, not that they were just a singles band any more than, say Blondie (One of Manson's big influences), The Beatles, or indeed The Wildhearts were/are - Yes, they might have had cracking singles, but there was much more to them than that. Incidentally, a certain red-headed guitarist would probably be quite bemused to find that one of his main areas of influence is a thing to be derided.

She's high profile and successful enough that whichever label she is signed to wouldn't just let her walk away - and anything she tried to record for anyone else would belong to them anyway. Due to a contractual issue left over from her previous band, she appeared on all the Garbage albums 'courtesy of Radioactive Records' - she might not be skint, but even buying herself out of a contract with a relatively small company like that clearly a) doesn't come cheap, and b) gets you tangled in the legal system and unable to do anything at all for an interminable amount of time.

If only we could think of another artist who walked away when he couldn't get out of a deal he didn't like?

[Pudu]

Oh bugger I got excited when I saw the title of this thread ................ I thought it was about Marilyn Manson quiting!!!!! Oh well back to hoping!!!

[wildsam6o]

lucky i saw them when i did then, was well into them when i was younger

shame im nt gna get to see her again

[spoon_of_grimbo]

Not really, there's a big difference between labels churning out pop-by-numbers with artists who have a ten second shelf life and a band like Garbage who actually tried to say something with their music while utilising some aspects of the 'Pop' style of writing and sound to keep things accessible. You're using 'Pop' as a derogatory term when its ratio of good:bad is no worse than any other genre.

There's nothing wrong with being a singles band, not that they were just a singles band any more than, say Blondie (One of Manson's big influences), The Beatles, or indeed The Wildhearts were/are - Yes, they might have had cracking singles, but there was much more to them than that. Incidentally, a certain red-headed guitarist would probably be quite bemused to find that one of his main areas of influence is a thing to be derided.

i wasn't using pop as a derogatory term, i think pop music can be amazing when it's done properly, and i don't see anything wrong in being a singles band (if anything, i find pop music works better in the form of singles and shorter releases rather than over-long albums). i'm not a huge garbage fan, but i certainly don't think they were bad at all - i was just pointing out that she was criticizing her label for taking the same approach to releasing music as her band seemed to, and then acting as if she were different somehow. to be honest, the second part of my post is what i was most bothered about - the whole "ah, it didn't quite work out so fuck it" attitude.

[Ean]

In that case, I apologise, that's just the way it read to me.

I can't agree about the 'churning out hits' though. Garbage never did that - 4 albums, and a handful of singles from each, in a decade is hardly churning anything. And they were never pressured to change the way they sounded or what they wrote about due to record company interference trying to dictate what would sell, which is what Manson is suggesting was taking place during the recording of this album.

If she had laboured on and finished the album, it might well have been shelved if the company didn't like it - it certainly wouldn't be the first time - leaving her a bit stuck.

She was probably just venting - not the first time for that either - and all will be sweetness and light again in a few months time once the excitement of the acting thing wears off.