Krischan said on January 20, 2007 10:48:

Even if the new releases don’t perform well in the charts in the U.S. and the rest of the world (except for Old Europe), they still might manage to sell considerable numbers there - which in the end means money. I agree, the big times are over. The fan family is settled, I mean not growing anymore. Personally, I don’t link selling figures and music I like. I do not need charts to justify my taste or to feel superior or cool. Those times are over, too.

Future releases depend on what P&M want to achieve - easy earning by milking the cows for the n-th time, or please their small but steady fan community (and safe buyers) with personal, non-commercial music (e.g. The Change or S.O.A.P.). In fact, both of them don’t have to prove anything to anybody anymore and are finally free now to release whatever they like.

Krischan said on January 20, 2007 11:33:

As for G-Man, as you know he spread some hints about S.O.A.P. II and another Swedish project. Concerning Roxette the weak link is Marie - she’s gotta want it. Frankly and honestly, I understand fully her changed priorities after the tumor and do not expect anything from Roxette. Thus, every single bit of them comes as a welcome surprise.

zlatyvoci said on January 20, 2007 14:16:

coyboyusa: Yes, but those times are gone....I meant nowadays usa music....and bless god, that good old europe (except UK) is keeping it´s own identity and culture....

sylviah said on January 20, 2007 16:13:

Roxette is well remembered by their music...and has been very successful and is able to attract attention, only thing is the right tools of promotion must be pushed and if they ever want to make it back they must have good re-mixes and other sources of approach to different segments of the market. But if they believe that things can happen like when “The Look” was picked up that they invested huge after the song was a hit...then they can keep on dreaming...however thats kinda what happened with DHT’s Listen to your heart...someone just played it in clubs and picked up...

Anarem said on January 21, 2007 04:09:

Why do charts and numbers mean so much to people? Popularity does not necessarily mean quality. Take Backstreet Boys and Garth Brooks, for example...
—
“Où sont mes pantalons?”

Room_service said on January 21, 2007 09:57:

I think they don’t owe anything. They could even succeed with no help from the US. Maybe it could take a little longer, but they wouldn’t be ignore in any way. Many artists have been successful even if ignored in the US. So, they don’t have to pay any tribute, that’s ridiculous. Have you read the stupid reviews they got over there lately?

Max-Tob said on January 21, 2007 10:45:

Amen.

alesluc said on January 21, 2007 16:28:

Roomservice, your statement is an opinion, the fact is that Roxette’s success outside sweden began in the US, no question about it.
and it’s not a matter of what kind of review they got in the US, which are close to what we sometimes read in this board.
Per as always said that he’s angry about the way EMI jeopardised their success in the US starting from Spending My Time single. I think he’s also looking for “revenge”. I don’t think that this greatest hits without a new hit to crush into US radio could be the right way, but that’s not a good reason not to try.

GT_85 said on January 21, 2007 17:02:

Bit It began in the States, nowhere else. Without the succes in the US with Look Sharp! Joyride probably never would have been recorded. And no one, NO ONE would have remembered Roxette.

And btw, real fun that people from Germany and Spain (among others) are saying things about the US...

miss-misery said on January 21, 2007 21:37:

In spite of the fact that Roxette’s frist hit was in the US, I agree with those who say that they don’t owe that much to America. Actually, Roxette’s carreer developed in European markets, and I think they owe much more to Spain or Germany, countries where Roxette have been really big for years. IMHO, Per should focus more in those markets, instead of insisting in having a hit in a country where he already knows that Roxette are not known anymore.
____________________________________________________________________
“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal” (Oscar Wilde)

punxnotdead said on February 17, 2007 09:03:

- Roxette won´t make it big in the states with a single as “One wish” (fact!)
Adult - oriented rock pop / power pop / power ballads. That´s Roxette for me, and they will be that for me always.

That´s the target needed to make it big in the US. with a mature sound, as in Tourism / CBB. Not this ultra poppy One Wish. They need to be recognized as the sound they got classic everywhere, not trying to captivate teen fans, with a teen sound.

Vanilla Ninja is a good example of how Roxette´s music may sound nowadays (in my own opinion), for me Vanilla Ninja´s music is the developed Roxette´s classic sound. Very roxettish ballads, Gessle´s power pop songs. That could be great music to make it big in the US. Sexy and Sweet! - Not sounding weak.

chrisjankunas said on February 19, 2007 17:29:

Well, the USA didn’t do all that much for Roxette in the UK, a market Roxette has NEVER really ’cracked’ as such - only 5 top ten hits, 6 counting The Re-Isssue of IMHBL and absolutely 0 no.1s !

miss-misery said on February 19, 2007 22:58:

Well, Carlos, Roxette are and have been quite big in very important markets like Germany and Spain. And through the Spanish market they have reached the Latin American one, which I dare to say is veeeeeeery important, at least thanks to the huge number of inhabitants there.

Fortunately, UK and USA are not everything in this life, and they are not everything in music business.

Cheers.
____________________________________________________________________
“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal” (Oscar Wilde)

gessle-addict said on February 22, 2007 12:11:

I wonder why you always talk of Europe and forget South America. Roxette was huge here and still are famous even though they don’t sell as much as before.

Roxrider_USA said on February 22, 2007 15:45:

No. It’s not because they don’t matter or are insignificant. It’s just because, it seems like, the other parts of the world, for the most part, follow what comes out of Europe (with all their countries being acknowledged here as individual countries) and the USA. Especially, entertainment including music, fashion and technology.

It’s unfortunate, but i really don’t see significant numbers of entertainmet, fashion and technology coming out of countries in South America, Russia, the African countries and Asia, excluding Japan and South Korea for technology and other areas of entertainment besides music.

So, my argument is that since Roxette are european and had many number 1 hits and many top 10 hits in the USA, which is a super market for almost anything including music, and that can really propell an artist’s carreer to huge heights throughout the world, as most of the other parts of the world do in fact start to see that’s it’s worthwhile to play songs that became really successful in the US, and therefore, the artist becomes even more sucessful. As a result, the band now has its songs being played almost any where on the world, except the countries that close themselves to pop western culture (North Korea and many coutries in the Mid-East).

As an isolated example, when i lived in Brazil, i never heard songs from Asian, African and European countries, except some from England couple from Finland and of course Roxette from Sweden including AOB and ABBA. Everything else, for the most part, as from the US and of course the national brazilian music.

As always, anyone can argument otherwise and feel free to correct on whatever i may be mistaken.

Take care!
Carlos E., New York
“Communication is key”

Roxrider_USA said on February 22, 2007 18:25:

@phoenixsamudra:

Interesting.

How many times on one week, do you actually find Indian movies
on all the regular most established movie only channels? What are the origins
of most of the movies on those same channels you see on TV? In my experience unless i go to a specific Indian rental store, i’d find just a few to be rented. On TV, unless it’s a Indian movie channel only, i’d find just few movies from time to time.

Yes, 3rd biggest music market. It’s good you point that out. Do the radio
stations in your country or most of other countries play Japanese songs along side all the western culture style songs ? Name a few hit songs from Japan that are being hits in Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Africa.
As a matter of fact, i’ve never heard one. Except Anime/cartoon songs on the cartoon episodes themselves, and many times they are replaced by versions better suited to the target market where the anime/cartoon series is being broadcasted.

Concerning Asian fashoin, if you stop to watch fashion channels or even fashion news events, the most important and recognized ones are always Milan, Paris and New York , although São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, huge south american cities in Brazil, have started to become important too. I rarely see on the news or on fashion channels, much about Tokyo and other bigger Asian cities. Even on brazilian news i watch often and on Hispanic news channels (many from Mexico).

On to the Latin American music part of this discussion, i have to acknowledge that in recent years, due to the huge increase in the hispanic population in the USA, you can actually find hispanic only radio stations and music channels becoming more widespread. And that’s a good thing in my opinon. I like integration! I like the mixing. But this is not the argument. The influence you might be refering to, is the big explosion of Reggeton in the US music scene, especially and for the most part, among the Hispanic US population. Before Regetton gained ground on the US, i had never heard of such music genre, even though as i said, i follow media from the US, Brazil, the BBC (from Englad) on the radio and also hispanic news on hispanic TV channels. Therefore, I would never have learned about Regetton had it not been exposed in the US and taken its artists to higher success due to all the exposure in the US. If you don’t live in Latin America, the US or maybe even Spain, don’t know what Reggeton sounds like but you’ve already heard about it on the media or from someone else, i credit that to the big success it has become due to the exposure in the US music market. So, if it’s not being played in your country, if your country is not in Latin America or the US, don’t be surprised if eventually you start hearing Reggeton on your radio stations.

To wrap it up, you don’t have to agree with everything i say. It would be silly. After all, you are a free person and have freedom of opinion. As long as you legitimitely disagree you are more than welcome to do so.

My argument stands: Once a music artist is exposed to the US and some european countries like the UK and Germany, and the artists have big hits in those markets, their success is then much more easily recognized and spread to most regions of the world then if the hits were in Brazil, Russia, Paris, Japan, Egypt and so on. Therefore, making them even bigger stars.

Have a good one!

Take care!
Carlos E., New York
“Communication is key”

Roxrider_USA said on February 22, 2007 19:57:

Although i agree with you that certain aspects of Hip Hop such as the physical exposure of the female humam body is not good for children, i can’t criticize the freedom of expression and speech of the Hip Hop artists. Furthermore, i believe that the parents are the ones, whenever possible, who should monitor their children and decide what their children should watch and listen to. If, you think that an artist’s freedom of expression and speech should be taken away from him/her by the gorvernment or any other entity, to protect someone else, in this case children, which is a nobel idea, you’d not be respecting the freedom of others. The parents can always block channels, don’t let children watch programs you as a parent beleive to be offensive and the best of all and most important, raise your children with the strong values you believe to be good for them. Also, always communicate with them.
Remember, there are always choices!

Well, i hope you have understood my argument which was explained in my previous posts. Also hope, you’ve come to accept it as a valide one.

BTW, are you saying that HIp Hop is on cartoon, Discovery Kids, Nickelodeon and Disney channels ? I highly doubt that. Well, at least over here, there’s no Hip Hop whatsoever with half naked women on these children’s channels. If that’s the case over there. it’s plain irresponsibility of the administrators of those channels as those are children-specific channels. So you don’t have to thank the Americans, but indeed, you should celebrate and be thankful for the freedom of expression and speech among others, most of the people have, including you and me.

Take care!
Carlos E., New York
“Communication is key”

Roxrider_USA said on February 22, 2007 22:01:

Yeah, it’s something that is not really healthy for children who do that. It’s the same thing with children that have parents that smoke, drink to much and do drugs. None of those things a good fro children and they follow what their parents do. It’s very detrimental ofr sure.

Well, i’d like to thank you for this healthy and polite debate we had. I had lots of fun!
Stay well!

Take care!
Carlos E., New York
“Communication is key”

Roxrider_USA said on February 23, 2007 03:05:

Cool!

Nice to know about it! Thanks! :-)

Take care!
Carlos E., New York
“Communication is key”

Kathrin said on August 26, 2007 18:32:

Just because Germany has Aggro Berlin,it doesn’t mean that it’s turning into the 2nd USA!
Because allot of ppl here don’t like Rappers like Sido or Bushido!
I prefer the Roxette Style!
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Have Fun!!!

regn said on August 27, 2007 00:34:

I guess the fact is Good or Bad songs IMHO One Wish & Reveal were Bad songs and really bad produced + a few Playback appearances didn’t help that much ...
But well nowdays we’ve got youtube, myspace and so on, charts and sales number are just part of the past ... Our world has changed, let’s face it.

coyboyusa said on August 28, 2007 13:37:

i used to in the beginnign balk at both one wish and reveal, I’ll admit it. Maybe because after being told their sound was moving away from their old sound they’d seemed to be dwelling on the ” old sound” again. The production was rushed, it isn’t bad and that’s what alot of people seem to forget, 2 weeks, 2 songs to be mastered and added to both the hits package and the boxed set. I know alot of people envision america being a lost cause for them but it isn’t. Neither of them can or are interested in doing the amount of pr it takes to get noticed stateside. It’s not the uk wherre u hit 5 towns in a week and your pr is done. Per often mentioned this when asked about the differences in regards to promotion. They also need a break in trends...the only reason they were ever big in the usa is they hit at a point where the music scene had stalled, much in the way savage garden hit big just after grunge died but before boy bands got huge in the states. Thats what they need again, maybe 5 yrs from now when rap/ rnb dies out. Hinestly, I never understood why pop idol hasn’t done a tribute to roxette night, of even american idol for that matter. What irritates me the most is per and marie have contributed more to the scandinavian pop music scene than any band during their active careers, that include abba.....and yet they are over looked as this 80’s pop band when I honestly find them more relevant now than they were when LS came out.

regn said on August 28, 2007 22:45:

Ouchh!!!!

RobS said on August 29, 2007 11:27:

Well said coyboyusa