Chase & Status leave Ram and sign to Mercury Records

[miig]

isn't the main point that they used to produce sick drum n bass and now they're producing commercial pop?

i have a friend who used to listen to r&b religously, she comes back from uni listening to More Than Alot. so now she likes drum n bass etc apparently?

there shouldn't be any slating of their production skills, it's what they're producing.

[egoless]

i have a friend who used to listen to r&b religously, she comes back from uni listening to More Than Alot. so now she likes drum n bass etc apparently?

Goddamit what the fuck is wrong with that!?!?!?

Let's just hope there is more peeps like her...

Damn, don't be elitist...

[superslim]

At the end of the day, its more money in their pockets! who's gonna say no to that!??? lets just hope 'BITS' is on their first release!! 'RUNNING' on the other side would be nice!

who gives a fuck what label its coming from, if the tunes are good, happy days, if not dont listen/turn the radio off! end of!

[justrob]

good for chase and status, they "supposedly" have more money now.

All I have to say tho is when you're signed to a major its not about music anymore, its ONLY about making money.

It will be interesting to see if this decision moves music forward, or if we just lost some good heavy hitters.

only time will tell.


Forum haters are not killing music not even a 1/1000 as much as Majors are.

[miscreant]

isn't the main point that they used to produce sick drum n bass and now they're producing commercial pop?

i have a friend who used to listen to r&b religously, she comes back from uni listening to More Than Alot. so now she likes drum n bass etc apparently?

there shouldn't be any slating of their production skills, it's what they're producing.

shouldnt the fact that they can make sick dnb and just as sick dubstep while also earning some big bucks plus loads of fanny by whacking out the odd commerical release be a good thing? Fair do's if everything they start churning out becomes wank then lets slag em off but although i might not like some of the stuff theyre coming out with its still good to see producers with some diversity - and from a $$$ sense making mainstream commerical stuff is only going to be a good thing.

While theyre still coming out with things like bits, smash tv, streetlife and saxon theyre still big in the bangers and mash scene anyway!

[steppa]

big up to them.

They wont do a Pendulum imo.

Just bare coldplay and lilly allen remixes.

Hope we get to see Bits.

[dubstee]

Massive fail of a post.

C&S to Mercury is a bad move for all concerned IMO.

Can you explain why?

It's a bad move for Chase & Status because while they will certainly make more money in the short term (i.e. from the advance), they are now part of the major machine, which means they will have to deal with far more bullshit to get a record signed off and in the shops. There are countless examples of underground artists signing to a major and getting totally lost in the system, to the extent that albums never come out. The argument that they got too big for an indie is utter bollocks, plenty of very big indie/rock bands are on indies, not to mention the hip hop guys in the states. What matters most in this day and age is distribution - if an indie label has a bit of cash to spend on promo and a distribution deal with one of the majors then that's all you need to sell £1m+ records. IMO you'd have to be insane to sign to a major if your first album had done 50k+ on an indie. On the average major label contract, they will have to sell 3 times that to get the same money for the next one.

It's a bad move for Ram because they lost their biggest artists obviously - presumably they tried to keep them but got priced out of it.

It's a bad move for dubstep because this is another step down the road to commercial oblivion. (20 pages on that one)

And it's a bad move for Mercury because they just signed an underground act who are clearly only in it for the money, and those kind of acts usually find it hard to achieve sustained crossover success, and struggle to keep their credibility in the underground. Not sure how much the advance was, but if it was big enough for C&S to leave Ram then Mercury might have trouble recouping it.

[setspeed]

i have a friend who used to listen to r&b religously, she comes back from uni listening to More Than Alot. so now she likes drum n bass etc apparently?

Goddamit what the fuck is wrong with that!?!?!?

let it go man, you just can't reason with these people

[egoless]

let it go man, you just can't reason with these people

blah

But I understand them all in some point. I shared their opinion when I played hardcorepunk, eating lunch my mummy would make every day, receiving pocket money and was 15 years old... Mainstream? Baaaaaaaaad Pop? Baaaaaaad Major labels? Baaaaaaad...

Then I realised that pop isn't music. Pop is a category. If my grandma start hitting cans and 50 000 000 people love that, she is pop then...

I can agree and discuss about mainstream label pressure and stuff, and the posibillity to affect the artist music. But damn, don't throw them away instantly just because they signed on a major. wait and see what happens...

[dubstee]

I just don't understand why anyone would aspire to signing to a major in the first place.

[setspeed]

let it go man, you just can't reason with these people

blah

But I understand them all in some point. I shared their opinion when I played hardcorepunk, eating lunch my mummy would make every day, receiving pocket money and was 15 years old... Mainstream? Baaaaaaaaad Pop? Baaaaaaad Major labels? Baaaaaaad...

yeah man, back in the 90s Aphrodite, Mickey Finn etc were accused of killing DnB with their silly, cartoonish, idiotic tunes. A bit like C&S are now. I was 16 at the time and thought they were the COOLEST THING EVER.

3 years later I was listening to Photek, Ed Rush & Optical, Klute.... it was a gateway, it got me into DnB - it was a good thing that Aphrodite was on Radio1!

[dubstee]

let it go man, you just can't reason with these people

blah

But I understand them all in some point. I shared their opinion when I played hardcorepunk, eating lunch my mummy would make every day, receiving pocket money and was 15 years old... Mainstream? Baaaaaaaaad Pop? Baaaaaaad Major labels? Baaaaaaad...

yeah man, back in the 90s Aphrodite, Mickey Finn etc were accused of killing DnB with their silly, cartoonish, idiotic tunes. A bit like C&S are now. I was 16 at the time and thought they were the COOLEST THING EVER.

3 years later I was listening to Photek, Ed Rush & Optical, Klute.... it was a gateway, it got me into DnB - it was a good thing that Aphrodite was on Radio1!

But ultimately the jump up stuff killed DnB.

[did]

When one of you lot get offered a record deal with Mercury then i'll listen

[dubstee]

When one of you lot get offered a record deal with Mercury then i'll listen

[deamonds]

listen, this aint DOA & this aint waste & bass we all listen to...

theyre signed and thats the end of it..keep your deadout opinions to yourselves..

[setspeed]

let it go man, you just can't reason with these people

blah

But I understand them all in some point. I shared their opinion when I played hardcorepunk, eating lunch my mummy would make every day, receiving pocket money and was 15 years old... Mainstream? Baaaaaaaaad Pop? Baaaaaaad Major labels? Baaaaaaad...

yeah man, back in the 90s Aphrodite, Mickey Finn etc were accused of killing DnB with their silly, cartoonish, idiotic tunes. A bit like C&S are now. I was 16 at the time and thought they were the COOLEST THING EVER.

3 years later I was listening to Photek, Ed Rush & Optical, Klute.... it was a gateway, it got me into DnB - it was a good thing that Aphrodite was on Radio1!

But ultimately the jump up stuff killed DnB.

when? it had fallen back by 98/99 to be replaced by all the dark techstep stuff - which everyone also thought was gonna kill DnB - and ok so there's been plenty of clownstep lately but it's quite gratifying to see the rise of Lynx, Commix, Breakage, etc etc pushing new and interesting sounds. And lets face it, in terms of listenership, DnB is probably as big as it has ever been...

[did]

When one of you lot get offered a record deal with Mercury then i'll listen

probably made that unclear. i sort of meant you all go on like you're some underground heads n shit when really its people like c&s pushing the scene forwwards and really getting somewhere. i don't understand how this topic has a single negative comment. every one should read 'well done for achieving your dream guys'

[dubstee]

let it go man, you just can't reason with these people

blah

But I understand them all in some point. I shared their opinion when I played hardcorepunk, eating lunch my mummy would make every day, receiving pocket money and was 15 years old... Mainstream? Baaaaaaaaad Pop? Baaaaaaad Major labels? Baaaaaaad...

yeah man, back in the 90s Aphrodite, Mickey Finn etc were accused of killing DnB with their silly, cartoonish, idiotic tunes. A bit like C&S are now. I was 16 at the time and thought they were the COOLEST THING EVER.

3 years later I was listening to Photek, Ed Rush & Optical, Klute.... it was a gateway, it got me into DnB - it was a good thing that Aphrodite was on Radio1!

But ultimately the jump up stuff killed DnB.

when? it had fallen back by 98/99 to be replaced by all the dark techstep stuff - which everyone also thought was gonna kill DnB - and ok so there's been plenty of clownstep lately but it's quite gratifying to see the rise of Lynx, Commix, Breakage, etc etc pushing new and interesting sounds. And lets face it, in terms of listenership, DnB is probably as big as it has ever been...

It's really not at all.

[dubstee]

When one of you lot get offered a record deal with Mercury then i'll listen

probably made that unclear. i sort of meant you all go on like you're some underground heads n shit when really its people like c&s pushing the scene forwwards and really getting somewhere. i don't understand how this topic has a single negative comment. every one should read 'well done for achieving your dream guys'

Getting signed to a major label is absolutely NOT pushing the scene forwards. You only have to look at hip hop in the states - they have done that almost entirely without major labels. As I said earlier, you only need the majors for distribution.

[q23]

Getting signed to a major label is absolutely NOT pushing the scene forwards. You only have to look at hip hop in the states - they have done that almost entirely without major labels. As I said earlier, you only need the majors for distribution.

Nailed it.

Hip hop artists over here realized early on that most large record labels are not run by people who are really into music, but people who are really into money. Instead of growing the industry too fast, they grew the music first, in their own back yards, with their own creative interests in mind. Dont get me wrong, there still is a huge amount of hip hop over here that is only in the biz for the rockstardom and money.

As far as money is concerned, I did my dissertation for graduation on comparing a major label contract -vs- having a go at it yourself. If you sell 1 million copies of a record for a major label, under a standard contract, you make the same amount of money you would have made if you pressed em all up yourself and sold 30k copies, after recouping costs. (Thats 3%) This shows what a major label pays the artist after they own your copyright. Major label contracts are more about fame and pushing your name, then pushing the entire sound or your scene.