Hear’say – Pure & Simple
24th March 2001
OK, so maybe this wasn’t the best song ever but it was the beginning of a trend that has completely changed pop music. Some may say reality TV killed pop, and it’s a feasible argument – it made pop even less cool than it was, so now even children think they’re above it (but not above buying the Crazy Frog – crazy logic more like). On the other hand, reality TV created several examples of the mad hysteria and obsessive fandom that pop music is inextricably linked with, and it gave us two of the greatest pop acts of the 00s, Will Young and Girls Aloud. If Hear’say hadn’t been successful, it’s unlikely that they would have got their breaks either.
I hate the way that Hear’say have been treated since their success began to wither. As they’ve said themselves, all they did was win a talent contest and release music very successfully – how on Earth can that be worthy of abuse on the street and ridicule in the press? It’s clear that the case would have been the same whoever had won – it was no slight on the members themselves, who were each either talented or charismatic and perfectly deserving of their place in the band, although it’s always a risk that putting the best people from a talent contest into a band won’t work because how can you expect people who are different in many ways to make a cohesive, focussed group? One True Voice had the exact same problem and a similar, but faster downfall.
Whatever you think of Hear’say, Pure And Simple was a really good pop song and anything which was that much of a landmark deserves recognition. It also happens to be the first ever CD single I bought!