Filling Up With Glee
If you take a quick squizz at this picture, it should cause one of two reactions (or possibly three):
REACTION 1: "Wow, the Arcade Fire Juniors don't look up to much, do they?"
REACTION 2: "Oh look, there's the cast of the popular American TV show Glee, which I love."
POSSIBLE REACTION 3: "Oh God, there's the cast of the popular American TV show Glee, which I cannot bear."
Glee, you see, is everywhere at the moment. It's on telly, it's all over the internet, and now, finally, it's taking over the charts. Whether you see this as a good thing or not may depend on your tolerance for high school musical/comedy/drama TV shows, and radical re-workings of old pop songs as if they were made for the Broadway stage.
But be warned, it may NOT depend on that, and this is what makes Glee so interesting.
Under normal circumstances, I'm not much of a fan of musical theatre. It's all a bit Same Difference for my tender sensibilities, and always seems to sound either forced and overjolly, or despairing and melodramatic, depending on the song.
But that's my prejudice. And all it takes to overwhelm any prejudice is for something amazing to come along which deviates from the thing you are prejudiced against in no way whatsoever, but remains amazing.
That thing, friends, is Glee. And I'm clearly not alone. The show's version of Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin' is shooting up the charts, and has caused a THIRD wave of re-interest in the original, after it featured first on Family Guy and then heavily on last year's X Factor.
As a result, they're now BOTH attempting to get to this week's No.1, and the weird thing is, either one of them could do it.
The reason people are getting so excited about the music from Glee is partly to do with the TV show, which is pretty great, in a funny/sweet kind of way. It's partly the songs they've chosen to cover and the fond associations that come with them, but it's mostly because the reworked songs sound fantastic.
I'm clearly not the only person who broke out in surprised goosebumps when they launched into a revved-up, high-sugar version of 'Rehab' in the first episode, and that's not even the show's signature song. 'Don't Stop Believin' has made two impossible things possible in my addled head, the enjoyment of musical theatre and the enjoyment of Journey.
Seriously, Journey.
Honestly, I'll be listening to OPERA next...
PS: Â鶹Éç Slink has a very entertaining Glee quiz which allows you to find out which character you are. G'wan...you know you want to...
Comment number 1.
At 16th Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Haha Fraser. Im taking this as proof you still read the Rybak comments. The Arcade Fire reference confirmed it.
I've been banging on about how amazing Glee is for ages now. It gets better as well. See Rybak for a round up of some of my favourite songs.
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Comment number 2.
At 16th Jan 2010, CurtainJerker wrote:Liam, what the hell are you doing? Rybak's where we talk about... you know... our feelings.
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Comment number 3.
At 17th Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:We keep spilling over into other posts too though. We just can't contain this.
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Comment number 4.
At 17th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:oh wow ! That eighth paragraph about the way to beat your prejudices is extremely well written . Kudos to the BIG F !
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Comment number 5.
At 17th Jan 2010, thranjax wrote:Still haven't seen it. That's not deliberate, and I am sure that I will find the video to this irritating beyond belief, but apparently the show itself is a post modern glory. I will attempt to find time to watch it, and beat my own prejudices. Of which I have many.
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Comment number 6.
At 17th Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Get on with it :p
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Comment number 7.
At 17th Jan 2010, mike_duke wrote:I was living in Australia last year when they showed most of the episodes. I think the best thing about the episodes is that beyond one or two they don't really let the standard fall. There is an awesome version of Halo in a couple of weeks time. Look it up on youtube if you get the chance
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Comment number 8.
At 18th Jan 2010, Keith Fusco wrote:I'm still yet to see Glee. I guess I should get my behind into gear.
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Comment number 9.
At 18th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:At 1 .
Liam , just to put your mind at rest , THE BIG F , reads ALL this Blog's comments .
He is the "All seeing eye . "
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Comment number 10.
At 18th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:And we all know that T.V sells music right ?
Just watch the Glee effect on next Sunday's chart...
And regarding the song Don't Stop Believing ?
Mr Cowell asked Journey if he could use it for a young lad called Joe , for a Christmas single , and the answer was a polite... "NO ! "
Glad we can finally clear that one up .
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Comment number 11.
At 19th Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:I am very glad about that!
Glee did pretty well this week with number 4. Im expecting more Radio play for the song this week.. but also probably a bit less interest in the TV show. Will it climb past number 4? I think it'll stop at 3.
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Comment number 12.
At 19th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:*whispers*
"It's currently number 5. "
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Comment number 13.
At 21st Jan 2010, SteveChartBlog wrote:The Glee mash-up of 'Halo' and 'Walking On Sunshine' is currently my favourite thing ever.
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Comment number 14.
At 21st Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Yeh why wasn't that done before?!?!
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Comment number 15.
At 21st Jan 2010, mike_duke wrote:That whole episode is great, I think its episode 6. The boys mashup of Bon Jovi and Usher deserves a mention as well.
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Comment number 16.
At 21st Jan 2010, thranjax wrote:The boys mash up of Bon Jovi and Usher... Walking on Sunshine??? None of this is making me want to watch this...
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Comment number 17.
At 21st Jan 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:That what makes Glee great, none of it works together but somehow by a strange twisted logic only found on tv it all fits together!
Don't want to wait till monday to watch the next episode, but I also don't want to watch it all on the internet. ARGH!
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Comment number 18.
At 21st Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:You can guess which I did Harry xD
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Comment number 19.
At 25th Jan 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:39 minutes and counting till new GLEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Comment number 20.
At 25th Jan 2010, mike_duke wrote:That was an awesome episode!
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Comment number 21.
At 25th Jan 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Its one of my least favourites.
The next episode is TRUELY EPIC.
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Comment number 22.
At 26th Jan 2010, spirit wrote:Go on Liam , spoil it for Mike , tell him how it ends !!! lol lol
Only joking , leave Mike hungry. He will have to wait for his next feast .
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Comment number 23.
At 26th Jan 2010, thranjax wrote:oh dear I missed it again.
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