To find Ed Sheeran's music really forced?

[moutonfou]

Before anyone else says it... #firstworldproblems

But his songs just seem to be tactically written to have mass appeal. Galway Girl rammed full of tired stereotypes... Castle on the Hill which he presents as some kind of 'salt of the earth' autobiographical kind of thing but then admits he's never actually broken his leg (so why say it?)

And the new one, Perfect, seems to have been written as part of a 'wedding song by numbers' kit - falling in love young, prevailing "against the odds", hoping to have children, etc etc.

Yes, obviously music has to be commercial, but people like Adele and Sam Smith (heck even Taylor Swift!) manage to be commercial yet authentically reflect their own experiences.

AIBU? (probably)

"How can you get annoyed over people saying Sheeran is shite, but then merrily dismiss an entire music genre."

Because I haven't heard any rap that I like yet. It all seems a bit tuneless and relentless. I also dislike most jazz and most heavy metal music. I like everything else, including classical music (not Wagner though)

I love him, DS loves him. But Galway Girl is very, very bad. Do you really believe he drives at 90mph? It's hyperbole surely. Which I'm saying correctly in my head having spent years thinking it was hyper bowl.

Adele makes me want to hurt things.

Ed Sheeran is this decade’s Robbie Williams

Yes! Didn't RW say that he wrote Millennium purely because he knew he'd make a fortune from the amount of plays it would get?

Catchy tunes though

At least Ed Sheeran seems like a nice enough bloke. Robbie Williams doesn't even have that going for him! Those years when he was the Number 1 popstrel were dark, dark days.

We call him the "Lucky Busker" in our house. YANBU.

I have had to listen to radio 1 all day every workday for the past 4 years so I have heard every Ed Sheeran song released since 2013 about a billion times. I agree that it's mostly manufactured targeted crap. The songs where he does talky rap verses all sound the same and all seem to be about meeting a girl, clicking with her, then drinking, smoking and shagging. All the things that teens find 'cool' and relatable.

His slow songs are purely for weddings because you can guarantee that most women want these cliche love tunes to walk down the aisle to or first dance to.

His cameo on Game of Thrones was so over the top obvious 'Look who it is!' zooms into his face that i hated that entire scene. And of course he had to sing didn't he.

I like him. The production and sub text of his songs are great.

"If he and the Shape of You girl are all thrifty, filling a plate and a bag at the all-you-can-eat, why do they get a taxi later?"

Oh don't even get me started on his god-awful lyrics....

'When your legs don't work like they used to before...' WTAF???!

'I'll be loving you till your seventy' What about when I'm 71? You'll bin me off on my birthday presumably?

'Driving at 90 down those country lanes' WHAT??!! Are you fucking mad?

Actually, I've had second thoughts: I think Ed Sheeran should be actively encouraged to drive down country lanes at 90mph. In reverse.

He should be shot for Galway Girl.

When I first heard it, I thought it was The Corrs

In fact it’s not so much the fact he’s bad, it’s more that there isn’t a lot of decent stuff that gets as much airplay and so he’s ubiquitous and seen as some great artist when he’s mediocre at best.

If he’d been around in the early eighties he’d only have made it into the low fourties in the charts. Tops!

I love him but can’t listen to him are the moment. ‘Perfect’ was playing on the hospital ward when Mum was dying and we had ‘Supermarket Flowers’ at her funeral. I now associate him with the worst time of my life

Let’s just hope he never releases a Christmas record or we’ll never get rid of him...

I once read something that described his output as "music for bedwetters" which I felt, whilst being harsh, was vaguely accurate. It's bland, beige shite for people that don't actually like music.

Let’s just hope he never releases a Christmas record or we’ll never get rid of him...

I will hold you personally responsible if this comes to pass.

squoosh

Noooo don’t blame me!!!!

Come to think of it tho, he IS this generation’s Cliff Richard really, isn’t he?

We watched his Glastonbury performance bewildered and puzzled. He’s ok. I wouldn’t buy his albums. Why he’s so massively popular I cannot fathom.

I mostly listen to Pink Floyd,James Taylor and first aid kit. I loved Eds album 'Songs with Amy's' it's lovely.

He has been into my son's school in Suffolk a number of times and is a genuine nice person who has time for people.

Notaclevername- Alan McGee who was the former MD of Creation Records said Coldplay was “music to wet the bed to” about ten years ago.

It must be the “go-to” insult nowadays

I find Ed relatively inoffensive - he was good live. I also love Sam Smith - he came across as so lovely on Carpool Karaoke and his new album is full of gospel (and I know it isn’t for every one but I love a choir!)

Agree re: James Arthur - he’s the male equivalent to Aria Grande - can we give these people elocution lessons please

We've come to a pretty pass when the 50 year old Rick Astley's current album has more soul, fire and passion than the 2 top selling young male singers in the UK who are like wet blankets in comparison!

That song usually sends me down the David Bowie rabbit hole of nostalgia along the lines of "we'll never see his like again!" because honestly when I think of the music of my yoof (Bowie, Queen, U2, George Michael etc) and compare it with the shower of shite on the radio now, I feel sad. But that's probably just an old gimmer talking!

It's true though! Didn't that Drake 'One Dance' song equal the record for longest ever number 1, like 16 weeks?! It's just such an awful song! Even Nick Grimshaw, trendy R1 DJ with his finger on the pulse of all things hip and happenin said it sounded like Drake must have written it on a Friday afternoon in the 20 minutes before hometime! Absolute crap.

I find his music a form of cynical pop music by numbers. It feels like someone wrote an algorithm of what appeals to the mass market then wrote a program to write music based on the algorithm. Same for One Direction (particularly You Don't Know You're Beauitiful or whatever it was called).

Soul less.

I can't stand that song "perfect." It was so obviously written to be a "wedding song." 🙄 People have certain first dance songs for all sorts of reasons but this one is so soulless and cliche it would be cringeworthy! It reminds me of Gary Barlow/Take That's song Million Loves Songs - written in a formula type way.

Not all pop songs which are written to a mass produced formula are bad. Max Martin "hit maker " wrote tonnes of catchy pop songs; I think most of Britney Spears's hits were done by him. But Ed Sheran just seems to make songs that don't have the same appeal as "Baby One More Time"