Why is Phil treated so badly by people?

[ALEX PLUMB]

Not overally a personal level I may add, but I'm a member on other musical message boards and his name is a swear word if you mention it and he is perceived as the anti-christ of all things to do with pop music..Okay not everything he has done is brilliant name me an artist or band who have? but the insults get personal and there is no need for that and that includes certain critics and journalists..Anyone who says phil is talentless knows nothing about music in General..I know for a fact he is well thought of by the rock "heirachy" like OZZY OSBOURNE etc..

[SnowCherry]

After a few weeks of lurking I decided to sign up and start posting- you all seem like a nice and freindly bunch of folks on here.Anyway this thread seemed to be a good a place as any to put my first post on.
I don't follow why Phil gets such a hard time,I've nothing but respect and admiration for the bloke.
Mega talented,great singer,drummer,songwriter and all around top geezer.
I mean what isn't there to like about him?
After reading some of the other threads on here my estimation went up even more.
I'd like to finish with what was said about him by Bob Geldof- puts it all in a nutshell for me:
Bob Geldof said of Collins after recording the drums for the Band Aid single 'Feed The World (Do They Know its Christmas)', "Phil Collins, is a magnificent soul, he has touched the world through his music and he continues to fight against world poverty. He is one of life's true heroes."

[zervin]

I don't particularly care for the guy, but a counter argument to the "why does everyone hate on Phil?" is the fact that Kanye West recently spoke out about Phil in a positive light. This was in the same light as the "Urban Renewal" tribute album from a few years back. It may not be as universal as we would expect, but he does get the occasional love!

http://www.taletela.com/news/809/kanye-west-inspired-by-phil-collin...

[Pete]

Phil is an easy target for people to spring their hate upon. Why? Well because these people know nothing of his career outside the fact that he's a drummer, he's English, he was in a band once, and he wrote some poppy ballad-type songs. They see this and go "Oh that dude's a dork".

It's really unfair. I mean I don't expect everybody in the world to love Phil. I even don't like his solo stuff past "But Seriously", but I know his career, and I know he's not just some corny 80's pop star churning out love ballads left and right.

I heard that people used to call No Jacket Required "No Talent Required", which is just so wrong that it's funny. Anybody that knows about Phil for real will tell you that he's one of the most talented musicians ever. Even if you don't like him, you have to at least respect the fact that he's a talented guy. I don't like Kenny G AT ALL, but I'm not gonna go around and say he's not talented.

Somebody should throw these guys a Brand X record and say "Oh you mean this guy playing drums here? Untalented? Really???!"

[Anton Partonen]

Yes you're right Pete. Like i said before i live in Finland and here if you said you like Phil Collins people are oh that jerk or how is it? So i have to live faith that people are starting to respect him someday.

[Leon Alvarado]

My take on the whole Phil thing. The greatest of the reasons why there are many people down on Phil is the residuals from a big case of overexposure. There was a point in the eighties and perhaps even early nineties that you couldn't go to the bathroom without hearing or seeing something with Phil Collins on it. Phil is not the first guy who fans couldn't have enough until it the honeymoon wore out. Most of the people who bash Phil these days are the same people who loved him to death when he first made it big in the mainstream of pop. Then there are those who think he ruined Genesis by steering the band towards a more commercial sound. Lastly, there are those who are just somewhat jealous of is success.

It is not atypical of fans to build a star and then tear him/her down. I'm not a fan of Michael Jackson but everyone seemed to trash him incessantly up until he died, then he became the greatest thing since the Beatles and whatever else. I guess my oint is that in today's society there seems to as much joy in worshiping or destroying the image of a famous personality.

I myself, am not a fan of everything Phil has done during his career. However, there are many things I like about the guy that clearly offset any of my dislikes about his music. For one I admire his working ethics. The guy has been a solid performer for the last thirty five or so years. During the first half of his career he played with one of the best bands in history as a drummer and then a drummer and the lead singer. During the seventies he won the admiration of critics and the fans alike because of his playing. The man is a natural who seems to have been born to play music.

During the eighties he played with a ton of reputable musicians like Eric Clapton and Robert Plant. He was the only musician to play on both sides of the Atlantic during Live Aid. He later won an Oscar and his music has even made it to Broadway. He has achieve success in almost everything he has gone into which is saying lots.

His private life has suffered setbacks at times (but who's hasn't), which in his case it comes from choosing a career that required much of his time. But even through all of that he manages to come out resilient and ready to tackle his next project.

Many of the Phil Collins' critics would just love to be in his shoes. It is always easy to sit back and criticise others on their achievements when one hasn't achieve anything. I think it makes people feel as if they were leveling the field. Since I started my musical adventures I have learned to appreciate a lot more many of those musicians who have built a long-life career out of recording and composing music. The world is a fickle place with fickle fans which can make or brake a musician's career by the show of their reactions to the material.

At the end, Phil's career is not at any jeopardy here. Between his albums with Genesis, his solo work and, as guest drummer on other people's albums, Phil Collins has sold well over 200 million albums. He's won seven Grammies and has been nominated for 18 more. An Oscar winner with a total of four nominations. He also has two Golden Globe awards, received the Disney Legends award (given to people who made outstanding contributions to the Walt Disney Company). He also has three American Music awards. For all that, he has been able to please a wide range of audiences all over the world.

But one of the best qualities Phil Collins has is the fact that he has managed to keep it humble. He is just like a regular chap who happens to play the music that stroke a chord with millions of people. Heck, I hate him too! I hate that I don't have his accomplishments. ;)

[jonlibra]

I couldn´t agree more, Leon!

[Richard Gorman]

We live in the era of the shallow sleb. It is 'our' own fault. Some buy tabloids, some watch 'reality TV, buy Hello! magazine, worry about their hair gel, judge films by how sexy the stars are, many, probably even most in the western world, do all these and more to the almost complete exclusion of anything challenging, creative, meaningful or engaging. Maybe we're all tired from chasing the buck, maybe we're lazy, maybe it's decadence but crass mass media hysterics are one of the defining traits of the times we live in. It reached its first great crescendo in the 80's and, for a while Genesis and Collins rode the big wave (Utterly baffling considering their past maybe but Invisible Touch suggests a band who knew what side their bread was buttered on). Then of course the roof fell in. Aspects of Collins personal life turned him from tabloid love to hate figure. From being portrayed as the modest, talented guy next door who made it big he was turned into an evil greedy, publicity seeking monster who mistreated his partners. Outrage sells these days not talent, subtlety and originality. Was there smoke behind the fire? Probably not. It was probably sensationalist garbage but the sad truth is the masses weren't in it for 'art's sake' (Unlike the 'long haired, spotty, student, overcoated geeks' the band were so down on later who launched their careers and only ever loved them for their music). None of this had anything to do with the music. But, hey, who cared about that much anyway? Well a few of us did and if his solo work seemed to lose power rapidly after Face Value and I had to grit my teeth through large sections of Invisible Touch and its successors it's not because we bought the hype. Fans of the atmospheric and poetic Genesis never bought it in the first place we just went with the music. The man is due great respect for what he achieved as a musician. So he has mine.

[mita]

yeah poor Phil. I guess that`s the risk of being too poppy while you`re actually a talented respected progger.

Personally I`m not a big PC fan and i`m one of those people who makes jokes bout him but i can see him is a real entertainer indeed apart from being technical drummer. because he does lots of things. Also nice and cheerful,
and when not drumming never runs out of funny tambourine moves onstages he didn`t need all of the fancy costumes of Pete`s.

[Anton Partonen]

http://www.completetosh.com/weblog/2006/10/01/why-is-phil-collins-s...

That article has certain point of this.

[Rachel]

Ah well, thats their problem, it just shows how ignorant people can be. We know better dont we? ;-) it just goes to show...dont believe everything you read. I've been a lifelong PC fan and have so much ridicule over the years, which I got used to very quickly.

What does baffle me is the raging 'who's better - Phil or Peter' debate. I've noticed that some PG fans give Phil a hard time, despite the fact that he's an amazing musician and singer...I could rant about this for hours...but I dont want to send anyone to sleep, so I'll shut up now LOL