Public Image
Carpenters' popularity often confounded critics. With their output focused on ballads and mid-tempo pop, the duo's music was often dismissed by critics as being bland and saccharine. The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo, who won three Grammy Awards during their career (Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, for "(They Long to Be) Close to You" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for the LP Carpenters in 1971). In 1973, Carpenters were voted Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group at the first annual American Music Awards.
Richard would often state in interviews, that many critics usually judged them to "drink milk, eat apple pie and take showers."
I don't even like milk. Not that we're totally opposite from that, we're not. But there is an in-between - I don't drink ... a lot. I do have wine with dinner. I voted to make marijuana legal....
In Coleman's The Carpenters: The Untold Story, Richard stressed repeatedly how much he disliked the A&M executives for making their image "squeaky-clean", and the critics for criticising them for their image rather than their music.
I got upset when this whole "squeaky clean" thing was tagged on to us. I never thought about standing for anything! They (the critics) took Close to You and said: "Aha, you see that number one? THAT's for the people who believe in apple pie! THAT's for people who believe in the American flag! THAT's for the average middle-American person and his station wagon! The Carpenters stand for that, and I'm taking them to my bosom!" And boom, we got tagged with that label.
Read more about this topic: The Carpenters
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or image:
“But a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Not for nothing does it say in the Commandments ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any image’ ... Every image is a sin.... When you love someone you leave every possibility open to them, and in spite of all the memories of the past you are ready to be surprised, again and again surprised, at how different they are, how various, not a finished image.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)