Music News - New Music Quiz Show
21 August 2003 - 0 Comments
A new music quiz show has New Zealand musicians raving. Pop! Goes the Weasel is a live to air quiz show on Channel Z that has been receiving praise from a wide range of people involved with making New Zealand music.
Paul Casserly of the Strawpeople puts it bluntly. "It's bloody good radio, as simple as that...what it does well is promote local artists without boring the audience."
A point that P-money agrees with completely, "it's great to have a show where Musicians are able to relax and let their real character show throughout the course of a game. Audiences get to discover a lighter side to their favourite musicians outside of the regular, often boring, interview context in which an artist would normally be heard."
Chris Knox describes Pop! Goes the Weasel like only he can, "it's a great wee show that throws very disparate talents' together for a largely unmediated collision of musical cultures. Friction creates fire, hi-speed meetings of misguided sub-nuclear particles cause large explosions, what could be finer?"
Pop! Goes the Weasel involves musicians from the full spectrum of New Zealand music, from Hip Hop artists, to rock musicians, even video jockeys. Graham Brazier of Hello Sailor is one of the New Zealand music stalwarts who has taken part in the show, which he believes is great for local music.
"It was great fun to be part of and the exposure for new NZ songs is got to be positive." says Brazier.
Knox is a little more brazen, "this is just a great excuse to be bad, as in useless, and have a good time. Stupidity is its own reward and this show rewards stupidity with a couple of beers and a nice natter with a bunch of your peers"
More importantly though P-Money sees the show as an opportunity for audiences "to be amazed and inspired by my all encompassing knowledge of music trivia".
Pop! Goes the Weasel is a blend of musical knowledge questions and the musically ridiculous. One round sees the contestants attempting to finish guitar solo's by singing and dah dah dah-ing, another asks listeners to guess what instrument is being smashed.
Channel Z's programme director, Grant Hislop, believes the show and its format is breaking new ground on New Zealand radio.
"New Zealand radio really doesn't allow for programmes like this to get on the air, I mean something like this has never really been done before. It's fun, inventive and really different and its just another really great way to get New Zealand music and musicians on radio."
The basis for Pop! Goes the Weasel is New Zealand music, it features New Zealand musicians, plays New Zealand songs and includes questions about the New Zealand music scene.
"We just wanted a way to put New Zealand musicians on the radio where they could sound more natural and be themselves", says Hislop, "Rather than answering the same questions in the usual interview format, it gives the musicians an opportunity to let loose and just have some fun!"
Jacqui Brown takes the responsibility of taming the contestants on Pop! Goes the Weasel, something she finds very rewarding.
"It's a great show, its really different and heaps of fun to do. I love the challenge of something like this, because it's live and we're not only dealing with the contestants in the studio but also with listeners who can ring in, take part and win prizes as well."
Pop! Goes the Weasel is produced by three young men who form thedownlowconcept. Jarrod Holt (24), Ryan Hutchings (23), and Nigel McCulloch (23) have been given the responsibility of making it all happen.
"There's a lot that goes into making a show like this happen, but its really fun and rewarding just knowing we're working on something that hasn't been done in this way before in New Zealand" says Holt.
"We've really tried to make Pop! Goes the Weasel different to anything that has gone before it," say's Hutchings "the hard thing was finding a balance between questions for those interested in trivia and the really fun, entertaining stuff...in the end though we just wanted to find a way where we could smash some musical instruments to smithereens"
Pop! Goes the Weasel is on Channel Z on Fridays at 6:30pm.
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