Robbie Williams is Britain’s Best Ever Popstar

ROBBIE WILLIAMS IS BEST EVER POPSTAR

words by:

JOSH ONG

design and illustration by:

KATIE MAY HUXTABLE

It’s a bold claim, but one I’m willing to stand by. This might be an outrageous thing to claim at first, and to be honest, I don’t blame you for thinking so. Mr Williams certainly doesn’t possess any otherworldly vocal abilities or even hold a particularly forgiving character. But, as the article will argue, when it comes to identifying popstars, there are some generalised criteria that you have to meet that extend far beyond mere vocal ability; strong identifiable character, longevity, and a collection of almost universally known anthems. And, when considering all of the above, I’d argue that there’s only one person that entirely fits the bill.

Given the history of pop musicians coming from the UK, this claim really does seem ridiculous. But, when examining the field of all the largest contemporary popstars, there’s a pretty prominent trend; they’re all American. The archetypal modern popstars, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift et al, certainly fit the criteria, but they’re obviously not British. In terms of their British counterparts, there simply aren’t many to choose from. Going back, you could certainly argue that the likes of Freddie Mercury and Elton John could equally qualify through exuberant lives and multitudes of hits. Mostly, you’d be right; omitting them from this article would be a heinous crime. However, their lives and antics, whilst perhaps not too dissimilar from that of Williams’ drugs and alcohol saturated life, still struggle to qualify within the modern popstar model. This isn’t necessarily a negative thing either, in many ways it actually works in their favour.

Anyway, as with any claim this large about anything musical, you first need to examine what he’s actually produced, and whether or not it holds up any credibility. Robbie’s career in Take That was pretty mediocre, to be quite frank. As Mancunian Barlow tended to take the majority of the limelight, Williams accordingly found himself as more of a Stoke-on-Trent-born afterthought. However, once effectively unshackled, his first few albums were particular goldmines of pop excellence. These albums demonstrated a range in creating success from melodies varying from album to album. What’s more is that the first three albums each built upon the last in terms of quality, with Sing When You’re Winning hitting full stride. This is only further reinforced by his dabbles into new genres with Swing When You’re Winning, an album with an unprecedented ability to make Sinatra-nostalgic 50 year old mothers swoon. So, solid musical foundation? Check.

The next step to classification comes in regard to their public life. To be quite frank, you aren’t a popstar unless just about everything comes under public scrutiny and, notably, this covers mistakes. Williams has sported a numerous amount of blunders across his career; from accidentally imitating a certain notable Nazi in Nuremberg, to verbally abusing disabled concert goers at his own show for refusing to stand up, he’s made a lot of mistakes. I won’t be defending any of these, but rather suggesting that you can’t be a popstar without some, or a series of, high profile mistakes. This is why someone like Ed Sheeran, whilst fulfilling some of the other aforementioned criteria fairly comfortably, can’t take the title as he continues to manifest the most vanilla persona possible. Williams has always somewhat leaned into the ‘bad boy’ image of being rebellious, like a child trapped in a man’s body. This has undoubtedly aided him in his ability to get away with many of these events relatively unscathed and contributed heavily to the next factor discussed below.

The final element considered is that of longevity. Williams’ career across both Take That stints and his solo career has been pretty hefty. But most successfully, he’s managed to stay well within public purview throughout it all. Musically speaking, he peaked around 2002 with his live show at Knebworth and the adjacent albums released. He’s released many records since, but they have all suffered from the same lack of panache, ingenuity and unique tone that set his first EPs apart. This only makes his retention of public interest that much more fascinating and stands as an attestment to his ability to play the popstar cards correctly. Perhaps a culmination of the other factors mentioned above, but I truly believe that Williams is somewhat unmatched in his standing as a British pop star.

To conclude, is Robbie Williams the best musician the UK has ever produced? No. Does he have ungodly vocal abilities? Nope. Is he an exemplar role model for aspiring musicians around the world? Definitely not. But that isn’t what makes a popstar. The fact that Williams is not top of the field in these and is still so famous is probably the reason a lot of people don’t like pop music. But I can almost guarantee you that they forget and suppress their discontent as soon as Angels starts playing.