Scrap the Brits and the musical tosh

OK I will come out and say it, The Brits are getting worse and should be stopped from appearing on worldwide screens as it paints a shocking picture of this country and what a desperate state it in generally never mind musically.

I can hear you already, oh you are old / don’t like dance music / hanker after Britpop etc… Well one of these is partially true, one is totally true and one well just isn’t.

I have just watched last night’s Brits at 30x fast forward and while it wasn’t the Emile Sande show of 2013 it was depressing in the main as merely a vehicle for karaoke acts offering nothing new, not challenging anything and displaying a negligible level of talent. I won’t mention any names…

Music is an incredibly sensitive subject. Everybody has a different opinion on what constitutes a “good” record. That is down to people’s different tastes and predilections.

But in terms of “Pop” music, we can see that the years it has defined or at least reflected the new trends and appealed on a very broad scale to a lot of people. You can trace the history of popular culture through what was topping the music charts, or the fashion trends as they evolve over time.

But has pop music faltered of late? 

For while there have been different styles and trends having their effect on the chart music scene, the basic principles of a hit song have largely remained constant.

It used to be that an act was discovered through live performance. Now you cannot move for a new act being churned out of the industry like a machine gun with the trigger held down. Part of that is down to how cheap an act can be put together these days. Shows like the X-Factor get people on their phones paying them to do it.

It’s also down to how easy it is to make a professional record. The studio used to be a hallowed place you were lucky to get to. Now, any kid with a Mac with ProTools on it can do produce a record like a lot of the songs we hear now.

Will I Am tells us how many original ideas
he has ever had.

Will.I.Am calls himself a producer. Essentially what he “produces” is an unyielding electronic beat, some random lyrics about love or dancing, playing around with autotune and a guest singer – and repeat. Its not hard. That same process has been going on for years now among many acts because it is simple to do, and when it is played in a club people will move to it. Can anybody explain to me the specific difference between Calvin Harris and Example for, er, example. What precisely sets apart One Direction from the other boybands that have gone before them, apart from the fact they are younger?


So with everybody making music on their computer and pop acts just living in the studio, we end up with a very similar product that leaves little room for evolution.

Take a band like Coldplay who wouldn’t normally fit into the kind of category I am talking about. When they first tasted success with ‘Parachutes’, those songs were primarily written for and developed though live performance.

The second album ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ gave them a chance to record in a proper studio but still retained their live creativity because it was still largely instrumental. The next album ‘X&Y’ involved more studio time, more computers and an overall more insular feel.

Similarly with Muse, a colleague of mine tells me how they read an article before the release of The Resistance where Matt Bellamy explained how they had lived in his house in Italy where he had a studio and recorded the whole album in there. Listening to the record, I could disappointingly tell. No matter what you can do with technology, you cannot replicate other human beings or another environment. Three guys in a small room with a computer sounds exactly that.

Now with popular music we have an influx of “real” musicians such as Ed Sheeran, Mumford and Sons, Jake Bugg, Emeli Sande among others. While I can respect their musicality, what they produce is something that is in no way groundbreaking, or challenging, not invigorating, and not entirely exciting.

It is simply because to balance the amount of manufactured acts we have on the one hand, the industry puts out these artists as if to say “Here’s some REAL musicians – they are just like you except they sing a couple of nice songs”.

It comes out quite pedestrian and safe. They make a lot of money for their respective labels because they appeal to so many – and in that broad appeal, they have to play it safe for everyone. 

Even any acts who have some real talent and originality are lead down this uniformed path. Looking back to previous issues of our mag Just Music,, we see how in late 2010 we were pointed by a friend to YouTube to check out this new singer called Jessie J. We watched her perform in a clip with her singing her song ‘Big White Room’ with just her and a man playing acoustic guitar. We really enjoyed it and said as much.

So then in 2011 when we heard her name being advertised we looked forward to her release. I was surprised when it turned out her first single was the musically repetitive, autotuned vocals and uninspiring processed beat number ‘Do it Like A Dude’. Even with her big voice, her music could have come from so many other acts vying to be number one. So then the only thing that set her apart was her fashion, the way she acted, or her photo-shoots.

The same can be said of Lady Gaga – her songs could very easily belong to many others. There is a thought also that if a song remains in your head, it’s a good song. That argument doesn’t stand up – any repetitive hook can remain in your memory, that doesn’t make it a triumph of composition. (E.g. “I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves…”) That’s the thing, there is little musical identity, and the lines blur even further with the endless records So and so featuring so and so….

I have always think that if a song sounds good just yourself and a guitar or a piano, then it’s a good song. Because when you strip everything away, a good song should have a significant melody and quality lyrics. That’s what a song is; words to music. And exactly how many big songs of the last few years could do that?

So yes, to paraphrase Mr Turner from the Arctic’s Rock and Roll won’t ever go away, it might just have to shout a bit louder. Maybe take a leaf from Spinal Tap and turn it up to 11 (man)