Music
A Brit Predictable Really
I’ve just got back in from the Brits 2009 nominations ceremony at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. I say ceremony, it was more like being in the studio audience for an ITV2 programme. In fact, thinking about it, that’s exactly what it was.
Anyway, I was invited because I am on the voting panel this year. That’s not quite as grand as it sounds. There are somewhere in the region of 1000 of us, from record shop owners to student union ents managers (no disrespect to either), but it nonetheless felt pretty exciting to be part of a process I’ve observed avidly since the bad old days when Phil Collins winning Best British Male was a foregone conclusion.
Not exciting enough not to be late though. Hey, I was watching the Obama inauguration speech and I reasoned that any future children I might have will be more likely to ask where I was when that was happening than when Scouting For Girls were nominated for British Breakthrough Act.
I must be getting old.
So, for those of you who care about such things, here are the nominations in full:
British Male Solo Artist
Ian Brown
James Morrison
Paul Weller
The Streets
Will Young
British Female Solo Artist
Adele
Beth Rowley
Duffy
Estelle
M.I.A.
British Group
Coldplay
Elbow
Girls Aloud
Radiohead
Take That
British Single
Adele – Chasing Pavements
Alexandra Burke – Hallelujah
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Dizzee Rascal ft. Calvin Harris – Dance Wiv Me
Duffy – Mercy
Estelle ft. Kanye West: American Boy
Girls Aloud – The Promise
Leona Lewis – Better In Time
Scouting For Girls – Heartbeat
The X Factor Finalists – Hero
British Album
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Duffy – Rockferry
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Ting Tings – We Started Nothing
British Breakthrough Act
Adele
Duffy
The Last Shadow Puppets
Scouting For Girls
Ting Tings
British Live Act
Coldplay
Elbow
Iron Maiden
Scouting For Girls
The Verve
International Male Solo Artist
Beck
Neil Diamond
Jay-Z
Kanye West
Seasick Steve
International Female Solo Artist
Beyoncé
Gabriella Cilmi
Katy Perry
Pink
Santogold
International Group
AC/DC
Fleet Foxes
The Killers
Kings of Leon
MGMT
International Album
AC/DC – Black Ice
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
The Killers – Day & Age
Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
British Producer of the Year
Bernard Butler
Brian Eno
Steve Mac
Critics’ Choice Award
Florence and the Machine
Outstanding Contribution to Music
Pet Shop Boys
So basically Duffy and Coldplay lead the way with four nominations each. I’d make Duffy favourite to convert all four of hers to gongs next month. No surprises there, you might think.
But then, as Florence And The Machine were being announced as recipients of this year’s Critics’ Choice award (one of two that are given in advance), I remembered that when Adele won it last year, Duffy was barely on the radar.
Critics, eh? What do they know?
It was 50 Years Ago Today…
…that Berry Gordy created the record label which was responsible for much of the last century’s finest soul, pop, and R&B records: Motown.
Not only that, in doing so, he contributed more than perhaps anyone to the racial integration of popular music.
I am not going to try to compete with Tom Townshend’s appraisal of the legendary label here. He nails the essence of Motown’s appeal in far more detail than I could possibly manage in a blog entry.
What I will say, though, is that reading his article made me revisit the tracks he specifically discusses, despite the fact I knew them very well anyway, which is surely the sign of good music journalism.
They are all fabulous, of course, but I felt I just had to say a word about I Want You Back by the Jackson Five. From the joyous descending piano sweep at the start to the insanely infectious staccato guitar riff to what may be the most melodic bass-line in music history to the pre-pubescent Jacko’s impassioned vocals which somehow manage to convey both yearning AND joy, it’s as close to the perfect pop song as I’ve ever heard.
I thought I knew all this anyway but listening really is believing. Ahhh… they don’t make ’em like that any more.
Melismatic For The People
OK, my comment that race might be playing a part in people saying Alex and Leona are the same has clearly touched a nerve. I’ve been called racist myself for suggesting it, although I’m not sure exactly how that works.
Anyway, let me be very clear about what I meant.
I didn’t, as one user asserted, "blindly suppose" anything. I suggested it MIGHT be an issue in SOME cases. And why? Well, as I said in the original post, I couldn’t see what else they have in common.
Undoubtedly some people will have spoken from a position of musical ignorance. If that’s the case, then fair enough. Being tone deaf is nothing to be ashamed of any more than being dyslexic is.
But there was another issue I wasn’t taking into account. Jimmy The Fish commented, "It’s not about colour it’s about the genre. Do we need another note stretching, tonsil warbling, fist clenching, tear wrenching r ‘n’ b diva?"
Granted, this is a more persuasive argument. But hang on: this is X Factor we’re talking about! That is the genre it deals in. What sort of singer did you expect to win? Ian Curtis? Tom Waits? Bjork?
X Factor is based on a contemporary and restrictive definition of vocal talent called ‘melisma’. Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion et al have a lot to answer for in establishing the false notion that a thousand notes are better than one. This has some worrying implications for popular music which have been discussed elsewhere on MSN Music. But I don’t make the rules. It’s what people buy by the bucketful and it’s what they vote for on X Factor.
If your gripe is that X Factor perpetuates the dominance of melismatic singing (ie. "we don’t need another singer who favours multiple tonal variations per syllable)", then I wholeheartedly agree – but that really is a different argument.
The fact remains that within the parameters of this dominant style, Alexandra and Leona are at different ends of the spectrum. In short, although the style in which they (and almost all their fellow X Factor contestants) sing is broadly similar, their voices don’t sound the same. Not even a bit.
In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have brought race into it at all. It’s a thorny subject at the best of times. I was simply expressing my exasperation at the numbers of people saying they sound the same when they quite clearly don’t. And that’s the last I’m saying on the matter.
Happy Christmas.
