Sausage of the Year Award
Why do people still take the Mercury Music Prize seriously? In it’s early years it may have picked a few innovative and creative acts, but recently it’s become nothing more than an extension of the music industry PR machine. The shortlist makes depressing reading with it’s over-hyped usual suspects and entirely predictable absence of entire genres.
As commenter Jonana puts it:
Anyway, what are you talking about, other genres of music? I thought nothing outside timid electronica and ‘indie’ pop-rock, with a token folk presence, was produced by anyone anywhere ever.
Naturally the sheeple don’t realise there’s anything else out there than what’s spoon-fed by mainstream media. This is falsely presented as ‘real music’ in opposition to Simon Cowell’s gunk. They don’t seem to realise it’s another product from the same sausage factory.
Sometimes I wonder who are the Mercury judges are. I’m guessing they’re Jo Whiley, Conor McNicholas, Simon Cowell, Michael Eavis and one randomly-selected 11-year old.
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I agree with the stuff about Cowell et al by what have you got against 11 year olds?
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Anything remotely innovative is down to the 11 year old.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Sigh…….Tim, you are absolutely right in every respect. I constantly bang my head a gainst the wall when disscussing these musical facts with people - the plain fact that musical events accross the board ie Jools Holland, V Fest, Glasto, T in The Park, Mercury Prize etc etc all ‘claim’ to be an eclectic mix & always go with the monika ‘music’ - one would assume that the 2 words ‘eclectic’ & ‘music’ would include all genres, but sadly it doesn’t…..ever - next year will be exactly the same; the Mercury shortlist will yet again contain mostly quirky/averagely played NME-friendly bands who dress like bo-ho drop-outs & the main stages of the only fests that the BBC will cover will be full of the latest Q mag indie-darlings singing songs about argueing boy/girlfriends outside chav-friendly nightclubs. In their world, there’s no such thing as musical accomplishment, jazz, blues, folk, metal, prog or rock (& by ‘rock’, I mean exactly that, not the bloody Kooks or Oasis - something journos seem to get wrong). Or am i being too cynical???
July 24th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I think we’re all probably guilty of viewing the past through rose-tinted spectacles. The charts were full of drek for much of the 70s and 80s, and while Led Zep and Pink Floyd were huge, you never saw them on TV.
I remember readings very similar rants to ours back in about 1985.
What’s happened now is that ‘real’ music is so fragmented that what’s left of the mainstream is even more of a lowest common denominator than it used to be.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
There is a very interesting article in this month’s Classic Rock; ‘Why Doesn’t Radio1 Play Rock?’…….The Answer’s manager is speaking to the suits there & arguing that ‘it’s our station as we are tax payers but why won’t you let the kids hear real rock?’ He says to them that it’s only indie-pop they seem to play. R1 then come back to him saying that they do play rock…such as Killers - quite rightly The Answer’s manager says ‘who are you trying to kid???That’s not rock - it’s pop with guitars’.
As Thunder wrote in one of their songs: “Twenty years I made a living of this/No thanks to you & the TV too/Who did I forget to blow/Should I go on a reality show?/I know you’re never gonna hear this on the radio”.
Worth a read.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I think one problem is that the mainstream media is run by forty-something old punks, who have never managed to let go of their 1977-era anti-rock prejudices.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Ahh yes - like Paul ‘can’t let go of Joy Division’ Morley & that Naylor bloke.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Fan Power - I bet they hate the fact that Iron Maiden are currently the world’s biggest grossing touring act this yr
July 25th, 2009 at 11:06 am
That Naylor bloke was in nappies when punk happened - so he’s not even an old punk, just a wannabe. Which is even worse.