BBC music poll 2009

by Neil Vowles on 24.02.09

So readers, are you counting down the days until you can get your hands on Passion Pit’s debut album Chunk of Change? Will you be rushing out to the shops on March 2 to buy VV Brown’s LEAVE? No.

Chances are you will. You just don’t know it yet.

VV Brown and Passion Pit are set to become household names in 2009. But don’t take my word for it; this is in the esteemed opinion of the BBC.

The artists have been named in the BBC’s influential Sound of 2009 poll of the ten names set to make it big in the music industry in the next 12 months.

The list is the opinion of 134 leading brains in the music industry, assorted journalists and DJs, who were asked to name their three favourite new acts yet to have a UK top 20 hit at the time of polling.

And the BBC is rarely wrong. Well at least when it comes to the sound of the year poll.

Since its inauguration in 2003 the poll has predicted the rise to prominence of 50 Cent, Keane, Mika, Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Razorlight, The Scissor Sisters, The Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party and Dizzee Rascal among others.

Last year the Beeb confidentially predicted big things for Duffy and Adele when they were knee high to a grasshopper in fame terms.

Ok, so their clairvoyant skills aren’t guarantees.

Which palm readers or fortune-tellers ever are? Previous lists also predicted big things for Tali, Gemma Fox, Marcos Hernandez and Sadie Ama and, with no disrespect intended, I don’t think many people will be rushing out to buy their records this year, if they still even have a recording contract.

But checking the history of the poll’s top tips, it is apparent that Auntie is a knowledgeable punter who’s normally on to a winner.

Those who’ve made the list this year can feel pretty confident their lives are going to change dramatically in 2009. So what marks out these ten for stardom above the thousands of wannabes and hopefuls in a notoriously fickle and unpredictable industry?

One considerable factor is their style in music and style in their wardrobes. Whichever deity, guru, animal or mineral decides this sort of thing, 2009 sees the return of the 1980s.

Just as the Beeb poll last year decided that everyone wanted retro 60s white soul, this year it has been decreed we all must return to the 80s. And the more flamboyant Adam Ant costumes, Phil Oakey haircuts mad side of the 80s at that.

Empire of the Sun, Florence and the Machine, La Roux and poll topper Little Boots all enjoy dipping their hands into the dressing-up box and all know their way around a synth and a hexagonal drum kit.

Even the obligatory next big thing in indie on the list, White Lies, are taking their inspiration from 80s miserablists Echo and the Bunnymen.

This may have something to do with the credit crunch (doesn’t everything these days?).

Dressing up in ridiculous costumes playing space music from the future is a means of escape from the grim realities of harsh times. Furthermore it seems a symbolic return to a past that our present seeks to emulate; the 1980s of dole queues, job losses and riots.

We’re shedding off the last ten years of prosperity and madness, where even a five year old with a drink problem could get endless credit, like an old skin. Or maybe its just at the whim of the deity, guru, animal or mineral that decides.

The class of 2009 also share something else in common, rejection. Many on this year’s list are second-time-arounders, Lazaruses risen from the grave of nearly-made-its and shoulda-been-bigs.

Little Boots almost hit the big time in her previous incarnation as member of all-girl group Dead Disco as well as being rejected by the X-Factor before the televised rounds.

White Lies hope it is indeed lovelier second time around as in previous lives they were known as Fear of Flying and Dan Black is set for greater success on his own than with his former pals in indie also-rans the Servant.

Former backing vocalist for Madonna, Westlife and the Pussycat Dolls, VV Brown has already been burnt by the industry after being dropped by a major label after one album performing as Vanessa.

Failure can oddly bolster an artist’s credibility, the implication being that second time around they will not compromise their principles or sound for corporate bosses.

As with any job application not only does it help if you have previous experience, it also helps if you know someone in the industry.

Florence Welch, aka Florence and the Machine, is managed by BBC 6 Music DJ Mairhead Nash, aka one half of the Queens of Noize, after she heard Florence singing in the toilets at a party.

Little Boots’s single Stuck on Repeat was produced by Joe Goddard of Hot Chip. One half of La Roux, producer Ben Langmaid, is old school chums and previous collaborator with Rollo Armstrong, one third of Faithless and brother of Dido (are you following this at the back?).

KiD CuDi has been taken under the wing of that mighty buzzard of rap Kanye West who signed CuDi to his label, took him on tour with him and allowed him to collaborate on West’s latest album.

Of course there is nothing sinister or nepotistic about these celebrity connections and they’re certainly no guarantee of success.

The most they can achieve is to introduce new bands to the existing set of fans of an established artist they are working with.

Similarly, having been around the music industry merry-go-round before bands may be more savvy when dealing with labels, more determined to put the hard work in and less inclined to have their heads spun by glamour, groupies, greenbacks or galoshes.

Admittedly the latter is an unlikely danger. But just because you were chewed up and spat out once, doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. Just tapping into the 80s zeitgeist is also no guarantee to success.

However, the bands on the list are no talentless scenesters. They have risen to prominence because they are doing something innovative with a style of music that for years has only induced laughter, cringing and nightmarish recollections of Limahl we wished we had lobotomised.

But the history of the BBC Sound of Poll suggests that its patronage is as close to a guarantee for success as the industry provides, even more so than the X-Factor.

Consistently bands on the list have gone on to become household names. How come the journalists and DJs asked always seem to get it right?

Well before you rush off and worship at their feet, proclaiming them as the new Nostradamus of our times and get them to pick your lottery numbers, let me tell you that they are not blessed with magical powers of foresight.

The poll is usually correct because, owing to the enormous influence of the BBC, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Any band that is named on this list is instantly going to receive an enormous increase in people checking them out and lazy, unimaginative writers writing about them (yes I am aware of my complicity in all of this).

And it will inevitably lead to more coverage by the BBC as the corporation supports its own poll. No sooner was the poll winner announced than Little Boots was turning up to do live sessions on 6 Music, was featured heavily online and was even interviewed for the main evening news.

Its almost in the BBC’s interests for the bands to succeed to prove how cool and down-with-the-kids Auntie can be. Failed predictions (Kubb in 2006 anyone?) make the Beeb look out-of-touch, clueless and every one of its 87 years of age.

What the poll effectively becomes is the Beeb promoting ten new bands on behalf of their record labels, for free.

And with the dominance of BBC radio over its struggling commercial rivals, as well as any television and online tie-ins, such promotion is much more effective than any poster or TV advert campaign money can buy.

To be on the Radio 1 playlist, where Lady GaGa, KiD CuDi, Empire of the Sun, White Lies and Little Boots can already be found, is almost to guarantee chart and financial success.

The BBC, and Radio 1 in particular, are keen to promote themselves as supporters of new music.

Fine, that is very admirable. John Peel supported hundreds of bands throughout his distinguished career.

But despite his influence, his patronage certainly never ensured any chart success or made millionaires out of the Wedding Present, Half Man Half Biscuit or the Fall.

What that support equates to now in 2009 is the BBC as a multi-media, 24/7 promotion juggernaut, not an individual DJ, throwing it’s weight behind anointed artists.

To be supported by the BBC means to be on the playlist, ensuring that chosen artists are played repeatedly throughout the day and other competing artists not at all.

This to me is in conflict with the corporation’s editorial guidelines, which states that; “we must avoid any undue prominence or giving the impression that we are promoting or endorsing products, organisations or services.”

It is certainly to the detriment of the quality of Radio 1 and 2 where songs are flogged to death over weeks of overplay and where individual shows lack character when they are all playing the same songs.

Playlist songs are rarely if ever criticised on air and each DJ’s hands are tied to a large extent as to what songs and bands they can individually play and enthuse over.

The rise of music websites such as MySpace and Last.fm have long promised to democratise music and there have been individual successes in artists rising to prominence solely, or at least initially, through internet buzz.

But whether those bands remain prominent and how big they become is still reliant on the BBC’s imperious powers of deciding life or death for music acts. Will this hegemony be broken up anytime soon?

I wouldn’t bet on it. Safer to put your money on Little Boots being the star of 2009.