Mercury Shortlist 2006
- Thread starter Blackdown
- Start date
people think the monkeys wont win cos theyre already so popular but that didnt stop franz ferdinand. and out of that list, the monkeys are - for better or worse - the most exciting thing on there. plus you know, theyre inspired by rappers and like to make their music 'foonkay' and everything so it would be like a uk hip hop win if they take the award home...
as long as muse dont win (although that prince-beck single of theirs, i did actually like), i wont mind too much. i hope sway doesnt win the token urban music sympathy award. youre right though, that more chart friendly people are being nominated than before (although i cant remember who used to win or get nominated before talvin singh, roni size et al as i never really cared), but its like that across the board. even in the cannes film festival, people were fucked off that there seemed to be more commercial inclusions than usual.
Yeah Hot Chip to win... weird that quite a few people on this board seem to know them but anyway... send my kind regards...
Whilst going by the historic tokenism of the awards it would seem that Sway would be a likely winner, the fact that (asides from a few songs) his debut was disappointing and failed to pick up either acclaim or sales would mean that I think he's an extremely outside bet. Put it this way, if the judges think logically then they might compare his effort to the last "urban" (stoopid word I know...) winner- Dizzee Rascal, now Sway is OK, but "This is My Demo" is no "Boy In Da Corner" (I know one's grime and the other is poppish-hip hop, but still...)
@gumdrops: yes, this does seem like a pretty commercial list (well, indie-commercial--- not massive chart slaying commercial with the exception of Arctic Monkeys)... I've actually heard 90% of the shortlist for fucks sake...the odd thing is that the media reaction has been "joyless art-wank"... ie: the broadsheets believe this to be an obscure shortlist. This demonstrates one thing, which I am sure we will all be very aware of by now, that the broadsheet coverage of pop music is one of the worst things to happen to music journalism since, well, ever. The poisonously middlebrow, consumer friendly agenda they peddle is now the consensus view, propped up with bloated ex-radical NME hacks and hackettes cashing in on reputations they earned when they were in short trousers by writing some of the most staggeringly banal prose on the planet, and lacking any sense of a "project" or ongoing agenda, any sense of willful perversity etc etc. I'm sure this has had a large part in the reduction in vitality of dedicated music magazines, and a lowering of critical expectations almost always leads to a lowering in the quality of product... just look at the way Franz sodding Ferdinand have been championed by the Broadsheet media... worst of all they call them "art rock"???!?... it all leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Whilst going by the historic tokenism of the awards it would seem that Sway would be a likely winner, the fact that (asides from a few songs) his debut was disappointing and failed to pick up either acclaim or sales would mean that I think he's an extremely outside bet. Put it this way, if the judges think logically then they might compare his effort to the last "urban" (stoopid word I know...) winner- Dizzee Rascal, now Sway is OK, but "This is My Demo" is no "Boy In Da Corner" (I know one's grime and the other is poppish-hip hop, but still...)
@gumdrops: yes, this does seem like a pretty commercial list (well, indie-commercial--- not massive chart slaying commercial with the exception of Arctic Monkeys)... I've actually heard 90% of the shortlist for fucks sake...the odd thing is that the media reaction has been "joyless art-wank"... ie: the broadsheets believe this to be an obscure shortlist. This demonstrates one thing, which I am sure we will all be very aware of by now, that the broadsheet coverage of pop music is one of the worst things to happen to music journalism since, well, ever. The poisonously middlebrow, consumer friendly agenda they peddle is now the consensus view, propped up with bloated ex-radical NME hacks and hackettes cashing in on reputations they earned when they were in short trousers by writing some of the most staggeringly banal prose on the planet, and lacking any sense of a "project" or ongoing agenda, any sense of willful perversity etc etc. I'm sure this has had a large part in the reduction in vitality of dedicated music magazines, and a lowering of critical expectations almost always leads to a lowering in the quality of product... just look at the way Franz sodding Ferdinand have been championed by the Broadsheet media... worst of all they call them "art rock"???!?... it all leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
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gek-opel said:Yeah blame bloody Julie Burchill and Toby Young for it... it was the "Modern Review" wot done it... Nick Hornby and all....
measuring music as a status quo ... has it enough in it to have mass appeal, yes then its good ,no then it's pretentious or marginal. is it attempting something new, part of something fresh, then it's difficult. Not ever championing anything.
[OTM MMS...] .... however always appear to champion things that are about to have massive marketing budgets spent on them, thereby ensuring your continued "relevance" as "predictor" of future trends.... see Miranda Sawyer's repulsive and credulous puff piece on Lily Allen in OMM 2 months ago... quote:
"Last month I used my column in this magazine to bemoan today's lack of proper pop stars, the ones who talk the talk as well as walk the tight-trousered walk, who know that the music's only part of the job and personality's the rest. Anyway, just days later, the editor called me up, all excited, and said, 'I think I've found you one!'. Lily Allen was his answer to my rant, recommended to him by an OMM work-experience girl who had found her MySpace site. Lily had put up four of her chirpy pop-ska songs, and, within weeks, they'd spread like internet flu. She now has a staggering 24,932 friends on her page, Parlophone has rush-released her first single, 'LDN', and the limited edition seven-inch is reselling for £40 on eBay. Lily is a genuine, no PR, punters-love-it success, which is fantastic, but, even more promisingly, her blog is hilarious..."
Please just kill me now...
"Last month I used my column in this magazine to bemoan today's lack of proper pop stars, the ones who talk the talk as well as walk the tight-trousered walk, who know that the music's only part of the job and personality's the rest. Anyway, just days later, the editor called me up, all excited, and said, 'I think I've found you one!'. Lily Allen was his answer to my rant, recommended to him by an OMM work-experience girl who had found her MySpace site. Lily had put up four of her chirpy pop-ska songs, and, within weeks, they'd spread like internet flu. She now has a staggering 24,932 friends on her page, Parlophone has rush-released her first single, 'LDN', and the limited edition seven-inch is reselling for £40 on eBay. Lily is a genuine, no PR, punters-love-it success, which is fantastic, but, even more promisingly, her blog is hilarious..."
Please just kill me now...
swears
preppy-kei
Re: Hot Chip
This review sums them up pretty well for me:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0624,powell,73494,22.html
This review sums them up pretty well for me:
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0624,powell,73494,22.html