Friday 27th September 2013 saw Radio 1 reach the conclusion of "Even More Music Month" which has basically seen a lot of hype and more Live Lounge performances than normal. The final day of this hype saw 12 hours (7am - 7pm) of music without any presentation from DJs, who were relegated to Twitter. During this twelve hours, a countdown of the most popular records (as voted online) from a shortlist of the 100 most played songs in the past five years on Radio 1, which is effectively those songs which have spent the longest on R1's underplaylist.
The twelve hours (aside from news broadcasts) were a succession of idents, branding and hype amongst the music, much like the ILR Jack FM does every day after their breakfast show.
I believe there were two main purposes of this activity. The first was to establish the direction the mainstream music output should be taking on the station, finding out the most popular genres and artists and setting the direction of the station accordingly.
The second is far more ominous. Bear in mind the constant political pressure on the BBC to reduce their costs and adapt their output, particularly on services which can be accused of being adequately catered for by commercial broadcasters. This was a trial to test the water for Radio 1 (or for that matter 1Xtra) being reduced to a jukebox offering, without the expense of having presenting staff to amuse the listeners between the records.
You might think i'm being overdramatic, but this is a logical conclusion to the direction that commercial and public radio has been taking in the UK. All commercial radio groups have been reducing their staff numbers, networking shows and in the case of Jack removing presenters altogether. Removing presenters reduces the level of attention that the listener conciously pays to the station and also reduces the likelihood that the listener will turn off due to being annoyed by the presenter.
If you don't believe that commercial radio is moving towards just being a jukebox with adverts, just listen to Heart off peak. Over the course of an hour of the programme presented by Toby Anstis, he speaks for barely two minutes. Occasionally mentioning that you're listening to Heart, the records coming up and the ones he's just played. They are persistently reducing the level of speech heard and would probably remove presenters altogether immediately if Ofcom would allow it.
As such, the BBC has to follow the lead of the commercial broadcasters and at least trial the format which is likely to become widespread the next time Ofcom gets reorganised and the ILRs can make changes without anyone noticing. Because nobody will notice, least of all the listeners...
Sunday 29 September 2013
Disappointment doesn't do it justice
Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip have a new album coming out soon. Their debut (Angles) was brilliant and having had a break since their patchy second (The Logic of Chance), i've got high hopes that the new one (Repent, Replenish, Repeat) will be a cracker. They are keen utilisers of social media to promote their new releases and this is no exception. Their Facebook feed recently mentioned two guest artists who appear on the new album, one known to me, the other not.
The one i'm familiar with is Flux Pavillion, whose well humoured approach to the Dubstep sound makes him one of the most entertaining practictioners of the genre. The second is a rapper called Itch. I'd never heard of him before, so went to his Facebook page and found a link to his latest video. I've followed suggestions by Le Sac vs Pip before and almost always been delighted. This is by far the biggest exception to the rule thus far. A review follows:
Itch featuring Adam Lazzara - Homeless Romantic
It doesn't start well. The video opens with stereotypical views of graffiti, a gang of kids out of focus kicking stuff around and an appallingly poor hook of "This one's for the homeless romantic". Then we switch to Itch, who by the word of his own promotional material is a "feral street kid". He proports to be a baby Pro Green, but without the charisma in a stylised world of rubbish strewn warehouses, whilst crowds of plastic faced promo girls throw things around and smash stuff. Everybody looks like they've been styled by Little Mix. Then Mr Lazzara (of Taking Back Sunday) kicks in and makes the whole thing sound like an angsty college rock track, alternating between banging out part verses and "This one's for the homeless romantic" over and over. It isn't even that good a hook.
Everything about the video and the song feels painfully contrived, manufactured and fake. Itch looks less like a "feral street kid" and more like a spoiled rich kid, going through a dozen different looks in the video, which contribute to the synthetic feel. I put any belief in an artist like this that anything they're rapping about is real because everything is so glossy and cheesy. It is the sort of record i'd expect an X-Factor winner to make.
I really do expect better from the recommendations of people i respect...
The one i'm familiar with is Flux Pavillion, whose well humoured approach to the Dubstep sound makes him one of the most entertaining practictioners of the genre. The second is a rapper called Itch. I'd never heard of him before, so went to his Facebook page and found a link to his latest video. I've followed suggestions by Le Sac vs Pip before and almost always been delighted. This is by far the biggest exception to the rule thus far. A review follows:
Itch featuring Adam Lazzara - Homeless Romantic
It doesn't start well. The video opens with stereotypical views of graffiti, a gang of kids out of focus kicking stuff around and an appallingly poor hook of "This one's for the homeless romantic". Then we switch to Itch, who by the word of his own promotional material is a "feral street kid". He proports to be a baby Pro Green, but without the charisma in a stylised world of rubbish strewn warehouses, whilst crowds of plastic faced promo girls throw things around and smash stuff. Everybody looks like they've been styled by Little Mix. Then Mr Lazzara (of Taking Back Sunday) kicks in and makes the whole thing sound like an angsty college rock track, alternating between banging out part verses and "This one's for the homeless romantic" over and over. It isn't even that good a hook.
Everything about the video and the song feels painfully contrived, manufactured and fake. Itch looks less like a "feral street kid" and more like a spoiled rich kid, going through a dozen different looks in the video, which contribute to the synthetic feel. I put any belief in an artist like this that anything they're rapping about is real because everything is so glossy and cheesy. It is the sort of record i'd expect an X-Factor winner to make.
I really do expect better from the recommendations of people i respect...
Wednesday 18 September 2013
Album tactics
So why would anybody spend money on a consumer product which is going to be superceded by something bigger and better in six months time? The record industry must think we're all mugs and in many cases, they're right.
Ellie Goulding's second album Halcyon has just been re-released as Halcyon Days, which now boasts 21 tracks, rather than 13 on the original release. That was the original standard release, because there was also a Deluxe version which had a different six bonus tracks on it. And a Special edition which had two more different tracks on it. And then there is the Tesco edition, which had a couple of other tracks which didn't appear elsewhere. Halcyon Days has also been issued as a Deluxe edition, with a further two tracks which haven't appeared elsewhere. By my reckoning, there have been a total of 33 tracks released on the various editions of this album. No doubt there will soon be a repackaging as Halcyon Fucking Weeks with all of them on there.
Ellie Goulding's record company (Polydor) have previous. Her first album, Lights was reissued as Bright Lights. Interestingly, this repackaging featured the title tracks from the original issue along with the insipid Elton John cover of Your Song and five other tracks. Whereas this could be put down to the unforeseen success of the cover song, the tactics of releasing several different versions of her second long player are disgraceful and nothing more than milking the loyalty of Goulding's more dedicated fans.
Now while i'm on the subject of crap value for money on albums, Avicii has released his debut artist album True this week. You'd expect all his hits to be on there - Levels? Silhouettes? I Could Be The One? - Well.... errmmm.... No. The only mainstream chart single to have made it on there is recent Aloe Blacc collaboration Wake Me Up. The album runs to a mediocre ten tracks and an equally poor 48 minutes plus change. Even if the album is a whole concept which the earlier tracks don't fit in to, why not put them on as three bonus tracks at the end as a gesture to the people who have made the effort to buy the album? It isn't unreasonable to expect an artist album to feature recent hit singles, particularly when they're as high profile as those of Avicii. Ignoring this expectation demonstrates the contempt that the music industry continues to show to its customers, just like endlessly repackaging the same core 13 tracks on an album with different bonus material...
Ellie Goulding's second album Halcyon has just been re-released as Halcyon Days, which now boasts 21 tracks, rather than 13 on the original release. That was the original standard release, because there was also a Deluxe version which had a different six bonus tracks on it. And a Special edition which had two more different tracks on it. And then there is the Tesco edition, which had a couple of other tracks which didn't appear elsewhere. Halcyon Days has also been issued as a Deluxe edition, with a further two tracks which haven't appeared elsewhere. By my reckoning, there have been a total of 33 tracks released on the various editions of this album. No doubt there will soon be a repackaging as Halcyon Fucking Weeks with all of them on there.
Ellie Goulding's record company (Polydor) have previous. Her first album, Lights was reissued as Bright Lights. Interestingly, this repackaging featured the title tracks from the original issue along with the insipid Elton John cover of Your Song and five other tracks. Whereas this could be put down to the unforeseen success of the cover song, the tactics of releasing several different versions of her second long player are disgraceful and nothing more than milking the loyalty of Goulding's more dedicated fans.
Now while i'm on the subject of crap value for money on albums, Avicii has released his debut artist album True this week. You'd expect all his hits to be on there - Levels? Silhouettes? I Could Be The One? - Well.... errmmm.... No. The only mainstream chart single to have made it on there is recent Aloe Blacc collaboration Wake Me Up. The album runs to a mediocre ten tracks and an equally poor 48 minutes plus change. Even if the album is a whole concept which the earlier tracks don't fit in to, why not put them on as three bonus tracks at the end as a gesture to the people who have made the effort to buy the album? It isn't unreasonable to expect an artist album to feature recent hit singles, particularly when they're as high profile as those of Avicii. Ignoring this expectation demonstrates the contempt that the music industry continues to show to its customers, just like endlessly repackaging the same core 13 tracks on an album with different bonus material...
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