I’m not sure what the Mercury Prize remit is these days. Though, if it’s recognising stuff that is really just a bit average then they’re fulfilling it.
So the Mercury Prize website says “This year’s Mercury Prize shortlist includes seven debut albums and it celebrates artists from every stage of their careers”, says Simon Frith, Chair of Judges. “These musicians come from a fascinating variety of musical places, cultures and histories. What they have in common is the ambition and the craft, the ideas and the imagination to make great music!”
As someone who has always been well into music and still is, when did mainstream and the charts become irrelevant to the more mature music fan?
I found that I kinda slipped away from young people’s music and became that bloke saying, ‘it’s just noise’ or ‘yes, they are a good band, but they are the 4th band to do that exact sound after two from the 80s and one from the 70s’.
We all have our own tastes but I honestly cannot comprehend how some people see quality in many of the current chart acts, genuine talent is rare and the likes of the Mercury and The Brits are clearly just exercises in corporate promotion.
As for recommended listening…do I go round where the manager of HMV lives and suggest that he has pizza for tea because I like it??
Yep I love music and it makes up a huge part of my life. I think music these days is far to easy to get into and does not have any real identity, like the punk, romantic, madchester and even the Brit pop of the mid nineties. If you listen to indie music there is a massive amount of bands that are pretty much the same and fall into this category.
For me music is far to manufactured and polished these days, for the mass market, as well as being instantly accessible.
I still love music and listen to my music every day for about 7/8 hours. It is on in the kitchen and my car, as well as when I am at the gym. When I go into the lounge I pick my guitar up and play, sometimes nothing in perticular, but just strum some cords together. I go to as many gigs as possible (which for money reasons was lacking in the last 5 years).
I would say that music had overtaken my passion for football these days, but take the 2 out of my life and there would be a huge hole!