BBC Sound of 2015

one word S names back in fashion again!

James Bay is from my town. I haven't heard his music but his brother, Alex, was always around singing in bands and solo - very good performer in his particular way. Strange that it's James who's blown up though cos I hadn't heard of him until recently.

And yeah there are a lot of acts that are made-up one-word names. Someone should invent a generator.

like what i've heard of shamir

I thought he got killed down by the canal. Deirdrie was upset.

more like the sound of 2014... again.
these are all so boring (about half way through them).
surprised that novelist is signed to xl.

i have only heard of rae morris and shamir but i like them both

the shura one is my favourite.

The 2015 longlist is markedly more diverse than in recent years, as grime artists rub shoulders with experimental R&B singers and acoustic balladeers.

I've liked Shura for a while. Shamir seems good so far. Kwabs lost me almost immediately after that one good song. The rest of these? I can't be bothered.

Oh wait, Wolf Alice is good too. They definitely do the nineties guitar revival right.

haven't heard about half of these artists but i'm already rooting for shura, shamir, and rae morris

Yeah, their name jumped out at me for obvious reasons..

Saw them on the Glastonbury live feed, and if our Alice had a band in five years time it could well be like that.

Then we saw them for real at Reading festival..

Mind you their records are impossible to buy for not silly prices.

And the website is some pics and a link to iTunes.

So it goes these days..

We definitely need more acoustic balladeers. It's something that's been missing for so long in music.

Out of these I've heard Schlott, Reenie Duncan and Gauze. All really good.

Looking forward to the Stenographers' debut.

The only one I know is Years and Years as my six year old really likes this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0atZQSUE80

lately i've been jammin out to the years & years track called "desire," it's super good

heard this today, like it a lot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp9GgdCgMXk

instead of listening to any of these I'm going to vote Shamir because it is the name closest to Shalamar

lol that's what i thought when i first encountered him

I didn't not like that years and years song

it's good!

LOVING: rae morris, shamir, shura

ENJOYING: wolf alice, years & years

don't like or don't care for everyone else

Craig explained the name Slaves in an article on Ryan's Rock Show. “Men have been enslaving men for as along as we’ve had gods to hide behind,” Craig said. “Every man is a slave to what we love — whether it be women, drugs, music or sports. Through art we are all equals".

makes you think

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

5. George the Poet
4. Raury
3. Stormsy
2. James Bay

So far, two votes on here for the top five (not including the winner)

p.s. 4+3 = http://a142.idata.over-blog.com/185x122-000000/3/50/61/65/Beatles-Rockers/George-avec-Rory-Storm.jpg

(George the poet on the left, obv)

oh, and 2+'tall' = http://www.samleach.com/album/paul_cavern_small.jpg

Years & Years a likely #1 which means the top 5 are all dudes this year

I was hoping for Wolf Alice, but then that'd be hopelessly retro/britgrungepop wouldn't it?

30 mins about the nominees - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04w1vz8

haha Raury Stormsy.

"Raury is a musical prodigy, who wrote his first song - Oh Little Fishy - at the age of three." Sounds great.

is that seriously something people have chosen to highlight about one of these artists

(give zero shits about anything else itt obv)

I'm into Raury's gig-crashing steez

Oh I LOVE that Shamir track. What a buzz.

That years and years song is pretty good also.

This is their new one, King:

https://soundcloud.com/yearsandyears/king

what a bullshit poll this year

Years & Years are OK, but sound like any number of average sub-cut copy dance bands from the last 5-6 years.

In my eyes Shamir is light years ahead of the rest of the bunch - really excited for whatever he does next.

the one shamir song i heard sounded like an amateur fan version of "212"

if i had to pick one of this lot to say anything positive about it'd probably be kwabs, who has a gorgeous voice that i hope is one day put to a song that really grabs me

BBC Sound Of 2015 Winners: Years & Years 

I had a kwabs-based screen name early last year & then forgot all about him

an amateur fan version of "212"

this sounds like potentially the greatest thing ever, obv

the one shamir song i heard sounded like an amateur fan version of "212"

that was my thought too, but i enjoyed it anyway. what is this years & years?

really like dua lipa and NAO

is NAO an acronym or yet another DESPERATE TO BE NOTICED, TYPING MY NAME IN ALL CAPS situation

IMPOSSIBLY NAO

Spotify are predicting some similar artists (for UK)

Spotify makes its artist picks for 2016
http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/spotify-reveals-its-spotlight-on-2016-artists/063560

The Spotlight on 2016 UK artists are:

- Jack Garratt

- Mura Masa

- Gavin James

- Anne Marie

- LÉON

- Matoma

- Blossoms

- Will Joseph Cook

- Mabel

- NAO

- Jones

- Max Pope

- Honne

- Samm Henshaw

- Frances

Also,

Spotify Spotlight
https://open.spotify.com/user/spotifyspotlight
have predictions for other countries

even though Matoma is Norwegian. Maybe they mean predictions are from the Spotify UK team, rather than UK artists.

is NAO an acronym or yet another DESPERATE TO BE NOTICED, TYPING MY NAME IN ALL CAPS situation

hot new uk crew #notalloligarchs

THE BLOG SOUND OF 2016 – A POLL OF 58 UK BASED MUSIC BLOGGERS TO DETERMINE THEIR FAVOURITE EMERGING ARTISTS

THE UK BLOG SOUND OF 2016
http://breakingmorewaves.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/blog-sound-of-2016.html

AQUILO - Calm sounding electronic pop duo from Silverdale, Lancashire.

AURORA - Norwegian singer who covered Oasis for the John Lewis Christmas advert.

BILLIE MARTEN - Yorkshire based acoustic singer songwriter.

GEORGE COSBY - London based singer songwriter with a deep voice and brooding songs.

HAELOS - A band who describe their music as dark euphoria.

LISS - Four piece from Aarhus, Denmark who make slick sounding pop

LOYLE CARNER - A spoken word artist with his own unique confessional style.

MABEL - The daughter of Neneh Cherry who is producing her own brand of soulful pop.

MURA MASA - An electronic producer and multi-instrumetalist originalLy from Guernsey.

MT WOLF - A reformed band who also featured on the Blog Sound of 2014 longlist.

NAO - Solo singer who mixes funk, soul and electronic sounds in her work.

PLEASURE BEACH - Indie rockers from Northern Ireland.

THE BIG MOON - London based four piece alt rock / indie band.

THE JAPANESE HOUSE - Amber Bain's solo project of electronic ambient songs.

YAK - Energetic rock group with elements of punk, garage indie and psychedelic blues

MANGO BENGO - Loveable cartoon boxer dog

PITTA AND THE WOLFTONES - Kurdish/Irish separatist dubstep

GEOFF - Driffield-based newsagent-turned-ISIS frontman

FLAGPOST - Radical return to classic 60s Bhangra

i have a lot of time for loyle carner

amazing radio - tips for 2016
http://amazingradio.com/tipsfor2016

including: Tala, Mura Masa and Love Ssega

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/jan/19/how-do-you-become-music-next-big-thing-record-label-spend-promotion

Jack Garratt won the BBC Sound of 2016 poll less than a fortnight ago, but behind the scenes, the lobbying by record labels on behalf of the acts they want to win the 2017 poll is already swinging into action. Since the BBC launched the Sound of … poll in 2003, it has become a flagpole event for launching and breaking new acts, a convenient cavalry charge at a time when the album market started to go into freefall.

With the record industry keen to turn any lifeline it is handed into a whip with which to direct the market, it didn’t take long for it to become virtually a monopoly, shaped and directed by the incredible marketing weight and promotional expenditure of a handful of labels.

From its earliest days, Sound of … has been criticised as a cordoned-off VIP room for the major labels. Indeed, only one act on an independent label has ever won it – Adele in 2008, when signed to XL Recordings. EMI, when it still existed and before it was carved up between Universal and Warner, managed to win once in 2006 with Corinne Bailey Rae. Warner also managed to win once in 2009 with Little Boots. Sony has never had an act win.

Acts signed to Universal and its imprints, however, have won it 11 times in the past 14 years. Universal’s signings have triumphed every single year since 2010. Rather than it being a syndicate for the majors, it’s increasingly looking like a cartel for Universal – the biggest and most profitable record label in the world – and its sub-labels. There is no suggestion that there’s anything corrupt going on; simply that the results of the poll reflect the fact that those with the biggest marketing budgets can make their acts much more visible, and therefore much more likely to win. But the result has been that the BBC’s poll is less a promoter of talent than a promoter of commerce.

“It is presented as a certainty,” says one independent publicist, speaking anonymously, who long ago stopped putting forward acts for consideration. “I find the whole thing monumentally fucking depressing.”

Another independent publicist, speaking off the record, remembers feeling that a few leftfield acts were starting to make the longlist at the turn of the decade, which inspired them to consider pushing one of their acts for the Sound of 2011 poll. “As soon as I started to pitch to people, I realised the decisions had already started to be made,” they say.

Why are publicists so important to the process? Because journalists make up the majority of the 144 voters. Although the panel includes a selection of the BBC’s most respected new music presenters and producers, the majority of the pundits are from newspapers, magazines, blogs and commercial radio and TV. “We hope to represent a huge spectrum of music from across the world, covering a diverse range of musical styles and backgrounds,” the BBC’s website says. “When selecting the pundits, the BBC is looking for the most genuine and passionate music fans, whose day-job also involves showcasing the best new music to a wider audience. None of them work full-time for record labels, management or PR, and none of them can make money directly from the success of the artists. None of the pundits are paid for taking part.”

No one makes money, no one is paid. And the pundits do not, as the BBC takes care to stress, vote from a list of predetermined acts. But most of the voters are besieged by new music all year round: it’s only natural, if unfortunate, that the acts they remember, come voting time, are the ones who have been thrust upon them with the greatest frequency. Simply, these are the names that get remembered.

“I would imagine that the vast majority of people who are voting are not the people who will spend ages on Bandcamp buying music and investigating what else is being recommended around those artists,” says one writer who still votes each year, even if they know they are throwing a sponge at a tornado. “There were a few years where I thought: ‘Fuck this – I don’t want to do it.’ I hated the way it had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

At the turn of this decade, the PR machines began roaring to life around six months before voting took place, to get the preferred names into the right minds. Today, it is a year in advance. Having a publicist devote this much time to pushing forward an anointed act is not cheap. Which prices out the small acts who would gain the most from an award that is meant to reward musical promise rather than – as with the Brits critics’ choice award (also won this year by Garratt) – highlight the act most likely to be successful over the following year.

“If someone wanted my undivided time to launch a new act over the course of a year, it would cost about 10 grand,” says the head of one small independent PR firm. “If you were talking to one of the big PR firms, they’d probably charge two grand a month. Major labels are the only ones who have the money to bankroll something like that.”

Add in similar costs for a TV and radio plugger, to get the music aired in public and make voters feel that said act really is the kind of label priority worth voting for, and the same again for an online marketing team to make things appear “viral” and “organic”, and you will be lucky to get much change out of £100,000. Labels say that the cost of developing and launching a new mainstream pop act today can be anywhere between £500,000 and £1m. With winning the tastemaker polls seen as the blue chip moment in a launch campaign, it’s clear why an increasing number of chips from a decreasing number of bettors are being stacked on the side of the BBC’s roulette wheel. It’s not that the BBC decided to create a poll that required this level of expenditure, but that the major labels have, in effect, turned it into one.

“With Jack Garratt, there was a lot of excitement around him at the Great Escape festival in Brighton last May,” explains a publicist about when it became obvious who was being positioned as the frontrunner for January’s big reveal. “The way they build things is to release a track or a video to create a buzz, and then get the artist to play the showcase festivals. Then, after the Sound … poll, the story is launched into the public consciousness that he is this humble, nice guy who started out busking.”

For a label to see anything back from the PR cost of pushing an act, the act would need to both win the poll (mainstream media outlets are not concerned with offering much coverage to the runners-up) and then sell an extra 100,000 albums. Given that most new acts today struggle to reach anything approaching those sales figures, the stakes are far too high for most to even dare compete. Bear in mind, too, that for many indie labels, the significantly lower costs of mounting a campaign for even the Mercury prize are still too high. But the more of them that duck out of the race, the more the poll is at risk of becoming little more than a satellite marketing division of Universal.

How can this be resolved? Maybe the solution lies in taking a Logan’s Run approach to the voting process, whereby anyone over the age of 30 is automatically retired from the panel, and voting rights are handed back to those most enthusiastic about the music and least concerned with backing a winner. As it stands, the poll is more of a coronation than a competition.

Despite being given a week to comment for this piece, the BBC has put no one forward. Perhaps there is a realisation there, too, that Sound of … might just as well be renamed Spend of ….

2017 longlist released

AJ Tracey
Anderson .Paak
Cabbage
Dave
Declan McKenna
Jorja Smith
Maggie Rogers
Nadia Rose
Rag ‘n’ Bone Man
Ray BLK
RAYE
Stefflon Don
The Amazons
The Japanese House
Tom Grennan

lol I generally thought that was a parody

genuinely, even

AJ Tracey West London wordsmith
Anderson .Paak Dr Dre-endorsed rap prodigy
Cabbage Post-punk provocateurs
Dave Plaintive rapper with classical training
Declan McKenna Polemic singer-songwriter
Jorja Smith Heart-rending soul singer
Maggie Rogers Graceful songwriter who stunned Pharrell
Nadia Rose Witty wordplay and colourful beats
Rag N Bone Man Gravel-voiced soul revelation
Ray BLK Street smart R&B
Raye Electro beats with soaring pop melodies
Stefflon Don Wicked, dancehall-inspired wordplay
The Amazons Raucous rock revivalists
The Japanese House Enigmatic pop maven
Tom Grennan Gruff, soulful singer-songwriter

could have been almost any one of those

On the basis of her two singles so far, Nadia Rose is fantastic. Ray BLK, AJ Tracey and Jorja Smith have had their moments as well, which puts this above a lot of previous years.

SMDH at the idea that anyone could have surveyed the boundless linguistic possibilities available for a band name and decided on 'Cabbage' though.

Would recommend Imaginary Diseases over Little Dots. The latter does have some annoying vocal passages, and musically there's far too much bluesy twiddly soloing - albeit with horn section.

Cruising with Ruben and the Jets is pretty much the antithesis of the thread title.

Sorry wrong thread!

aj tracey is a p decent spitter (see buster cannon recently) but grime is for sad dads dropping off ikea at sussex uni halls so w/e tbh

jorja smith is industry bingo full house, hard to assess srsly. 'blue lights' some amy traphouse honking geese dirge

nadia rose is every wwwwwwwwwhip ssssssssssssmart cheeky lex/mdc pick over the last decade reincarnated into something p undeniably ace actually

ray blk is a legit talent that i fear may have been jools hollanded a year too soon. '50/50' was great tho

I like how they dutifully drop an already well established US rapper in there every year but to go as far to include Anderson. Paak I mean words fail.

What's Stefflon Don Wicked like?

I'm assuming the token guitar picks are beyond desperate by now.

am not v au fait with stefflon don and her suspiciously fledgling career but let us rebuke cynicism in the hattie collins prayer circle

Lettuce is a funk band that originated in Boston, Massachusetts in 1992. Its members consist of guitarists Eric Krasno and Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff, Neal Evans, Adam Deitch, Erick "E.D." Coomes, Ryan Zoidis, and partial-member Rashawn Ross. Wikipedia

Number None's un-punctuated list makes them sound a lot better.

High hopes for Dave Plaintive and Tom Grennan Gruff.

btw i didn't write any of the site this year so zing away

Somewhat surprised that, out of the clips selected for the BBC promo, I liked one from the token guitar acts (Declan McKenna) the best.

would have done anyway xp

Isn't Maggie Rogers American? I thought the nominees had to be British.

xpost no doubt!

Cabbage Post-punk provocateurs

I'm sure these guys already appeared on the swagger of Oasis thread a few months ago, well done to ilm for staying ahead of the curve

Quite probably

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cu4wR-rWYAAZj3r.jpg

i love this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV6qg180Uw4

nadia rose is every wwwwwwwwwhip ssssssssssssmart cheeky lex/mdc pick over the last decade reincarnated into something p undeniably ace actually

lolllll only just saw this but she really is brilliant

the Cabbage guy sounds just like Jarvis Cocker in the '80s, kinda eerie

Obviously two tracks isn't much to go on but I think there's a bit more going on with Nadia Rose, regardless of the beats there's something about her reminds me of something from way way back, like pre-grime and pre-garage, that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe even She-Rockers/Neneh Cherry level far back. Problem with turning up on this list is the personality will usually end up either be sanded down or cartoonishly inflated to the satisfaction.

(Choosing to ignore rtc's choice of adjectives btw but other than Lady Leshurr I dunno who's being referred to, it's not like anyone could be arsed to stan for Lady Lykez or Mz Bratt or whoever).

sandé'd down

she's done more than two tracks, or do you just mean ~official singles? there's "mufasa", "dfwt" and "station" too, plus her features on kideko's "crank it" and dollar bin's "retail therapy"

Yeah I only know the two singles but that's quite enough to half-bake a theory.

Rag N Bone Man, whose current hit single I detest, won the critics' choice poll which is sometimes a barometer for the winner of this one.

The Brits Critics Choice Award 2017

Soul singer Ray BLK has topped the BBC's Sound Of 2017 list, which aims to predict the most exciting new music for the year ahead.
It is the first time an unsigned artist has won the honour - which has previously gone to Adele and Sam Smith.

stefflon don mixtape released a mixtape since upthread, p wack imo but lex might see more in it

i forgot she was on that jeremih 'london' tune though. creeper jam blowing up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrl6ugMTQ4

already a reliable pleaser. not quite sure/not quite looking forward to what the next step for her will be, maybe she doesn't really one tho

*doesn't really need

i gave the stefflon don mixtape a really quick listen before xmas party season and was pretty into it, didn't realise she was so dancehall. pleasantly surprised.

keep waiting for ray blk to deliver that one tune i can't get enough of, she's talented enough

i just got an email from network rail's pr people about naughty nadia rose shooting her video on train tracks, lol

Think Nadia Rose's album might be pretty much in the can already, there's been a short string of new songs lately that suggests so. I think the next step for her (career wise at least) is a well-trodden enough path at this stage. Where RAY BLK goes next is more interesting - depends to an extent on the reason why she's still unsigned. If she's going it alone then it could be really exciting - and god the UK needs a successful new soul singer who isn't another production line perky stage school type - but I dunno, the potential for someone to decide to just remove all the grit is quite high.

i'm relistening to the ray blk ep that never grabbed me and the thing is it's SO derivative, not just the nods to mariah or the cardigans or whomever (which she doesn't really elevate into her own thing) but the way she sings about her themes, the words and phrases she uses, i keep thinking of teyana taylor

yeah stefflon don is properly fucking great, totally uninterested in being worthy or respectable, thought we'd never have a uk female rapper like her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcbJzKmTm0

tight nooki is v v satisfying (even with the 'cheat' of using that beat)

ray blk ep that never grabbed me and the thing is it's SO derivative

stefflon don is properly fucking great

http://i.imgur.com/2dcE0eV.jpg