Editorial: Six appeal

[Mark Thompson: in pop music he trusts]

The outcry over the BBC's proposed axing of 6 Music has been futile. Despite DJs like Phill Jupitus quickly branding the plan "a slap in the face to licence-payers" and thousands of music fans adding their tweets to the #saveBBC6Music trend and joining Facebook protest groups, the inevitable was confirmed today.

Mark Thompson, director general of the Beeb, announced the decision as part of his "strategy review" - put simply, an attempt to shake off the persistent allegations from politicians that the corporation is 'bloated' and not delivering value to the licence-payer.

Now we could join the chorus of outrage over the absurd logic whereby Chris Moyles takes home £630k a year to jabber self-importantly over bad music but some of the corporation's most innovative and intelligent digital offerings are deemed surplus to requirments. But we'll leave that to other commentators - and there will be plenty of them. What's more, many of 6 Music's best offerings - such as Gideon Coe's intrepid archive trawling, Adam & Joe's infectious banter or Bob Dylan's themed raspings - have nothing to do with our 'new music' concerns anyway.

No, rather than fan the flames of ire (and despite the fact that it has a mere 700,000 listeners, 6 Music's fans are a vocal, media-savvy bunch), we thought it would be more pertinent to look at a few inconsistencies and imbalances this whole sorry affair spotlights:

• This is a triumph of mainstream majority over alternative minority, but since when does the BBC have to operate by such commercial imperatives anyway? No matter what the MPs say, it's the BBC's unique, non-commercial status that is its most vital quality. Its independence from advertisers breeds diversity, affording air time to unsigned bands or obscure classics on the margins of its scope, instead of wholesale playlisting across the board.

Here on UtR, on the Scotsman website, we are technically one of its online competitors, but while it would be easy to harbour jealousies for the huge resources at their disposal, the last thing we want is to see their commitment to emergent music diminish to nothing.

• As the BBC's coverage of new music shrinks (and at this rate Vic Galloway's show could soon be the only source of underground sounds us Scots get on the BBC), it makes us wonder: why is it that more traditional forms of music get such a good billing, especially in Scotland? Granted, it's native and it's inoffensive and many people love it, but you can hardly turn on BBC2 or Radio Scotland without being regaled by some implausibly cheerful fiddler. While that's perfectly fine in itself, it does seem to us that there's an imbalance here, especially given the vitality of new music in this country right now.

• It has been predicted that if the BBC does retreat from the cutting edge there would at least be a vacuum which could be filled by independent bloggers and podcasters. Again, if this theory proves correct then UtR, a kind of 'mainstream blog', stands to benefit. But we're not convinced by this argument, and as a new band starting out, would you rather tell your mum to turn on the radio or TV to hear your song or download a podcast? There's still a frisson of excitement around being featured on the traditional media that new media has yet to match.

The first draft of this editorial, written before today's announcement, ended on some suggestions for the BBC. Now that they have settled on a provisional course of action, we can only leave you with a (tongue-in-cheek) glimpse of the future for us all.

Have an opinion on this? Let us know below...

Editorial: The tipping point

If you're an avid consumer of music journalism you could be forgiven at this time of year for picturing every blogger and critic to look like John McCririck.

OK, maybe they don't look like the Ascot-frequenting eccentric, but they're all having a go at being excitable tipsters.

Perhaps the most high profile formcard for the year ahead is the BBC's Sound of 2010, which today crowned Ellie Goulding as the artist primed for stardom. Having already vented about the selection process behind their shortlist, I'll refrain from any more cynicism now, but the comment from Drunk Country on our original editorial is worth a read.

Over the festive period a few of our writers offered their own Scottish tips for 2010, but we have refrained from compiling a thorough run-down or poll of the most exciting acts of the moment.

Why? Because that's essentially what we've been doing for the past year anyway. The bands and artists we have profiled have been emergent by definition, the vast majority of them unsigned. If 2009 was the year of their formation, or the year they started gigging or self-released an EP, perhaps 2010 is the year they'll 'make it' - and I'll let you be the judge of what 'making it' entails.

Some of our choices from the class of 2009 - Withered Hand, North Atlantic Oscillation, There Will Be Fireworks, Copy Haho, Panda Su, to name a select few - are already growing their audience beyond the cosy confines of the Scottish scene. Others will undoubtedly come to nothing and fade back into obscurity. As any pundit will tell you though, that's the risk you take in this game.

But like everyone else, we can't resist the appeal of the crystal ball, so I'll add a few more new names that have recently appeared as blips on our collective radar:

Django Django
Nomogram
The Last Battle
Midnight Lion
miaoux miaoux
Three Blind Wolves (Ross Clark's renamed band)

Who are you tipping for 2010? Do you actually look like John McCririck? Let us know...

Editorial: The sound of 2010?

Thanks to the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, Stornoway is now on the musical map. Well the Oxford band is, not the Hebridean town.

And that's about as Scottish as the record industry in 2010 is going to get, if you believe the BBC's 'tastemakers'.

In case you haven't yet heard, this is the list of names and locations of the artists who will be soundtracking next year:

Daisy Dares You - London
Delphic - Manchester
Devlin - Essex
The Drums - New York
Everything Everything - Manchester
Giggs - London
Gold Panda - London
Ellie Goulding - Powys, Wales
Hurts - Manchester
Joy Orbison - Croydon
Marina And The Diamonds - London
Owl City - Minnesota
Rox - London
Stornoway - Oxford
Two Door Cinema Club - Northern Ireland

The main criteria for the annual predictor game, which always ladles each act with a generous helping of hype, is that the artists tipped must not have had a top 20 single or album before mid-November.

Now we're not implying that any of the acts we've featured in the past year should necessarily have been included, because potential unit-shifting is not one of the criteria we adopt at UtR. But there are Scottish acts who could potentially make a commercial breakthrough but are conspicuous by their absence. Unicorn Kid, Broken Records or Young Fathers, to name a few.

If this sounds eerily familiar, then you may remember our last editorial debate, 'Does thinking local mean staying local?', where we lamented the flat-out rejection of four of Scotland's most exciting bands by a London-based music editor.

Disheateningly, the massed ranks of the music media appear to be resolutely stationed down south, and from 136 pundits, the BBC hasn't enlisted the help of anyone in the Scottish scene. If a music supervisor for Hollyoaks is deemed an expert, then where are the Scottish radio DJs, magazine editors, critics and label scouts?

We don't want to come across as bitter, Saltire-waving nationalists, but surely our native music makers deserve better recognition than they're currently receiving on a UK-wide level.

What do you think?
Is the BBC poll a good representation of cutting edge music, or is it unfairly weighted towards London?