We watched about five minutes of The Brit Awards on ITV and it was five minutes too much. Wet Leg performed a moderately entertaining tune, beloved of such luminaries as Dave Grohl, but the rest of the show, was not for me. I am sure Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi and Aitch were wonderfully engaging as they performed the pop hits of today but it wasn’t for me. And quite right too. As soon as old people like something that’s specifically designed for young people, then something’s gone wrong. Put simply, I am too old for this kind of thing.
That is not to say I don’t like new music. It’s more the type of new music. As I approach my dotage, although I’m still listening to the stuff I grew up with in the 1960s and 1970s, I’ve managed to diversify into numerous other genres, but crucially not your actual pop music that makes it into the charts. And looking at the charts, I find I barely know more than a few of the songs. If I actually cared, I’d be embarrassed. But I don’t and I’m not.
My guess is that the pop charts aren’t quite so important as they were when I was growing up. In the 1970s, I’d listen to the chart rundown live as it happened and I would know every song that appeared. In those days, the charts reflected what people were buying so we had a vested interest. Now, young people rarely listen to the radio at all and the old ways of measuring popularity are long gone. It’s all streaming and the like these days. There’s no point in complaining about it. Everything changes.
So, The Brits is not for me. I am nowhere near the cutting edge of pretty well anything and if the truth be known I probably never was. But what I will say is this: we are living in the greatest era for music. How can I possibly say that? Because it’s true.
Today, we are able to listen to and enjoy all the music that’s ever been made, plus all the music that’s being made right now. And that’s the new music you get on BBC Radio 1, generic commercial stations like Heart and the more indie offerings of BBC 6 Music.
As I said, I’m not supposed to like The Brits and, true to form, I don’t like it and on that basis I don’t watch it either. But if you do, isn’t that great?
