So, the Great British Music Debate…
Organised by BBC Radio 2, this marathon broadcast filled R2′s evening schedule on 2 July. I rarely, if at all, listen to Radio 2, although I support their apparent attempt to cover the popular music interests of adults of all age groups.
[Note to non-British readers: during the 1970s and 80s (and probably 90s, although I'd stopped paying attention by then) Radio 2 was almost exclusively the station of easy listening, light pop and light classical, which rarely developed with the passing years; presumably the BBC realised that the inevitability of death was gradually eroding their audience]
On this occasion, though, I was sufficiently intrigued to listen to Radio 2 for most of that evening. I was looking forward to a debate, first and foremost, on whether there actually *is* any problem with British music, and then maybe some discussion of the pending changes in entertainment licensing laws. There’s vast scope for covering the whole downloading issue, as well as the broader question of how the internet is affecting the creation and consumption of music. Oh, and does it even matter whether music is British or not?
In retrospect, I now know that I made the wrong decision, although not as wrong a decision as was made by the BBC in deciding to waste five hours of prime broadcasting time. Despite an inquisitive and active studio audience, the whole programme came across as something of a fait accompli, a pre-packaged programme allowing the major record companies to…
(a) Mourn their decreasing profits as a result of evil downloaders
(b) Showcase their latest hopefuls (and in a public show of angst over the future of our music, the fact that all five new artists were firmly in the bland, sub-Coldplay coffee-table-pop camp was painfully ironic).
Oh, and…
(c) Encourage listeners to vote on whether the Single would survive. I mean, who cares?
Despite a promising mini-debate on the role of radio in the widening of public music tastes, the whole thing achieved nothing. Paul Weller bravely tried to inject some life into proceedings by calling all record companies “scum”, but to no avail. All I learned was… the record companies don’t like downloading, but have invested lots of lovely money in some new stars, whose records they’d like you to buy; the audience would like to hear more of X, less of Y on Radio 2; the panel of “experts” was, with the exception of Steve Lillywhite, incapable of approaching any subject outside of their own specialist spheres and personal business interests. Oh well.