Journalists should embark on all of their assignments with an open mind, but when I was tasked with finding the essence of what makes a great lead singer, there was one thing I took for granted: that frontmen and frontwomen were extroverts who loved being the centre of attention. A dozen interviews later, and I’d only come across one singer – Pelle from the Hives – who truly fit that description. The rest, from Brody Dalle to Kele Okereke to Gerard Way, were all daunted by aspects of the job and riven with a range of anxieties – all of which they seemed delighted to get off their chest.
Inside the weird world of One Direction by Tom Lamont
For ages I’d been interested in the weird lives of boybands, particularly those groups who’d been around long enough to feel a bit knocked about by the demands of their work. Maybe it was that famous story about East 17’s Brian Harvey eating half a dozen jacket potatoes and then running himself over in his own Merc that first triggered my interest. When the editor of Guardian Weekend suggested an exploratory piece on 1D – four years old; the highest-grossing pop act in the world; beginning to crack up? – I wondered: were things really so bad?
The misogyny of mocking Courtney Love’s vocals by Harriet Gibsone
I like to think you can judge the success of a feminist thinkpiece by the number of venomous online messages you receive in the wake of its post. If so, I prospered last October with this blog: a comment on the media for its hypocritical, knee-jerk response when female singer’s live vocals are leaked in which I’d defended the likes of Courtney Love. Naturally, many male commenters obliged with delightfully crass messages. So a big thank you to everyone who contributed towards the vitriol. May you continue to reinforce the need for such discussions surrounding equality well into 2015!
The YouTube stars you (probably) never knew existed by Alexis Petridis
There’s a theory that rock and pop music no longer bothers with the generation gap. There’s nothing about the music that could really baffle a middle-aged listener. The phenomenon of the YouTube star is a pretty thorough corrective to that idea. The more I found out about them, the more I was confused: the weird conjunction of harmless, mainstream pop-rock with staunchly independent ethics that would have impressed a Rough Trade employee in the early 80s is enough to make you extremely bewildered. The way their audience demands demands to own and interact with them is evidence that the relationship between fan and artist has shifted in a way that was once unimaginable. After prolonged exposure to the music, I decided it wasn’t for me. But that’s the point: it belongs to teenagers.
The overlooked world of Native American rock by Dorian Lynskey
I love the Light in the Attic label because it remembers the forgotten and gives talented but commercially unsuccessful artists a long overdue chance to be heard. Native North America – Vol 1 went one better by opening a window into an entire culture during a period of rebirth. The credit for bringing the stories of people such as Willy Mitchell and Willie Thrasher to light goes entirely to compiler Kevin Howes, but it was rewarding to help spread the word.
The problem with Britpop by Michael Hann
The 20th anniversary of the release of Blur’s Parklife earlier this year sparked a mediawide wave of nostalgia for the last time British guitar bands seemed, to be genuinely ahead of the zeitgeist. But the glut of pieces tended towards a music version of Ron Manager: “Adidas Gazelles … Union jack guitars … Cocaine in the Good Mixer … Marvellous!” And there was a substantial constituency for whom Britpop wasn’t like that, to whom it seemed like the indie music that had been our home had been taken over by the very people who didn’t exist on the outside, but who had forced us to the outside. That was the view of it I chose to put forward. It would be fair to say this piece divided opinion: an awful lot of people, for whom Britpop had been a defining musical period, were outraged , while other people agreed with every single word. It’s testament to Britpop’s enduring power that it can still generate such reactions.
The secret story of Huddersfield reggae by Dave Simpson
Huddersfield’s dub and reggae past was a well-kept secret. Even historian Mandeep Samra, who conceived the book which prompted this piece, was only given the low-down by a man who came to fix her boiler. Writing about the scene, I met fascinating characters who were charmingly unaware they had played seminal roles in the development of British music. One chap hadn’t even told his own family that he was being interviewed by a newspaper about being a sound-system pioneer, so we couldn’t talk in his house. Instead, we sat in a nearby muddy field, where he merrily smoked ganja as people walked their dogs.
A journey through Afrofuturism by Lanre Bakare
One thing I realised when writing about Afrofuturism is how nebulous it is as a term. Films, music, poetry and novels you might not naturally think of as part of the scene are included, while others who seem more obvious, such as Shabazz Palaces, deny they have anything to do with it. I found there was one certainty: almost everything came back to Sun Ra. His philosophy has fueled much of what came since, whether on film, on record or on the page. One of the best things about writing the piece was being able to justify spending hours listening to his back catalogue. Special thanks to King Britt and Ytasha Womack who were very generous with their time and knowledge.
Let’s celebrate Johnny Borrell by Laura Barton
Whenever someone has asked me who my worst interviewee has been, I have invariably told them about the time I interviewed Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell, and he stood up and flounced out halfway through, seemingly peeved about the fact I knew more about beat literature than he did. This year, having seen Razorlight play a reunion show in Camden, I decided Borrell should finally be brought in from the cold, and that his thorough preposterousness should render him a national treasure. To my enormous amusement, commenters disagreed vehemently. Ah well, maybe we’ll have to revisit the great rehabilitation of Johnny Borrell in another 10 years.
The secret to making a novelty hit by Peter Robinson
While some artists are happy to discuss their novelty hits – a 10-minute phoner with Carl Douglas lasted 45 minutes – others weren’t quite so keen. Former X Factor contestant Paul Holt, for instance, was polite but extraordinarily firm when he explained that he’d moved on from his 2004 Cowell diss Fifty Grand for Christmas. Some hitmakers just didn’t make the cut. One Pound Fish Man’s response came too late, for instance; and while the fella behind Mike Flowers Pops also missed the deadline, he sent over a fascinating essay on novelty in popular music, which he had recently submitted as part of his master’s. Things took a turn for the unpleasant after publication when Right Said Fred’s Richard Fairbrass found time in his busy schedule to tweet that I was “an ignorant moron with a face I’d never tire of hitting”. Keen to make amends, I asked the Freds to explain their side of the story, only for Fairbrass to send back a cheery: “Up yours you fucking wanker.” Charming!
The magic of Joni Mitchell by Sean O’Hagan
I’ve never seen Joni Mitchell in concert, but I live in hope that she may yet do what her fellow Canadian, Leonard Cohen, has done and return to the stage for a glorious last hurrah. Although I doubt it will happen. She seems to have become more comfortable with her self-styled outsider status, and to prefer painting to singing these days. In many ways, this essay was prompted both by her absence from the stage and her enduring presence in my life. Above all, I wanted to emphasise her musical and lyrical sophistication, which distinguishes her from peers such as Dylan, Cohen and Young. That riled some readers, who thought I considered her a better songwriter than Dylan, or bridled at the notion of a league table of great songwriters. What I was getting at was her difference: Dylan, like Young, never paid much attention to musical arrangements, to “the lace along the seams” of the songs. Joni did.
