As reported by the Guardian Arts Blog, the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize is entirely predictable. It contains all the usual suspects (like the Arctic bloody Monkeys) along with far too much third-rate indie. As is entirely predictable all rock genres outside the post-punk orthodoxy are completely overlooked. And there aren’t even any singing milkmen this time.
OK, so I didn’t seriously expect anything like Porcupine Tree’s superlative “Fear of a Blank Planet” to get a nomination. While it would justifiably be one of the sixteen best albums of the year, it’s well-known that the Mercury judges won’t stray from the confines of the NME/Radio 1 groupthink when it comes to guitar music. Anything with elements of metal, or worse still, prog is either cast into the outer darkness, or isn’t even on their radar screens.
Why does the media insist on giving so much weight to an award which only considers one narrow subgenre of music?
