The BBC has a list of so-called “tastemakers” who tell us the music that we’re going to be force-fed with over the next twelve months. Their 15 pundits are the A-list of all the people responsible for the utter crapness of the mainstream music scene with it’s wall-to-wall landfill indie and Asda-pop – the controller of Radio One, the appalling editor of the NME, the producer of “Later with Jools Holland”, they’re all there.
I wonder if the people who’s annual record purchases consist of 2 or 3 CDs a year from Asda don’t realise that all the music the mainstream will hear is pre-selected by such a small clique of people, and how cosy the relationship between the BBC, the major record companies and the music press has become. Do they know they’re sheep, or do they just not care?
Personally I think BBC radio and TV is failing to satisfy the public service remit of the BBC charter by it’s marginalisation of all but a narrow range of genres of popular music, and I find it hard to justify the existence of some BBC radio channels in their present form.