The story that boy-band JLS have been named “Hardest Working Band” by the Performing Rights Society is making just about every music fan and musician in my circle of friends throw up the hands in despair.
To call an act who have played 34 gigs in 2012 the “Hardest working band” is surely an insult to actual real hard-working musicians, the sort of people who slog round the clubs and theatres and form the backbone of real music in this country. As a friend on Twitter has pointed out, John Otway plays 200 gigs a year at the age of 60. The whole thing smacks of “biggest moneyspinner for PRS” rather than a reflection of any actual amount of work.
The way this non-story is all over the media is a textbook example of so-called “churnalism”, the process by which vapid PR guff is translated into column inches without any actual journalism having taken place. It’s risible nonsense to anyone whose knowledge of music goes beyond what’s available on the shelves of ASDA, and doesn’t exactly do much for PRS’s credibility, let along the media outlets that unquestioningly repeated the story.
Shame on everyone who had any part in this charade.