N Dubz make a point

Now it is no secret that I am, infact, not N Dubz biggest fan or that I enjoyed more than a spot of 2009's The X Factor, but the blond N Dubz vocalist, Tulisa, well that girl has a great point regarding the nation's favourite reality TV show. The 'singer' was quoted on MSN.co.uk, saying: "It's annoying watching X Factor contestants just come up there and become worldwide acts selling millions of records after just standing in a queue for an hour." Adding "It's annoying but because I'm selling records without the power of The X Factor...if they came out off their own bat and not X Factor wouldn't sell ten records so then you've got to remind yourself of that." Because she may just be right. Had anyone heard of Leona Lewis or bought a JLS CD before the shot to fame on X Factor? No? Me neither.

Tulisa joins the likes of Sting and Rage Against The Machine, via Jon Morter, in being just a handful of the artists speaking out against the Simon Cowell karaoke kings dominating our charts and, arguably, strangling our beloved British music industry. On November Sting treated The One Show audience to snacks from his latest album and notede that the 'real music' was made in pubs around Britain not on the cover-band stage of The X Factor. He has a point. Add the contest from other bands, from SiCow 'stars', the obstacle of loopholes in Spotify and illegal downloads and pitfalls of single-song downloads on iTunes. New artists have a tougher time than ever to get noticed, be heard and make their talents lucrative. In our internet, have-it-now, Primark generation, artists have to be so much more than just relevant and excellent lyricists. It seems musicians must be collumnists and fashion designers; both All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth and Slipknot's Corey Taylor have collumns in Rock Sound where Bring Me The Horizon's Oli Sykes and You Me At Six's Josh Franchesi both have clothing ranges, and whatever else gets thrown their way.
In short, something's gotta give to get our home-grown, raw talent seen and heard. RATM's Christmas number 1 was definitely a great start in this much-needed protest and Spotify admitting they made a mistake in thinking happy record label = happy artist (read Pete Waterman's article on the Swedish streaming superhouse Spotify from The Times Lifestyle supplement from last Sunday). Has anyone downloaded the brand new music from industry babies for free from Frostwire or the like? Yes? Yikes, me too -New Years resolution number 3 was to not download any music for free this year unless the artist distributes it so. See Angels and Airwaves Love release on Feb 14th.

Rant over. Comments below.
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Snowgate

OK, so it is still pissing down with snow, my cassette-wielding car is still stranded at the stables and somehow I have still made it to work. Everyday. Early. What's that about? But whilst on the train this evening, inbetween paragraphs of HST's Generation Of Swine, I got to thinking about what I am looking forward to.
Number 1) Kicking off my birthweek with Young Guns, All Time Low , The Blackout and My Passion on The Kerrang! Relentless Energy Tour hitting Cardiff on January 29th to . I literally tingle with excitement. Info here and beyond: tour.kerrang.com

Number 2) The vast number of immense gigs and albums gracing our shores over the forthcoming months; 30STM (Actor-cum-rockband not to everyone's taste, but I find them inoffensive...sorry Ian Watkins!), You Me At Six, Reel Big Fish, The Temper Trap, Fightstar, Dead By Sunrise...KISS!

Number 3) I love A Sides! And B Sides! The possibility of a cassette revival leaves me salivating a little bit (is that wrong? Oh well, if La Roux's hair doesn't have to be right then neither do I!). Is anyone else stoked to make a proper stop-record-pause-rewind-stop-record-stop-playback mixtape!? The Tapeworm are a cassette only label helping keep the magnetic-recording dream alive. For more info www.tapeworm.org.uk/.

Number 4) A Mark Hoppus-Pete Wentz hair-off! Sadly, this is made up but how great would that be? Well, until PeWe lost his emo-fringe to the mercy of Mark's clippers. In reality, the punk pair teamed up to create a tune for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. PeWe hasn't ruled out further work with the Blink-bassist assuring us 'it sounds nothing like Blink 182 or Fall Out Boy' (from Yahoo news UK). No hint of sarcasm, my breath is actually baited.

Number 5) Praise be for Christmas anarchy! As if splattering Joe McElderry's sad cover of Miley Cyrus's The Climb all over his Christmas pudding wasn't enough, Rage Against The Machine promise of a victory gig. This year. In the UK. For free! Should be. According to this week's Kerrang! magazine Mr Morello and his angry mob 'couldn't be more excited about it' and say the free show will be 'insane'. On top of all this the US politcal-rockers donated all the GBP800,000 (yeah, my pound sign doesn't work. Brilliant) profits from their Christmas Number 1 to UK charity, Shelter. RATM - we salute you.

BBPD