Posted February 22, 201213 yr From the Guardian today The Brit awards 2012: predictable and parochialThis was never going to be a year to branch out. These days the record industry's shindig has an eye for commercial success Earlier this week, a blog called Yes It's Number One spotted that an enterprising soul had uploaded the 1989 Brit Awards in their entirety to YouTube. It's worth watching, if your cerebral cortex can stand it, as a useful counterpoint to last night's event. That, you may recall, was the calamitous year they let Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood present The Brits. But what's striking isn't the endless incompetence. You would actually have been quite grateful for rather more incompetence somewhere in last night's show: the solitary crackle of excitement in an event that was otherwise slickly run and as thrilling as filling in a tax return came when host James Corden cut Adele's acceptance speech short to boos from the audience. What's striking is the artists back in 1989. A lot had happened in the previous 12 months, not on music's outer fringes but in the charts: the rise of acid house, the arrival of Kylie Minogue and Guns N' Roses, the release of U2's Rattle And Hum. By contrast, the Brit Awards featured Julian Lennon, Cliff Richard telling the audience of screaming teenyboppers to grow up, Alan Price, The Four Tops and, bringing proceedings to a close, Randy Newman and The Mark Knopfler Supergroup. You could, if you were so minded, decry the predictability of this year's winners. It certainly wasn't an evening on which anyone was going to find themselves leaping from their seat with their hands raised in astonished supplication, and the cry of "Who saw that coming?" forming on their lips, unless you stretch the definition of "surprise" to include the victory of boyband One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful over Adele's omnipresent Someone Like You in the Best British Single category: even if you did, someone might point out that it was less a surprise than an inevitable consequence of a hormone-crazed fanbase discovering that you can fiddle the result by voting more than once. But at least you could never call the Brits irrelevant in the way they appear to have been 23 years ago: less fun, perhaps, certainly less mind-boggling, but not as weirdly, willfully unconnected to anything happening in the real world. In fact, the winners were highly pertinent, at least in commercial terms, which even the dimmest observer of proceedings in recent years must have worked out is ultimately what the Brit Awards are about. Adele's 21 sold 17m copies, reached No 1 in 26 countries, and was credited with singlehandedly spurring the first overall increase in music purchases since 2004: under the circumstances, The British Phonographic Industry just aren't going to give the best album award to PJ Harvey. Ed Sheeran has sold more than 1m copies of his debut + and his breakthrough hit The A Team is still in the singles chart nine months after it was released: with all due respect, Anna Calvi – whose critically-acclaimed debut album got to number 40 for one week last January – was never going to walk away with Best British Breakthrough. Of course, the problem with having an international star of Adele's magnitude on your patch is that the Grammys are going to give her awards as well, drawing comparisons between the US event and the Brits in which the Brits come off worse. Even on a quiet year, let alone a year on which they're hysterical with grief for the recently-deceased Whitney Houston, the Grammys are always bigger and flashier and madder than the Brits. Their ceremony lasts for about three weeks – no one gets their acceptance speech cut short. They have bizarre, recherché awards for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album and Best Polka Album, we have nothing more bizarre and recherché than the deathless patter of James Corden pretending to confuse PJ Harvey with PJ And Duncan. They had LL Cool J leading the entire audience in a prayer for the late Whitney Houston; we made do with James Corden introducing a brief video tribute. They had the extravagantly strange sight of rapper Nicki Minaj turning up on the red carpet with a man dressed as a bishop, then performing a medley of her hits during which she levitated and pretended to be exorcised onstage; we had Rihanna dancing around in her pants, which with the best will in the world isn't exactly the most irregular occurrence. They even rewarded the star of the evening more lavishly, giving Adele six awards as opposed to a relatively meagre two. Up against that, the Brits can't help but seem a little muted and parochial: the British record industry's annual works do, with Adele the Employee Of The Year. Still, as a quick search of YouTube will tell you, it could be worse. British album Adele, 21 British female solo artist Adele British male solo artist Ed Sheeran British breakthrough act Ed Sheeran British group Coldplay British single One Direction, What Makes You Beautiful British producer Ethan Johns International female artist Rihanna International male artist Bruno Mars International group Foo Fighters International breakthrough Lana Del Rey Critics' choice Emeli Sandé Outstanding contribution to music Blur Edited February 22, 201213 yr by steve201
February 22, 201213 yr I'm delighted that Lana Del Ray won best international breakthrough artist. Pleased about Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Emeli Sande. Disappointed Jessie J didnt win anything. Adele was to be expected but the biggest shock was One Direction. Didnt expect that and thought something more credible might win.
February 22, 201213 yr I'm delighted that Lana Del Ray won best international breakthrough artist. Me2. :) And as always, Kylie looked fantastic. :wub:
February 22, 201213 yr Me2. :) And as always, Kylie looked fantastic. :wub: Yeah, she looked stunning, even Adele said so lol.
February 22, 201213 yr ... but the biggest shock was One Direction. Didnt expect that and thought something more credible might win. Isn't that one voted for by the public?
February 22, 201213 yr I dont think Lana Del Ray should have qualified as she didn't release an album in the permitted period.
February 22, 201213 yr The public should never be allowed to vote for awards - unless it's the Smash Hits Poll Winner's Party.
February 22, 201213 yr I dont think Lana Del Ray should have qualified as she didn't release an album in the permitted period. What does releasing an album have to do with it - she wasn't up for an *album* award. ***** What about Adele giving the Producers the finger for cutting short her acceptance speech? :blink: I guess they thought it was safer cutting her off, than, say, Noel Gallagher! :lol: Edited February 22, 201213 yr by vidcapper
February 22, 201213 yr What does releasing an album have to do with it - she wasn't up for an *album* award. True. I suppose I'm just going on the way it has been done in the past.
February 22, 201213 yr Author ^ Have to say i was rather surprised to see that too as she only had Video Games released before the nominations - she could have won it next year instead?
February 22, 201213 yr I'm delighted that Lana Del Ray won best international breakthrough artist. Pleased about Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Emeli Sande. Disappointed Jessie J didnt win anything. Adele was to be expected but the biggest shock was One Direction. Didnt expect that and thought something more credible might win. Glad they did, and it wasn't really a shock. It's one of the best songs from last year. Well deserved. :dance:
February 22, 201213 yr The public should never be allowed to vote for awards - unless it's the Smash Hits Poll Winner's Party. Which should make a stunning return BTW. The T4 Stars of the Year rubbish just doesn't have the cultural cache. How will the One Direction boys cope without emulating 5ive's run of 'Best Hair' Smash Hits awards.
February 22, 201213 yr I assume the period the brits are awarding is January 2011-January 2012 is it not? so Lana Del Rey would be just about elligible in that case, same thing happened with Bruno Mars last year thats a rather good article, certainly brings about the weaknesses of the current brits Edited February 22, 201213 yr by C.W
February 22, 201213 yr ^ Have to say i was rather surprised to see that too as she only had Video Games released before the nominations - she could have won it next year instead? Yes, and Best International Female too.
February 22, 201213 yr The article didn't mention the two people who blocked the camera view of James Cordon (some would say that is a good thing). It said "otherwise slickly run" where as that wasn't the case, entirely. Edited February 22, 201213 yr by tonyttt31
February 22, 201213 yr Agree with most of that review - the BRITs are nothing but music snobbery gone mad and they need to go away ... NOW.
February 22, 201213 yr Apart from the Lana Del Rey award, the Olly Murs performance and the cutting short of Adele's 2nd acceptance speech, not a bad job.
Create an account or sign in to comment