Some social media comments aren't very positive to say the least!

 

One person complaining on Instagram had a Newsbeat journalist reply saying 'hey! I work for Radio 1 newsbeat. Can I DM you about this?' - so looks like Radio 1 might be covering themselves on Newsbeat later. :lol:

Chappell's obviously a great artist but it is a real shame to see her win this as she does not need the promo at all unlike the other less-known nominees. Though this does mean my station will be playing her a lot more as our playlist is extremely similar to Radio 1's so I'll take it :lol: Maybe they'll change the rules again so that you can't have more than 1 top ten single?

Feels like they do this so down the line they can claim to be behind some of her "rise" to stardom.

While I don’t doubt Chappell could have an even bigger year if a new album drops, she already has a platinum selling album. Clearly the album success should have disqualified her from this, even with her having only two top 10 singles to date (though I think it is fair to call RWS and PPC big hits even without top 10 chart positions). After a poor year for British music success, they should have given this to a UK artist that would benefit from the added exposure (e.g. JADE).

I don’t think giving the win (or recognition) to an ex girlband member, who has had multiple #1s with said girlband, would be much less egregious :lol:

 

This win is ridiculous though. I can somewhat overlook the inclusion of Chappell in the first place, albeit with a huge eye roll, but to actually make her the winner as if she isn’t already huge just feels like it defeats the whole point. And, yes, I’m aware the industry has changed with streaming so that things are different to the early 2010s etc, but even Barry Can’t Swim and Doechii (whilst already having some notoriety) hasn’t had any top 10s in either field, so a mild argument could be made in their case to allow this list to still feel like it has some semblance of a point.

Oh for God's sake, you can't be serious! :lol:

 

They've actually done it 🤦‍♂️

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/ch...d-b1204023.html

 

Aaaand the thinkpieces have begun :lol:

She gonna have such a massive 2025 that here 2024 success will be tiny maybe :P

I have to agree with the sentiments here, it’s not an an attack on Chappell I love her as much as anyone, RWS was in my top 20 songs of 2023, but if the BBC wanted to support her early career they should have had her on the 2024 list. Plenty of other publications had ‘The Rise and Fall.. ‘ on their best of lists for the end of ‘23 so they should have been aware of her. By using the excuse that streaming means careers develop differently now as an excuse to choose acts that are already very successful commercially and critically, it seems like they don’t trust their own judgment and so go for the safe option with no risk of them being proven wrong or looking stupid. ‘Better to have tried and failed than never tried at all’ and all that.

I also feel the BBC should at least have some leanings towards British artists, especially when they are struggling in so many ways at the moment. The Last Dinner Party winning last year was great but this whole list, to be truthful, seems a step back

It's ironic in clearly trying so hard to stay relevant, they've made themselves look even less relevant. Had it been almost anyone else on the list (Maybe Mercury winners aside), it may have raised their profile enough to get more people interested, break a barrier that they hadn't yet like a top 10 hit. In choosing someone that's already had huge sales, award nominations and getting to be a household name, what exactly are they promoting here? She will get plenty of recognition in the upcoming Grammy and Brit awards. That is not and has never been the purpose of the award.

 

The Last Dinner Party were a bit obvious, but still reaped the benefits of the award and were fitting as 2024 felt like their big breakthrough year. Chappell has already reaped any possible benefits of what this could bring, except maybe not a Glastonbury slot. Bizarre decision and I hope they get a lot of backlash so they don't continue down this route, or they might as well rebrand the award.

All very valid points, as was the previous post! Hopefully the backlash will have a weird effect and boost her further while people check out the acts like Mkgee and kneecap as a result. That’s ultimately what the shortlist should be about regardless of who they set as their winner, otherwise it shows how lazy the UK public are in discovering new music! But I agree Radio 1 have made a misstep here!

Hahaha oh dear. What a massively disingenuous decision by BBC. Love Chappell, but if she makes the Sound Of... shortlist, never mind winning it, then the purpose of the award has changed so much since it's origins that they should rename it.

I was going to ask "Where's Lola Young?" but didn't remember she was already 4th in Sound of 2022. At least they were ahead of the curve there, I suppose!

The way people respond to these sorts of things has the unfortunate side effect of justifying it. As has been said before, years down the track, the average person isn't going to remember the specific timeline and how that affects the rationale of the selection. On the other hand, if you make a dud pick that goes nowhere, that will get parroted. You're more likely to hear someone laugh at the GRAMMYs for giving Best New Artist to A Taste Of Honey or Marc Cohn, rather than the fact that Bon Iver won it 4 and a half years after "For Emma..." came out.

 

Tastemakers get more kudos for parroting consensus mainstream opinions than actually being tastemakers.

Aren’t there rules about eligibility criteria? Chappell deservedly had an amazing 2024 but putting her on an upcoming 2025 list feels incredibly disingenuous after she’s had multiple hits and a #1 album.

They seemingly relaxed the eligibility criteria just enough to allow her to be included as she’s only got one album and two top ten hits

If the (original) idea of the award was to give a boost to less successful/new artists (which I think was a very noble pursuit) then the BBC are now just hedging their bets. There’s already Brit awards for best international/newcomer isn’t there? The artists they chose, particularly the top 5 which they, and therefore the public, focus on with the countdown this week, include not only Chappell and all her success but 2 Mercury Prize winners plus an artist with a million ‘selling’ top 5 single. I can understand choosing Kneecap, Doechii and Mk.Gee in that context but they should probably have been in the top 5 instead. I feel one of the biggest sins an artist can make is playing safe, but that’s just what the BBC are now doing with this, and ironically the thing I admire about Chappell as an artist is her risk taking.

 

Anyway she just needs to get ‘The Giver’ released, watch it shoot straight to number one and the BBC can take all the credit for discovering her!😂.

And I still maintain that song could have been Christmas number one with an early December/late November release, having seen how close Gracie came to managing it🤷. Maybe/hopefully someone will be brave enough to go for it next year?!

 

 

The way people respond to these sorts of things has the unfortunate side effect of justifying it. As has been said before, years down the track, the average person isn't going to remember the specific timeline and how that affects the rationale of the selection. On the other hand, if you make a dud pick that goes nowhere, that will get parroted. You're more likely to hear someone laugh at the GRAMMYs for giving Best New Artist to A Taste Of Honey or Marc Cohn, rather than the fact that Bon Iver won it 4 and a half years after "For Emma..." came out.

 

Tastemakers get more kudos for parroting consensus mainstream opinions than actually being tastemakers.

 

Very true that being a tastemaker doesn't get the right incentives from music commentary - always thought that every year the BBC gets it wrong and the winner ends up doing nothing significant commercially (even if in most cases they still get critical acclaim) leads to people criticising the poll as irrelevant - and that's the case with a lot of the recent winners.

 

Problem of it being a poll that's associated with success as opposed to being an award - Mercury Prize or BRITs can just give it to whichever act and album is the best from their point of view - and that the mainstream that would be considered success is just really hard to break into from any act that is outside the norm, hence why lots of the recent winners ended up 'flopping', they were never going to be mainstream popular. I can see why they did it and it'll probably pay off for them more in the long run - next year they can say 'Chappell Roan won it last year' and that's the prestige there.

I understand the argument there (I alluded to it in my own post) but if that's really such a grave concern for them then it just feels like the point of the award has been so compromised to the point where it's time for it to end or at least rebrand. Maybe it should just be left as a shortlist rather than proclaiming a single winner so they can have it both ways (although I realise that would be less of a prestigious selling point for marketing purposes etc.)

 

(Also in fairness I do still see people bringing up the Bon Iver thing from time to time, but then the Grammys are their own whole category of farce)

I understand that perspective, but it's still a hollow victory as I just don't see how Chappell can be much bigger than she already is, she was one of the reported about popstars of 2024 and most of the audience they're aiming for already knows that. I mean yeah she'll get more hits, maybe a number 1, festival slots, maybe another album etc. (and I will openly hold my hands up if I'm wrong) but it's hard to see how 2025 will be seen as her ultimate breakthrough.