Sound of 2009 and Marketing

Yesterday I mentioned this article on Drowned In Sound which bemoaned the marketing techniques of record labels and the pressure they put on new acts. The premise was that aiming to get new bands hyped onto start of year tip lists such as BBC’s Sound of 2009, means that bands are forced to deliver new songs to a strict calendar that isn’t conducive to making great art. Also, that failure to deliver on the promise of these tips within the first 12 months means artists don’t get time to develop any more.

Historically these lists are pretty meaningless in the scheme of things and are inevitably from the school of throwing enough shit at a wall and some of it sticking. But certainly with this and last year’s BBC poll there is a stronger bit of method to the madness, with last year's having a pretty successful hit rate. It probably helps that the BBC have tapped into the grassroots music enthusiasts rather than just rely on who are the labels’ priorities. Looking at the 2008 list you can see that when they have tripped up, it's because they’ve bought into the crap coming from the labels (Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong) or they’ve got sucked into the miasma of blog hype for artists with little to back it up (Cajun Dance Party, Black Kids).

Where they were successful is with either acts that had already been in development for a while (Adele, Duffy, Santogold) or with acts who’s albums they would already have heard by the time the list was put together (Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Alphabeat, Black Mountain, Lil Wayne). It can certainly be argued that Joe Lean and Black Kids weren’t given enough time to develop, but you can’t really imagine all the development time in the world helping Joe Lean, can you?

Of the others, have any of them really suffered from unrealistic release schedules? Not really, because they nearly all had the albums in the can already. So it seems a bit unfair to be hating on the marketing departments so much when they look like they’ve pretty much played it just right for most of the 2008 list. Even Foals had the chance to redo their album after not liking the David Sitek produced version.

So looking at the top 5 of this year’s list how will they fare? While White Lies have won the sprint with their solid debut 'To Lose My Life...' going straight in at No.1 in the album charts, judging by the amount and quality of stuff she’s already put out on the web, poll topper Little Boots has to be the favourite for a truly great debut in 2009. I don’t really care for Florence and The Machine, so I’m hoping that she might be the Joe Lean of 2009, but I suspect she’s probably this year’s Bat For Lashes - contrived, average but inexplicably nominated for the Mercury prize.
Empire Of The Sun are the opposite in that I’d love them to be this year’s MGMT, but they’ll probably be the Black Mountain (great overlooked album of the year). La Roux I’m still unsure about. Their combination of low key indie club dates and touring with Lily Allen could be just the right thing to break them but they might be just too pop and Elly could just be a little too young and inexperienced to pull it off.

Certainly the lack of landfill indie on the list is to be applauded and here’s hoping that the retro 80s electro vibe will see Ladyhawke album becomes the sleeper hit of 2009.