'Two Fingers' Ra Ra Ra

Jake Bugg sold 35,785 copies of his eponymous debut album to make Number One this week. Well done Jake Bugg. Meanwhile, Leona Lewis' third album 'Glassheart' could only manage Number Three, with sales of 27,642.

But oh no! Bugg has said this, apparently (NME.com give no source in their 'report'):

"I guess it proves my point – people still want to hear guitar music. It’s my job to keep that X Factor shit off the top of the charts."

Maybe he should be cut some slack - he's just completed a fantastic moral victory for under-appreciated, under-exposed something blah blah, after all. Simon Cowell acts like Leona have had a monopoly on the charts and radio since he invented Pop Idol - it's about time he got what was coming to him!

So with that dominance in mind, let's see just how Radio 1, the nation's favourite radio station, have 'supported' the unadulterated, real music of Bugg this year compared to Lucifer-powered X Factor hellchild Leona's. (Not that it means much to look at just this one avenue of promotion, but make of it whatever you will alright.)

Jake Bugg
68 plays on BBC Radio 1 in the past 28 days as recorded by comparemyradio.com
Tracks from the album 'Jake Bugg' played 192 times on BBC Radio 1 this year as recorded by their last.fm page (eight of its fourteen songs at least once)

Leona Lewis
37 plays on BBC Radio 1 in the past 28 days as recorded by comparemyradio.com
Tracks from the album 'Glassheart' played 44 times on BBC Radio 1 this year as recorded by their last.fm page (all 'Trouble')

27,000 copies for Leona Lewis isn't really very good, but on that showing 36,000 for Jake Bugg probably isn't either. But anyway, yeah. Rock and indeed roll.

On The Radio One Playlist Right Now

Lostprophets on the A List and Newton Faulkner on the B List. It's what The Kids want to hear!!!

Also on the B List are Santigold, The Gaslight Anthem and Young Guns, while the C List features Kasabian and Lianne La Havas.

Presumably Radio 1's reliance on these type of acts - ie ones that not many young people really want to hear - is due in part to the unique way the BBC is funded. They have quotas to fill, having to prove as part of their remit that what they do isn't being and couldn't be done by a commercial rival. To their credit, they consistently achieve this, through their attempts at producing 'engaging' and 'exciting' 'online content', and the continued employment of Fearne Cotton. But at the same time, also because of the unique way the BBC is funded, they are obliged to ensure that the average age of their listeners falls somewhere between 15 and 29. Last year, some people made a bit of a brouhaha over reports that the figure they were actually pulling in was 32*. One man, a Radio One historian, said this: "there's a difference between what young people want and what hip people think they should want". So that's interesting.

In all likelihood even without the contradictory constraints of having to be 'unique' (playing Ben Howard and The Ting Tings) and attracting a young audience, the playlist would be much the same. If anything the people behind it would be quicker to drop Cheryl than Enter Shikari, because they probably do think their misguided and outdated hipster training school schtick is somehow cutting edge. But it's still a shame that it has to be like this.

Still, at least there's always an alternative in Capital.

:(

*It probably doesn't help that people under the age of 15 aren't included in official ratings, but there we go.

Let's Have A Look At What Songs Are Being Played On The Radio At The Moment

Not that you didn't know already, but there's a thing on the internet called Compare My Radio. What it does is collect all the plays of songs that radio stations across the UK have made in the past 30 days and puts them into charts for the sort of people who like that sort of thing. Let's have a look at what it says at the moment.

Synchronicity!

All of Azealia's plays were, unsurprisingly, for '212'. It's some radio edit. But what of the yet to be released and seemingly hoped to be forgotten 'Shady Love' with the Scissor Sisters? Well that's had just one play in the last month. Oh well.

'Interesting'!

Madonna's first single from 'MDNA', 'Give Me All Your Luvin'', is only her seventh most played song on UK radio in the past month. Admittedly there are a few other versions of it with alternate names further down that take its tally ahead of some of the Top 6 but we can gloss over that. One of those in the Top 6 is a new song however, 'Masterpiece', which is also in the UK Airplay Chart Top 40. Funny that, because it's better. A glance further down the Compare My Radio list will show that second single 'Girl Gone Wild' is nowhere to be seen at all. Again, 'funny'.

Political!

It may have only been around for less than a month but it looks like the only people currently prepared to play 'iLL Manors' are the apolitical BBC. It's a shame, because it's an important song. For once we have a multi-platinum popstar talking about some of The Things That Matter in a very considered way. It's a brilliantly incisive, insightful and coherent record presented as an angry-at-the-world, stream of conscious diatribe that only needs to be held against the assorted efforts of Barlow and co for it to be obvious just how much it's been lacking. Mainstream musicians don't seem to have much to say for themselves these days, even if some think they do; Plan B is a much needed exception. This would make for a very exciting - and possibly - sound the hyperbole siren - iconic Number One single.




Nostalgic!






As far as songs about music go, Saint Etienne's new single 'Tonight' is up there with the best. Detailed ruminations on it are available on request, but one of the main things to be taken away from it is its incredible wistfulness, especially the "wish it could always feel this way, and life would never be the same" line that couldn't be any more poignant: you don't necessarily realise it while you're living it, but pop is a moment in time. (Not that pop ever actually ends, but you get the idea.) Unfortunately radio stations have decided that it's just TOO amazing to be played regularly, and as such have rationed it to only six plays in the last month. A wise decision, you'll surely agree.

A Song Hasn't Been Added To The Radio 1 Playlist

And that song is Madonna's 'Give Me All Your Luvin''.

This is what is going to happen next:

• The mainstream media will pick up on it.
• Mail Online will run a piece questioning whether Madonna has 'lost it'. It will feature sexist overtones, 600x800 pixel photos of her 'veiny arms' and 100 sniping comments from the likes of 'Barry, Ex-Pat in Spain'.
• The Guardian will run a counter-piece asking if this has anything to do with ageism and more specifically sexism - Brian May and Mick Jagger are currently on the A List, so why hasn't Madonna been added? Her last two comeback singles went straight to the A List after all, and that's quite a rare occurrence. It will also have a dig at the Mail article. Comments will flood in complaining that 'The Guardian should only cover stories on real musicians, like Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin'. Or something.
• A Radio 1 spokesman will offer up a line about 'demographics'.
• Mail Online will realise that a) they don't like the BBC and b) ageism aimed at females is, bizarrely enough, one of the sticks they've used to beat them with in recent times. Then they will experience cognitive dissonance when remembering that c) they don't like Madonna either, before settling on their original editorial stance.
• The Guardian will then run another, more light-hearted piece, listing other occasions on which Radio 1 has 'snubbed' older artists. 
• Some people will suggest that maybe it wasn't added because 'it isn't very good'.
• Cliff will chime in.
• It will be discussed on Loose Women.
• Radio 1 will add it to their playlist next Wednesday.