Independent Music Podcast #30 20/12/10
Independent Music Podcast #30 20/12/10 by Independent Music Podcast on Mixcloud
#kill6music - a Gareth rant
No music first thing this morning from me, I want to use the time to have a brief rant about BBC 6 Music’s ‘Primal Scream week’ which has been promoted across all BBC stations this morning (including non-music station Radio 5).
It’s a widely-held myth that 6 Music is the home of independent music on mainstream radio, and now they are being incredibly blatant about it. Primal Scream – currently signed to Warner imprint B-Unique, and full time major label artist since Creation was sold to Sony in 1992 (that’s 18 years ago) – are not the type of band people clamouring to save 6 Music a matter of months ago were in it to shout about. They don’t need the radio play, they aren’t a struggling small artist that won’t be played by commercial and more mainstream stations and they are not on a label that desperately needs exposure.
So why do it? The point of the BBC is to educate, inform and entertain. The remit of 6 Music is to ‘offer an alternative to the mainstream’. The whole reason for BBC services to exist is to provide a service to people who can’t get it elsewhere. You can access Primal Scream’s music on other radio stations, and there must be some music service somewhere you can listen to Screamadelica again for free if you’re feeling nostalgic.
The current 6 Music A playlist includes records from four major record labels and four of the biggest indies (Beggars, Domino, Warp, PIAS). The B playlist includes such new and alternative acts such as Manic Street Preachers, Kings of Leon, Gorillaz, Interpol and The Coral. It’s true that 6 Music does cover independent artists more than the likes of Radio 1, but where are the seriously new and alternative acts that people keep claiming 6 Music promotes? Why isn’t weird, challenging and interesting music of the like Stuart Maconie always promotes in the daytime schedules? Why does 6 Music constantly play it safe with bands who were popular five, ten or twenty years ago? I don’t think Nick Cave or the US Billboard Chart topping Vampire Weekend really qualify for hourly play on an ‘alternative’ station. Why can’t we slay the airwaves with ultra-independent labels that promote interesting new and different music?
For me, it’s pathetic. A station like 6 Music should have no playlist, it should hire DJs who play the music they find interesting rather than dictating which artists get a play. For a station essentially formed in the spirit of John Peel, they should be taking the great man’s style to heart – allowing their DJs to champion what they want, intersperse it with what they’re listening to at the moment, and you’ll inevitably attract an audience that wasn’t catered for before.
Of course, this is just my point of view, Anthony is probably disagreeing with all of this after Tristram got a play in the daytime schedules on 6 Music yesterday. So to finish, here is some music. It is Half Man Half Biscuit’s ‘Joy Division Oven Gloves’, which was used to champion the Save 6 Music campaign. Although not a new band, HMHB aren’t going to get played on any other station anytime soon. They’re very independent, and always have been. This is the type of interesting, alternative band 6 Music should be promoting (and the type of band me and Anthony try to promote on the podcast). In the meantime, 6 Music needs to have a serious look at itself; otherwise it needs another review, and another threat of closure.
Gareth Main
The BBC have responded to this article.
