With the levels of coverage given to nominees of the Mercury Prize, surely it wouldn’t be wrong to expect genuine excitement immediately ahead of the shortlist announcement? Such an expectation would be wrong. Mild cynicism and general apathy towards the Mercury Prize prevailed and was ultimately vindicated this year by the revealing of the safest shortlist yet. Not necessarily a bad collection of artists and albums, but a wholly predictable one. But does this indicate that Britain’s new music scene is dwindling and in decline?
Billed as Britain’s premier music prize, it makes little sense at all for the shortlist to be quite so predictable. The best of new music surely can’t be pigeonholed and predicted quite so easily? Ben Howard, soulful singer-songwriter, neatly fits into the slot usually occupied by folk songstress Laura Marling, with Michael Kiwanuka following him onto the shortlist on similar grounds, despite neither having produced a particularly exceptional record, but both having achieved some commercial success.
Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave and Jessie Ware’s Devotion, two of the more critically acclaimed nominations and quite possible the frontrunners for the prize itself are representative of exactly what’s wrong with this year’s shortlist. Despite both being noteworthy records individually and drawing upon different genres to craft fairly unique sounds, both could sit neatly side by side as part of a post-dinner party playlist without a single eyebrow being raised.
The descent of new music into an easily palatable collection of sounds is disturbing. However, it would only be worrying if that actually were the case. Does the Mercury Prize shortlist accurately portray the state of new British music? Is it any real coincidence that many smaller artists are routinely overlooked, when in order to be considered for a nomination for the Mercury Prize, a fairly substantial application fee is required?
The billed status of the Mercury Prize as representing the best of British music is clearly inappropriate given the barriers of entry which require less established artists to take a significant financial risk. Small artists could effectively be gambling away their entry fee in hope of a nomination, and given the increasing disillusioned reaction to the annual shortlist, why would some artists even bother?
The shortlist this year is not particularly exciting, but this does not mean that British new music is not. The connection between being willing to pay for a Mercury Prize entry and being an artist who has produced interesting music does not exist. Scaremongering over the state of new music on the basis of this particular shortlist is misguided and misleading. In order to be able to comment fully on British music at present, more is required than a swift survey of this sole sketchy shortlist.
Rishi Modha 