The 2005 Brit Awards were their usual combination of drunk, daft pop singers, pseudo-goth guitarists and drummers who spent much of the night in the toilet. But there were some piquant differences this year. Of the seventeen awards given, eleven went to bands and performers for debut albums. Through all the talk of decline and retro redundancy, music is changing. It is renewing. Something big is about to happen. We are – after a decade of disappointment – hearing new and challenging popular music.
While the brilliance of the new was being rewarded, the old was being respected, or so it appeared. BBC Radio 2 listeners voted for the best song of the last twenty five years. The palette of performers from which to choose was odd enough: the Pop Idol winner Will Young, Queen, Kate Bush, Robbie Williams and Joy Division. The omissions were odd: where were The Smiths, New Order, The Stone Roses (Waterfall anyone?), The Happy Mondays or Oasis’s Wonderwall?
