Music on TV - are we failing?
"TV is in danger of ceding to the internet as the place where new talent is found" according to Secretary of State Andy Burnham, and reported on BBC News (and elsewhere). It doesn't make sense to think of TV and the web in opposition - they complement each other. The great thing about the internet is how easy it makes it to search things out and make connections. Until now programmes have been broadcast and then vanished, with the exception of those rare shows that were released on DVD or repeated before midnight. In the past when I saw something I really liked on television I had no way of sharing it with my friends - now I just point them in the way of the iPlayer or 4OD. From a programme maker and a viewer's point of view this is a massive improvement, and there's no way of putting the internet back in its box.
When Andy Burnham asks "Where is the successor programme to Top of the Pops bringing the family together to discuss new music?" this rather assumes that families would sit down together in 2008 to watch an eclectic music programme in peak time. Communal viewing isn't dead, but it's definitely changed from the heyday of TOTP.
There's lots of new music on TV, whether it's covered on Later, Sound or The Culture Show - you can just choose whether you want to watch it while it's on telly or at 6pm the following day. There are also additional avenues like BBC Introducing, which showcases new music from BBC Radio and festivals around the country.
Here's a new band we featured on the last series of The Culture Show, Wild Beasts - you can still watch their performance of The Devil's Crayon today and will still be able to do so in six months. That's got to be some sort of progress!
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~41~RS~)
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I was just writing to tell you of a project I am involved in that may be of interest to you, it's a project called Bandstand Busking (www.bandstandbusking.com). We get bands that we like, up and coming and new and record them singing and playing acoustic sessions around bandstand in London and beyond. Its really interesting to see and hear the bands preforming their work acoustically outside in settings, which in our opinion are not used enough and in some cases very run down. Its not quite music on TV, but it is hopefully giving people an opportunity to see more live music.
Our last session was with "Of Montreal", playing 3 songs of their new album, they had never played the songs acoustically so was really interesting to see them work out the best way to make it sound good, and believe me it sounds great, please come and check it out. We also had "Wild Beasts" playing one of our first shows, and they were excellent
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