Burnin' For You... Thoughts on Music 2010

Things are looking interesting on the music front once again.

The big UK festivals have for the most part announced their headline acts, and they are a hard-hitting collection, but as is customary 'Festival Republic' has not. This means that those for Leeds/Reading and Latitude 2010 are as yet unknown. The same, as far as I am aware, also goes for the 2010 'V Festivals'. The why and when of this does not overly concern me; the main stage headliners for Latitude 2010 will no doubt be revealed on the day that the tickets go on sale - 9 March 2010. I went last year and had a fantastic time but I didn't bother with any of them... The acts on other stages, and those lower on the main stage playing order, held plenty of promise and that was of more interest to me.

It is the 'Award Season': the NME awards are taking place in London as I write and they are in general messier than events such as last week's 'Brits' but no less worthy. I have found it tempting to start a 'wants lists' of bands I would like to see this summer and needless to say it is already a long one that includes all manner of currently less well known acts. That is what interests me and it has served me well this last two years...

The really interesting thing that takes place in the forthcoming weeks is SXSW and it can have a considerable influence.

I'm not making predictions; who am I to do that? I do however have some ideas about the artists, or genre of artists, I expect to see.

I like it like this.

'Brits 2010' - Some first thoughts

Well, a few days later, I have to say that the 'Brits 2010' was in my opinion much better than for some time. I say that for two reasons: firstly it was well presented and an all-round good production but more importantly, and even if I don't like them, the winners were the deserving ones.

I'm not really of the JLS generation but they deserved a 'Brit'. Lady GaGa got what she got, not just to remind the UK that it isn't the centre of the world and music is no exception, simply on merit. In the same category of merit were Florence and The Machine and Dizzee Rascal so it is not that Britain lacks talent, far from it, and their duet was quite something. That brings me on to N'Dubz - who could have imagined this of UK hip-hop just a couple of years ago?

Summary: brilliant.

It all reminded me of this album from 2001 in some ways...

New York, white, female, hip-hop and, like Madonna and GaGa of Italian heritage, Concetta Kirschner is recognisable as an icon of the genre and she is still busy, with a new album soon. In the meantime 'Life Is But A Dream' is available on 7" now...

Forecast: expect more surprises in 2010. The nominees for the 2011 'Brits' could be very interesting indeed.