No matter how much – or little - music is on TV some will
always have an objection to it. The objections may vary from the style to the
quantity or even the delivery but all they really do is support the adage: you
can’t please all of the people all of the time. Music TV has to hit some common
denominators and try to satisfy some of the people most of the time. TV is the
vehicle delivering content to the masses who, by their number, are not likely
to share the same tastes.
The process for selecting acts for Jools’ Later must be a tough one given that it is arguably the most important music
programme in the UK
on any medium. It wasn't always this way. Before the fracturing of tastes and
the severance of ties to what we now call ‘appointment to view’ TV there was
Top Of The Pops. TOTP had fewer issues of selectivity and snobbery since its
function was to reflect the most popular songs in the country at that time
relying on the sole form of measurement available, the singles chart. The chart
was a measurement of popularity reflecting six or seven-day sales of physical
format recordings, or records to you and me. I put this explanation in only for my own
amusement.
A documentary, clip-show, at the weekend reminded me of what a bizarre musical world we used
to inhabit. It took as its base the year 1979 since this was when TOTP hit its
highest ever viewing figures. This was due to a variety of factors including
one of the three available TV channels being unavailable due to strike action.
It was also the year when the UK
was recording the highest ever sales of singles and what an odd range they
were. The mish-mash of styles reflected competing trends in the UK from disco
to punk and its sub-genre or variant ‘new wave’, this contributed to a vibrant era for music but it also threw up some oddities
that are no longer visible (or viable?) today.
It is obvious that the age-range and tastes of the singles
buyer was vast and varied. Thus The Skids and The Members would appear
alongside The Dooleys and The Nolans, post-punk clashing
with variety-format family-entertainment, gob in the air vs chicken in a
basket. It’s a vibrant reminder of why TOTP could often be so frustrating,
easily earning an ‘uncool’ reputation through having to deliver a ridiculous
variety of music in a garish TV studio surrounding with Smashie and Nicey style hosts. It is worth remembering of course the dominance of Radio 1 from
whence such hosts were culled and their vast popularity at the time. For all
the sneering and satire the music industry would kill to have those times
return.
Somewhere in the last three decades we have lost both the
quantity and the diversity of a music-buying audience. It might be easy to
attach a link between the demise of TOTP and the disappearance of this crowd
but the fault lines emerged somewhere in that interim period, perhaps the
industry was trying too hard to keep up with the cool.
These days the TOTP
replacement is not ‘Later’, broadcasting to a niche audience on a secondary
station at an inconvenient time, it is The X Factor and Britain ’s Got
Talent. This is where the mass market lives and it is watched by the same
audience – adults with their children – that TOTP once dominated. That these shows do not produce more stars –
One Direction and Susan Boyle not withstanding – is perhaps somewhat worrying.
The middle ground has gone to ground and perhaps found other interests, the
music market is fractured but possibly not broken and The Dooleys have
disappeared. We might mourn these things more than we ever thought we should.
Comments