How the boy next door conquered pop
Ed Sheeran, un chanteur pop « ordinaire » qui a conquis les charts.
On n’arrête plus Ed Sheeran. À 27 ans, le chanteur anglais pulvérise tous les records. Divide, son dernier album, a été le plus vendu au monde en 2017 et sa tournée mondiale actuelle la plus lucrative de 2018. Tout autant que sa musique, c’est son côté « anti-star » qui semble séduire ses fans. Mais, dans le monde de la pop, attention aux nouveaux prétendants !
It was the year the boy next door learned to roar. Ed Sheeran, that superstar in a flannel shirt, left the Rolling Stones and U2 coughing on fumes as his Divide tour soared to a record-shattering gross of £378m. George Ezra graduated from floppy-haired debutante to bona fide superstar, his “Shotgun” single owning the airwaves and becoming the most streamed rock song on Spotify in the UK.
2. As 2018 ended, meanwhile, a new contender looked set to emerge in Elton John-championed Newcastle troubadour Sam Fender. He was winner of both the Brits Critics’ Choice Award and the BBC Sound Of prize – reliable barome- ters of talent poised for imminent stardom (previous BBC Sound Of picks include Adele and Sam Smith). He will face stern competition, however. Kindred strummers Dermot Kennedy and Lewis Capaldi are also tipped to break big in the months ahead, each bringing their own blend of soulful lyrics and sensitive falsettos. The boys are back with a vengeance.
“NICE”, THE NEW ROCK’N’ROLL
3. None of these artists are soundalikes, exactly. But they do have a great deal in common. For starters, they have a grounding in the old-fashioned art of standing alone on stage with a guitar and crooning their hearts out. Imagewise, moreover, all of them could have dropped from the same production line. With his tatty T-shirts and high-street jeans, Sheeran has pioneered the lad-from-up-the-road look. In the past 12 months, however, he was pushed hard by 25-year-old Ezra and his gap-year backpacker chic. Sheeran might shoulder the hopes of the UK record industry but it’s a stretch to imagine teenagers gazing starry-eyed at his poster on their bedroom wall.
4. Nor does George Ezra exude lock-up-your-daughters mystique. Leave your daughter alone with George Ezra and you’d probably return to find him helping her with her homework. These stars are unassuming and down to earth – devoid of guitar music’s untrammelled rawness. They are strikingly desexualised. In other words, “nice” is the new rock ’n roll.
ED SHEERAN’S BEGINNINGS
5. “All music tends to have its phases,“says Amy Wadge, the Wales-based songwriter who coauthored some of Ed Sheeran’s biggest hits, including the 2014 number one “Thinking Out Loud”. ”We’ve had Britpop and the dominance of the bands for quite an amount of time. The boy with the guitar has always been there but Ed has probably blazed a trail. That has opened the floodgates. My theory is that because of the internet the easiest way to deliver a song is to sit in front of a webcam with just a guitar and a voice. That is the simplest approach and seems to be connecting with people.”
6. Sheeran, whose 2010 debut EP Songs I Wrote With Amy consisted of five tracks composed collaboratively with Wadge, has been upfront that relatability is central to his appeal. When I interviewed him in 2011 as he was on the cusp of stardom, he was very clear that building his following one fan at a time via YouTube had created a unique connection. “I can make a video for no money, put it on YouTube, tell fans about it on Twitter and Facebook,” he said. “As long as your fans stick with you, what everyone else thinks doesn’t matter. That’s the best way to be. You have longevity. Atlantic could drop me tomorrow – I’ve still got the fanbase that got me here.”
7. “As Ed would say himself,“says Wadge, ”his charm is that, although he has this extraordinary talent, he looks like the guy next door. In all our years he has never dressed differently. Back in the day our pop stars were presented to us in a certain way. That has changed with reality TV. People want to see someone they feel they know. That works so well for Ed.”
COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
8. Commercially, the boys of strummer have gone where few singer-songwriters have previously ventured. Sheeran’s Divide tour holds the record for highest grossing run of dates in a calendar year, knocking the previous champion, The U2’s Joshua Tree concerts, into a cocked beanie-hat. The 2017 album itself (styled “÷”) moved 672, 000 units in its first seven days in the UK – the third highest total in chart history and extraordinary in our age of flatlined record sales.
9. Ezra, for his part, clocked up the fastest-selling long player of 2018 with Staying at Tamara’s. Even “lesser” boy troubadours have enjoyed a blockbuster rise. James Bay’s debut album, Chaos and the Calm, debuted at number one. And despite a zero-star review from the NME – prompting his dad to ring up to complain – Tom Odell’s first record likewise topped the charts.
10. One unavoidable fact is that all of these artists are male. Where is the female Ed Sheeran? Why no Georgina Ezra? What does it say about the record industry – and the music-streaming public – that we can take these sloppy-grinned troubadours to our hearts while finding no room at the inn for the female equivalent?
People want to see someone they feel they know.