The Brits are essential viewing
Last week, I did something I have done almost religiously since the days when Sam Fox was a big deal, and tuned in to watch the Brit Awards. For those of you who only ever indulge in the spoken whimsy of Radio 4, the Brits are a raucous celebration of the best music that this country - not to mention the rest of the world - has to offer.
Even though I own underpants that are older than many of the impossibly cool artists in the auditorium, it remains essential viewing in our house after all these years.
These days, the Brits are a serious affair and much slicker than its early years of the eighties, during which the aforementioned Ms Fox hosted the ceremony alongside the bona fide music icon Mick Fleetwood; unwittingly going down as the least successful double act in history. Now, the ceremony is a genuine cultural event and if people still went into offices, it is a fair bet they’d be standing next to the water cooler discussing it the following day.
Perhaps understandably, the older I get, the less likely it is that I have heard of the latest big thing, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to learn what the kids of today are listening to. This particular curiosity drives my 12 year old mad and she takes particular exception to my persistent questions about what she listens to.
One surefire way of putting a pre-teen off a particular track or artist is their uncool old man daring to suggest that he likes what they are listening to.
It has taken me some time, but I have learned not to bang on about music that I think she might like because that recommendation is guaranteed to fall on deaf ears. I have had some success, however, as our vinyl loving girl proudly owns the classic Stone Roses album as well as a Joy Division LP.
Another thing I have finally learned is I am not sure whether there is a particular genre of music that I’m especially partial to. Yes, I have a real fondness for much of what was churned out by bands from Manchester with funny haircuts between 1985 and 1995, but I also occasionally lose myself in a bit of techno before switching to country and western.
It all depends on what mood I am in; the Chemical Brothers helped me bash out
500 words of half decent copy in double quick time the other day while Al Green is guaranteed to bring a bit of calmness to the Tapp household.
I have never belonged to a particular musical tribe and I like to think there is a genuine unpredictability about my tastes.
Last week I took a dive into research conducted by a Cambridge academic which showed links between the most common personality traits and the tunes we listen to. Apparently extroverts like me are likely to listen to Ed Sheeran. Nope. Then there was the suggestion that neurotic types are likely to worry the night away listening to Nirvana, which is of course another sweeping generalisation. Some of the most laid back characters I’ve ever met have turned out to be the biggest metal heads going while I have met geezers that you’d cross postcodes to avoid who have a penchant for Rod Stewart.
I think if you were to ask a cross section of society to name something that sustained them through the grim depths of lockdown it would be pretty certain that music would feature highly.
Although I’m not sure how much I will be listening to Adele or Dave, the Brits have given me a timely nudge to dig out new music.