The music industry is a fickle, fickle thing. I think we can all universally agree on that. Trying to predict what might be big a year from now is almost inevitably a fool’s errand. I mean who could have foreseen the dizzying drops of dubstep that would be thrown into the limelight in 2012? Who could have hazarded a guess that a shaven-headed, next-to-silent DJ with geek glasses would become one of the biggest names in the music industry? I’m looking at you, Skirllex. And, even more stunning, who could possibly have known that this half-bald hipster would wind up dating the lovely Ellie Goulding? But I digress. My main point is that it’s incredibly difficult to guess who and what is going to be dominating the scene this time next year. But we’d all secretly love to gaze into our crystal balls and know what was going to be happening over the next twelve months, to predict what we’ll be going mad over and what unfortunate acts we’ll have completely forgotten. Well, fear no more, as we’ve put together a vaguely definitive list of our predictions for the next year in music. Only time will tell if we’re right, and by then you’ll have probably forgotten anyway. Because you’re a fickle creature too. See how I made that come round full circle? Anyway, on with the predictions…
Prediction One: Manic Street Preachers are Back, Baby
After years of fighting off the image of a band simply trying to hold it together after the disappearance of the main talent (rest in piece, Richey), it looks like people might finally be taking the Manics seriously again with the release of their latest album, Futurology. With critical success combined with a warm reception from their fans, they couldn’t really have asked for more. They’ve both managed to buck their old clichés while staying true to their roots, and people are loving it. The time is right for an angst comeback, and who better to lead it than the MSP? They’ve got hundreds of fans both old and new who are desperate to see them take the world stage by storm again. My predictions? A couple of great singles you’ll hear in rotation at every indie club for at least three months, a sellout tour, and maybe even a few interviews where no-one asks about Richey. Is that too much to ask? I hope not, because I need more than just one new MSP album in my life to get me by.
Prediction Two: We’ll Forget About Pharrell Williams…Again
It’s strange to consider the fact that Pharrell Williams had been around for more than two decades by the time he had his wonder year in 2013. On a side note, have you seen pictures of him from twenty years ago compared with pictures of him now? I’ll have what he’s having. The man hasn’t aged a day. Between April and November last year, he hit it big three separate times. The first came in April in Daft Punk collaboration “Get Lucky,” followed swiftly by a guest spot on the controversial Robin Thicke hit “Blurred Lines,” topped off by a success all of his own in Oscar-nominated “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. When one man alone dominates so much of the radio airtime, it’s hard to imagine a world where he isn’t inadvertently backtracking almost every scenario imaginable. But, as I keep saying, the music biz is fickle. We had to wait eight years between his debut and sophomore albums — who’s to say if fans will hang around for even half that time if we’re not bombarded with him left, right, and center? It might be time for Pharrell to step back into the coffin for a while, and let some young bucks take over his spot as king of the slick chart hits for the time being.
Prediction Three: Lorde? Lorde.
Child stars are generally treated with the wariness one might treat a ticking bomb, if that bomb was destined to spray you with paparazzi fights and indiscriminate vomiting. Lorde — who released her super-hit “Royals” when she was just fifteen — has successfully held herself together in an extremely gratifying way, scoring great reviews and fans the world over. The next year will be telling as to where she eventually takes her career. Will she continue with the kooky, slightly alternative brand of pop she’s got going on at the moment? Will she start twerking on-stage while wearing nude hotpants? It’s hard to see exactly where she might go from here, and whether we’re looking at another innocent creature about to land in major meltdown territory, but you can be certain we’ll know what she’s up to either way.
Prediction Four: More Novelty Tracks
Let’s face it — and you probably really don’t want to — novelty tracks have a real allure at the moment. I don’t know if it’s the almost strenuous controversy that surrounds real songs like “Blurred Lines” or One Direction’s “Teenage Kicks/One Way or Another” abomination, but it seems like every other week there’s a song cringe-worthingly cheesy while also being so super-catchy that it becomes a global phenomenon. I do have a theory about this, too- songs like “Gangnam Style” or “What Does The Fox Say” are inoffensively offensive. Every time they come on, you turn to whoever you happen to be with at the time, roll your eyes, and then simultaneously admit that you actually don’t really mind the song. These kind of songs are nobody’s favorite — they’re designed to bludgeon you with their novelty, to worm their way into your musical taste because they’re so damn weird you can’t help but have a soft spot for them. While they’re totally annoying and make up some of the most overplayed songs of all time, they’re a common bonding ground for both musical snobs who have no problem with guilty pleasures and top-40 vultures carousing for the latest hit. We can probably look forward to a whole bunch of novelty tracks — or feeble attempts at them — over the next year.
Prediction Five: More Comeback-Crossovers
If you’re British and within five years of my age, the chances are that you remember Busted and McFly. You may have remembered them which such fondness that you decided to shelling out a fair amount for their comeback-crossover tour this year. Bringing together the remnants of both bands into one superband that clashed all their old boy-band hits into one epic, Delorean-packed concert. Maintaining their clean-cut image with a far keener sense of irony and a careful balance of nostalgia and the new, the McBusted tour could well lay out the groundwork for a few similar excursions over the next few years. Although finding two bands who occupied the same space at the same time is going to be a challenge, but there are plenty of possible pair-ups that would definitely sell a lot of tickets. And that’s what it comes down to. You can’t guarantee that a tour with just two of the original three members of Busted would have sold out stadiums, and Mcfly wouldn’t necessarily invoke enough nostalgia to do the same. But you put the two together, and, not only do you bring the two fanbases together, but you get a big spoonful of novelty thrown in there too. And, with both bands being basically gone for good, there were no fans to alienate, no albums to fail, no critics to turn on them. They entered the arena with nothing to lose, had a great time, and proved that this kind of affair might be the way to go for bands looking for a comeback that’s guaranteed to be memorable: Who would you want together? I’m definitely feeling half of My Chemical Romance coming together with the ex-members of Paramore, mainly for my own twisted amusement.
Prediction Six: More Mainstream Movie Music
Let me ask a question. When was the last time you made it through a week without hearing either Pharell’s “Happy” or “Let It Go” from Frozen? It’s hard enough to get through a day without hearing someone at least humming a tune from Les Miserables as movie music permeated through the real-life iPods of everyone on your Facebook feed. In between The Lego Movie’s “Everything is Awesome” and endless redoes of “Let It Go,” getting involved in creating music for film is a guaranteed way to land yourself a few million members of that captive audience. It brings unlikely musicians to global recognition as was the case Broadway superstar Idina Menzel found herself the soundtrack to a thousand early summers, and more-often-indie darlings Tegan & Sara. Similarly, churning out a quick track for a big summer blockbuster like The Hunger Games sends fans out to buy the soundtrack album and lands the artist a few more listeners. It’s a win-win for the studio and the musician. I’m hoping to see smaller artists managing to sneak a few great tracks into big budget movies, just to see if the soundtrack really is the way to industry success. And mostly because I never, ever want to hear “Let It Go” again.
Predicting What the Music Trends Will Take Hold in 2015
The music industry is a fickle, fickle thing. I think we can all universally agree on that. Trying to predict what might be big a year from now is almost inevitably a fool’s errand. I mean who could have foreseen the dizzying drops of dubstep that would be thrown into the limelight in 2012? Who could have hazarded a guess that a shaven-headed, next-to-silent DJ with geek glasses would become one of the biggest names in the music industry? I’m looking at you, Skirllex. And, even more stunning, who could possibly have known that this half-bald hipster would wind up dating the lovely Ellie Goulding? But I digress. My main point is that it’s incredibly difficult to guess who and what is going to be dominating the scene this time next year. But we’d all secretly love to gaze into our crystal balls and know what was going to be happening over the next twelve months, to predict what we’ll be going mad over and what unfortunate acts we’ll have completely forgotten. Well, fear no more, as we’ve put together a vaguely definitive list of our predictions for the next year in music. Only time will tell if we’re right, and by then you’ll have probably forgotten anyway. Because you’re a fickle creature too. See how I made that come round full circle? Anyway, on with the predictions…
Prediction One: Manic Street Preachers are Back, Baby
After years of fighting off the image of a band simply trying to hold it together after the disappearance of the main talent (rest in piece, Richey), it looks like people might finally be taking the Manics seriously again with the release of their latest album, Futurology. With critical success combined with a warm reception from their fans, they couldn’t really have asked for more. They’ve both managed to buck their old clichés while staying true to their roots, and people are loving it. The time is right for an angst comeback, and who better to lead it than the MSP? They’ve got hundreds of fans both old and new who are desperate to see them take the world stage by storm again. My predictions? A couple of great singles you’ll hear in rotation at every indie club for at least three months, a sellout tour, and maybe even a few interviews where no-one asks about Richey. Is that too much to ask? I hope not, because I need more than just one new MSP album in my life to get me by.
Prediction Two: We’ll Forget About Pharrell Williams…Again
It’s strange to consider the fact that Pharrell Williams had been around for more than two decades by the time he had his wonder year in 2013. On a side note, have you seen pictures of him from twenty years ago compared with pictures of him now? I’ll have what he’s having. The man hasn’t aged a day. Between April and November last year, he hit it big three separate times. The first came in April in Daft Punk collaboration “Get Lucky,” followed swiftly by a guest spot on the controversial Robin Thicke hit “Blurred Lines,” topped off by a success all of his own in Oscar-nominated “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. When one man alone dominates so much of the radio airtime, it’s hard to imagine a world where he isn’t inadvertently backtracking almost every scenario imaginable. But, as I keep saying, the music biz is fickle. We had to wait eight years between his debut and sophomore albums — who’s to say if fans will hang around for even half that time if we’re not bombarded with him left, right, and center? It might be time for Pharrell to step back into the coffin for a while, and let some young bucks take over his spot as king of the slick chart hits for the time being.
Prediction Three: Lorde? Lorde.
Child stars are generally treated with the wariness one might treat a ticking bomb, if that bomb was destined to spray you with paparazzi fights and indiscriminate vomiting. Lorde — who released her super-hit “Royals” when she was just fifteen — has successfully held herself together in an extremely gratifying way, scoring great reviews and fans the world over. The next year will be telling as to where she eventually takes her career. Will she continue with the kooky, slightly alternative brand of pop she’s got going on at the moment? Will she start twerking on-stage while wearing nude hotpants? It’s hard to see exactly where she might go from here, and whether we’re looking at another innocent creature about to land in major meltdown territory, but you can be certain we’ll know what she’s up to either way.
Prediction Four: More Novelty Tracks
Let’s face it — and you probably really don’t want to — novelty tracks have a real allure at the moment. I don’t know if it’s the almost strenuous controversy that surrounds real songs like “Blurred Lines” or One Direction’s “Teenage Kicks/One Way or Another” abomination, but it seems like every other week there’s a song cringe-worthingly cheesy while also being so super-catchy that it becomes a global phenomenon. I do have a theory about this, too- songs like “Gangnam Style” or “What Does The Fox Say” are inoffensively offensive. Every time they come on, you turn to whoever you happen to be with at the time, roll your eyes, and then simultaneously admit that you actually don’t really mind the song. These kind of songs are nobody’s favorite — they’re designed to bludgeon you with their novelty, to worm their way into your musical taste because they’re so damn weird you can’t help but have a soft spot for them. While they’re totally annoying and make up some of the most overplayed songs of all time, they’re a common bonding ground for both musical snobs who have no problem with guilty pleasures and top-40 vultures carousing for the latest hit. We can probably look forward to a whole bunch of novelty tracks — or feeble attempts at them — over the next year.
Prediction Five: More Comeback-Crossovers
If you’re British and within five years of my age, the chances are that you remember Busted and McFly. You may have remembered them which such fondness that you decided to shelling out a fair amount for their comeback-crossover tour this year. Bringing together the remnants of both bands into one superband that clashed all their old boy-band hits into one epic, Delorean-packed concert. Maintaining their clean-cut image with a far keener sense of irony and a careful balance of nostalgia and the new, the McBusted tour could well lay out the groundwork for a few similar excursions over the next few years. Although finding two bands who occupied the same space at the same time is going to be a challenge, but there are plenty of possible pair-ups that would definitely sell a lot of tickets. And that’s what it comes down to. You can’t guarantee that a tour with just two of the original three members of Busted would have sold out stadiums, and Mcfly wouldn’t necessarily invoke enough nostalgia to do the same. But you put the two together, and, not only do you bring the two fanbases together, but you get a big spoonful of novelty thrown in there too. And, with both bands being basically gone for good, there were no fans to alienate, no albums to fail, no critics to turn on them. They entered the arena with nothing to lose, had a great time, and proved that this kind of affair might be the way to go for bands looking for a comeback that’s guaranteed to be memorable: Who would you want together? I’m definitely feeling half of My Chemical Romance coming together with the ex-members of Paramore, mainly for my own twisted amusement.
Prediction Six: More Mainstream Movie Music
Let me ask a question. When was the last time you made it through a week without hearing either Pharell’s “Happy” or “Let It Go” from Frozen? It’s hard enough to get through a day without hearing someone at least humming a tune from Les Miserables as movie music permeated through the real-life iPods of everyone on your Facebook feed. In between The Lego Movie’s “Everything is Awesome” and endless redoes of “Let It Go,” getting involved in creating music for film is a guaranteed way to land yourself a few million members of that captive audience. It brings unlikely musicians to global recognition as was the case Broadway superstar Idina Menzel found herself the soundtrack to a thousand early summers, and more-often-indie darlings Tegan & Sara. Similarly, churning out a quick track for a big summer blockbuster like The Hunger Games sends fans out to buy the soundtrack album and lands the artist a few more listeners. It’s a win-win for the studio and the musician. I’m hoping to see smaller artists managing to sneak a few great tracks into big budget movies, just to see if the soundtrack really is the way to industry success. And mostly because I never, ever want to hear “Let It Go” again.
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