The Blog Sound of 2013 Long List has been announced. GIITTV took full part in the poll, and the results throw up some interesting hopes for 2013 from web based scribes which depicts the diversity and thriving health of music blogging in the UK.The Blog Sound of 2013 poll has expanded with 49 UK blogs nominating their 5 favourite emerging artists. Just over 170 acts received at least 1 vote. The winning act received votes from around 25% of all bloggers.
The long list represents the very best of new music and draws from major label, indie label and completely unsigned acts. The likes of Haim may be featuring on a lot of new music tip lists at the moment, but the Blog Sound poll also highlights lesser known bands such as Curxes and Randolph’s Leap, bands that do not have big PR representation, and this is what makes the Blog Sound list fascinating and exciting.
The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011. The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up with its own list of emerging artists that was more representative of their community and give the artists that were nominated some extra publicity. Indeed the idea was to compliment the BBC list in many ways by providing an alternative to compare and contrast.
Last year’s final long list provided some interesting alternatives to the BBC list; most notably it included Alt-J, this year’s Mercury Prize winners, who didn’t feature on the BBC list at all.
The poll was organised by Robin Seamer (Breaking More Waves) and Andy Von Pip (The Von Pip Express). “Each blog was allowed to vote for five acts and the diversity of the nominations was staggering. Based on the evidence of the spread of votes anyone that says that music bloggers are sheep and are all writing about the same artists has got it wrong. However, the results of the poll show that certain artists do have a lot of support and love from a significant portion of UK bloggers and those artists make up the Blog Sound of 2013 list,” says Robin.
The 49 blogs who voted in the poll are
A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Details Of My Life So Far, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, Folly Of Youth, Flying With Anna, God Is In The TV, Harder Blogger Faster, Howl, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Kowalskiy, Love Music : Love Life, Mudkiss, Music Broke My Bones, Music Fans Mic, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Bands Better Than Your Band, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Real Horrorshow, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory, Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too, Storm’s Brewing, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Electricity Club, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Music Hoarder, The Recommender, This Must Be Pop, Von Pip Musical Express, 17 Seconds
The Nominated Artists For The Blog Sound Of 2013
AlunaGeorge – Infectious R&B influenced pop from London
Curxes – Dark industrial-pop electronic duo from Brighton and Portsmouth
Chvrches – Scottish electro pop trio formed from a variety of other bands
Daughter – Minimal / ambient sounding folk
Haim – Classic rock from LA with pop sensibilities
Laura Mvula – Jazz / soul singer hailing from Birmingham
MØ – Hip soulful female vocal electronic pop from Denmark
Palma Violets – Raw and energetic indie rock band
Pins – Edgily cool and raucous all female indie band from Manchester
Randolph’s Leap – Glasgow based indie folk pop with a twist of brass
Rhye – Smooth and blissful pop duo
Savages – Intense post-punk with female vocals
Seasfire – Modern rock band from Bristol who mix electronic beats with guitars
The Neighbourhood – Atmospheric Californian 5 piece rock / pop band
Tom Odell – Piano based singer songwriter originally from Chichester
links:
AlunaGeorge – Your Drums, Your Love
AlunaGeorge – Your Drums, Your Love from Niklas Johansson, FSF on Vimeo.
Curxes – Spectre
Chvrches – The Mother We Share
Daughter – Medicine
Haim – Don’t Save Me
Laura Mvula – She
MØ – Pilgrim
Palma Violets – Best of Friends
Pins – Shoot You
Randolph’s Leap – Hermit
Rhye – The Fall
Savages – Flying To Berlin
Seasfire – We Will Wake
The Neighbourhood – Let It Go
Tom Odell – Another Love
I just can’t see the relevance of a Blog Sound OF 2013, a supposed antidote to the BBC list, when this one is about as shit as the Beeb’s. If anyone out there would care to start an Alternative Blog Sounds of 2013 list with me, please get in touch. This list is just full of bland bands that have mostly got on the list because they have money behind them, which makes me wonder about the credibility of the people that designed the list….I mean Haim, for fuck’s sake. Why don’t we all just buy some belinda Carlisle?
richgilb1969 at hotmail.com
Hi Rich. You make a fair point. But this is a POLL, it’s not an exact science just a gauge of opinion across the blogosphere. I agree it would be nice to read about some more usual individual tips. We have our own tips feature if you’d care to take a look,which I think you’ll find includes a range of acts you may not of heard of: https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2012/12/03/hints-tips-and-allegations-who-wed-like-to-see-making-it-in-2013/
Being involved in this POLL I can assure you that there were only bloggers involved. In point of fact there was a great spread of votes many acts only receiving only a one or two votes. Maybe that means we need more bloggers involved maybe it also means that a consensus often throws up trends or the popular?
#blogsound2013 I voted for @Noceremony @WearePins @HeartShips @3blindwolves and @deathatsea
Would love to be involved next year check out my profile
http://thiskidisaproblem.com/hype/tkiap-runner-up-at-rotd-awards-2012/