
I was very excited recently to receive that great barometer of UK radio airplay, Now That’s What I Call Music (73rd edn. to those who are counting). Obviously in Africa I don’t drive to work anymore to the sound of Chris Moyles et al. although I was beginning to get a bit bored of him in 2008 in any case. But for the past week I've been pretending by playing NOW 73 as I drive around Uganda.
Anyway, I’m forever waiting to get old and start writing off to the ground-breaking tunes of younger generations as ‘tosh’ but I’m afraid something even worse is happening. The problem is not that the songs aren’t adventurous enough or the lyrics particularly shocking but rather that it is all so old, tried, tested, recycled, regurgitated and, well, a bit dull really. Very samey.
There seem to be two styles. Rubbish, derivative girl-pop and insipid, toothless, commercial hip-hop. To be fair amongst the many virtually-cloned tracks there are a few that stand out. It’s hard to ignore Lily Allen amidst a sea of 20-something girls trying to copy her and Kasabian continue to be pretty creative.
Perhaps the biggest discovery is Florence and The Machine who seem to have succeeded in introducing a new generation of emo-teens to, well, Tori Amos music basically. A nice twist on the style though. Dizzie Rascal has sold out though and when it comes to Akon, nothing’s changed there: He still seems to epitomise pretty much everything that rubbish about the music industry.
Even if he did do a gig in Kampala.
Here endeth the lesson. Maybe I’m ready for Wogan on 2 after all?





