The baffling 2024 Brit nominations should be a wake-up call for the British music industry
The list of nominations for this year’s Brit Awards should send a chill through the heart of the UK music industry. The rest of us can only shrug in bewilderment.
It is not that it’s terrible. There’s a lot of talent there, and whoever has been behind all the diversity and inclusion initiatives of recent years is probably hugging themselves in delight at a multi-genre, multi-racial shortlist featuring nearly 50 different UK artists, in which 55 per cent of the nominations feature women. The big question about this eclectic offering is what does it say about the state of British music? Is this really the best UK music has to offer, or just a smorgasbord of everything there is? And if so, why should anyone care?
Well, I suspect Mick Jagger might care, mainly because his audacious marshalling of the return of the Rolling Stones with the most acclaimed and commercially successful album of their post 1970s career seems to have bypassed The Brits academy. The press release boasts that the Stones have received their first nomination in over a decade, but it is only in Best Rock / Alternative category, one of copious new genre categories voted for by the public that effectively operates like a consolation prize at a children’s party to make sure no one goes home empty handed.
Meanwhile, in the Best Group category, the return of the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world was apparently deemed less worthy of recognition than a one-off collaboration by rappers Headie One and K Trap.
Yet if the Brits could be accused of snubbing anyone, it is the country’s two biggest stars, Lewis Capaldi (who had the most popular UK album actually released in 2023) and Ed Sheeran (whose two chart-topping albums of stripped back, highly personal folkcraft have been completely ignored). Overlooked in Best Artist for such minor players as Arlo Parks and Olvia Dean, their consolation is to be included in the public vote for Best Single. I’d be quite surprised if they turn up for the ceremony.
Sheeran and Capaldi’s albums were so critically mauled, however, there wasn’t much likelihood of them being considered in the all-important Best Album category. The neglect of the Rolling Stones is more surprising, not just given that Hackney Diamonds was such a high visibility blockbuster in 2023, but also noting the comparative low impact of some of the other candidates.
It presumably can’t be an aversion to vintage rock, because 50-something Britpop heroes Blur are in there with their fine comeback, The Ballad of Darren. But challenging Scottish rap trio Young Fathers are much more admired by critics than the public, their fourth album, Heavy Heavy, barely scraping into the top 10 for a week in February. Multi-talented rapper-producer J Hus did better with his third album (and second number one), Beautiful and Brutal Yard, but its only real hit was a collaboration with US superstar Drake, and he certainly hasn’t had a Stormzy-like impact on the wider public.
Another surprising inclusion is much admired rapper Little Simz, whose album No Thank You slipped out with no pre-publicity or promotion, and only reached number 40 in the charts. After the multifarious glories of 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (which won the 2022 Mercury Prize and arguably should have beaten Adele’s 30 at the Brits in 2023), this was a low key, offbeat personal project for the artist, an austere, angry record on which she pours scorn on the music business. Evidently biting the hand that feeds is not the career killer it once was.
Which brings us to RAYE, who has seven nominations. I am a huge fan, and My 21st Century Blues was the Telegraph’s album of the year. The twist is that this hugely talented and soulful singer-songwriter had to break away from a major record company (Polydor, part of the Universal Music Group), start her own independent label and self-fund her career in order to achieve this artistic and commercial breakthrough. It’s a strong narrative that would make her a worthy winner, but what does it say about the British music industry, which couldn’t even spot a superstar when they were signed to one of their own labels?
Finally, the glamour and power of the International section makes the UK’s own offerings look weak and insubstantial, because no one could argue that American superstars Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, SZA, Olivio Rodrigo made a real impression on the world in 2023, whilst Afrobeats star Burna Boy and art-pop maverick Caroline Polachek are blazing fresh trails. By contrast, few of our homegrown nominees have made any kind of mark beyond British shores, and some have barely made a mark within them.
You could say there is something for everyone in this year’s Brits, but little that really stands out. And that, at least, seems an accurate reflection of how depressingly mediocre British popular music feels today.
The Brit Awards nominations in full:
Mastercard album of the Year
Blur
J Hus
Little Simz
RAYE
Young Fathers
Artist of the Year
Arlo Parks
Central Cee
Dave
Dua Lipa
Fred Again
J Hus
Jessie Ware
Little Simz
Olivia Dean
RAYE
Group of the Year
Blur
Chase and Status
Headie One and K-Trap
Jungle
Young Fathers
Best New Artist
Mahalia
Olivia Dean
PinkPantheress
RAYE
Yussef Dayes
Song of the Year with Mastercard
Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, Miracle
Cass?, RAYE and D Block Europe, Prada
Central Cee, Let Go
Dave and Central Cee, Sprinter
Dua Lipa, Dance the Night
Ed Sheeran, Eyes Closed
J Hus ft Drake, Who Told You
Kenya Grace, Strangers
Lewis Capaldi, Wish You the Best
PinkPantheress, Boy’s a Liar
RAYE ft. 070 Shake, Escapism
Rudimental, Charlotte Plank and Vibe Chemistry, Dancing is Healing
Stormzy ft Debbie, Fire Babe
Switch Disco and Ella Henderson, React
Venbee and Goddard, Messy in Heaven
International Artist of the Year
Asake
Burna Boy
Caroline Polachek
CMAT
Kylie
Lana Del Rey
Miley Cyrus
Olivia Rodrigo
SZA
Taylor Swift
International Group of the Year
Blink 182
Boygenius
Foo Fighters
Gabriels
Paramore
International Song of the Year
Billie Eilish, What Was I Made For
David Kushner, Daylight
Doja Cat, Paint the Town Red
Jazzy, Giving Me
Libianca, People
Meghan Trainor, Made You Look
Miley Cyrus, Flowers
Noah Kahan, Stick Season
Oliver Tree and Robin Shulz, Miss You
Olivia Rodrigo, Vampire
Peggy Gou, It Goes Like Nanana
Rema, Calm Down
SZA, Kill Bill
Tate McRae, Greedy
Tyla, Water
Alternative/Rock Act
Blur
Bring Me the Horizon
The Rolling Stones
Young Fathers
Yussef Dayes
Hip hop/Grime/Rap Act
Cassisdead
Central Cee
Dave
J Hus
Little Simz
Dance Act
Barry Can’t Swim
Becky Hill
Calvin Harris
Fred Again
Romy
Pop Act
Calvin Harris
Charlie XCX
Dua Lipa
Olivia Dean
RAYE
RnB Act
Cleo Sol
Jorja Smith
Mahalia
RAYE
SAULT
The 2024 Brit Awards take place at 8pm on March 2, and will be shown on ITV
