The Brit Nominations: Imperfect, But Improved

The BRIT Awards (as no one calls them) take place on Wednesday 22 February. The Brits (as everyone calls them) remain one of the country’s most popular awards shows, and one of the most high profile events on the music calendar.

There was outrage last year as the Brits embarrassingly failed to recognise the huge rise in the impact and popularity of grime or urban music. This ignorance of modern countercultures almost suggests the show’s organisers BPI and its broadcaster ITV are ran by white, middle class, fairly old men…oh wait, they are. Thankfully, this year’s nominations are more reflective.

Grime releases over the last year have been strong, and it’s only fair that Stormzy, Kano and Skepta are all nominated. The latter two are up for both British Male Solo Artist and Best British Album. Bafflingly, Skepta is up for Best British Breakthrough as well – then again, prior to the excellent ‘Konnichiwa’ and BBK’s high profile festival appearances, he was still unknown to a lot of people.

Cue lots of people saying that they don’t know or care who Kano is. Similarly, a lot of Kano fans won’t care about double nominees Little Mix complaining about their exes. Twenty One Pilots and Blossoms enthusiasts will be happy some of their favourite acts are on the shortlist; equally, so will those who live for Clean Bandit’s works.

The whole point of the awards is to recognise a wide range of music. Personally, do I think the likes of Little Mix and Zayn have worked anywhere near as hard as Kano or Nao? Not at all – it’s very easy to build a career by auditioning for a talent show and having millions of pounds of record label money thrown at you if enough 14 year olds ring up to vote for you. Less so to get a grime album, or alternative R&B single, anywhere near the charts without putting in a ton of graft beforehand.

On reflection, though, it’s not called the ‘Effort Awards’, is it? The fact of the matter is that all the acts are reflective of what a lot of people (numbers obviously vary) like to listen to, this year more so than most. I think a lot of songs on the Best Single shortlist are uninspired, many nominated acts overrated and some of the categories are muddled. However, that’s subjective opinion – there’s also a lot of talent recognised. If you really hate this year’s nominees that much, don’t watch. Maybe you could even listen to a wider range of music than you do at the minute and try appreciating other genres!

All in all, the Brits nominations aren’t perfect – I suspect a lot of people feel the same way, as no broad awards show can fit everyone’s taste perfectly. However, it’s good to see a more varied selection than most years. Hopefully, a wider range of acts will open people’s ears, spark debate and the night’s winners will be deserving ones.