There are No Champions of the Music World

There are many things in this world of ours that I don't like, those of you who follow me on Twitter will be well aware of my constant irritation with television adverts while it is no secret how much the YouTube homepage and Twitter's trending topics annoy me. For this blog post however I am going to share with you one of things that I loathe the most in this world: Battle of the Bands competitions.

I doubt you will meet many people who don't like music as even folk who aren't actively interested in it will eventually hear something they can hum along to. Murph from Arrow in the Sky once mentioned to me his theory that even the man with no interest in music will still turn on the radio when driving home from the job he hates just because it's something to break the depressing silence. Now usually it'll be something from the current Top 20 that features on the radio, low on quality but guaranteed to be featured on the next "Now" compilation and in this case it serves him well, stopping the emotionally unstable man from driving off a cliff. This is the appeal of Pop music, it is music for people not particularly interested in music, it is for pre-teens, people who can't form their own opinions and those who can't bear the deafening silence. It fills a purpose.

His radio was broken.

This leaves everyone else with an interest in music, naturally all to varying degrees of course. Not every music lover is going to tattoo their favourite band on their back or try and kill themselves because they think Judas Priest told them to. Music appeals on many different levels and it is down to each individual person how they interpret and act on it. Some people enjoy the lyrical craft of a Bob Dylan for example, others may feed off the energy coming from Mayhem, while folk with mental deficiencies will enjoy the squeaky voices and unce unce unce of dance music. Music is possibly the most subjective topic today, it resonates with different people for different reasons and just because one person is a fan of Pink Floyd, it doesn't mean the next person will be. You may seek out the most technically gifted musicians while I may be impressed by the blingy showiness of Hip Hop (I'm not). You have your favourites, I have mine. Who is to say who is right?

Seal is a somewhat popular singer/songwriter.

This is where my gripe with Battle of the Bands comes in. If the winners are decided upon by a panel of judges then it is the decision of (usually) three people, each with their own individual tastes in music, the winning band hasn't won because they are the best in the  competition (there is no best in music) they have won because they appealed to the tastes of the judges, it is a subjective choice based on their own preferences.

Now, if the decision is an audience choice then it is almost guaranteed to be won by the band who brought the most fans (friends) with them, the winning band isn't the best, they are the most popular in the room. Popularity it seems has become a synonym for "best" and while the winning band celebrates it's amazing prize (usually a few hours studio time) the rest are left wondering why they even entered in the first place.