Working in the designer fashion ecommerce niche, I am no stranger to image and hype. But when music is this great, lets not take it for granted. Marching hipsters and hype to the firing squad is my first instinct. The second is to ask why Scotland is so hesitant to give itself credit.
Sitting on the bus this morning people watching, it was the t-shirt on the pedestrian outside that caught my eye. A blood red t-shirt with a single word in huge print scrawled across. hype it said. Not a capital letter in sight.
Whether the guy wearing it spent longer making that wardrobe choice than the time spent perfecting his hairstyle, I could only guess.
For new up-and-coming bands, creating momentum is easier than maintaining it. You only ever get one first impression. Far too many bands hell bent on self-promotion fall into that trap before they’ve perfected their art. Or even pondered what their art is.
Hype is a strange phenomenon. As you may have guessed, I absolutely loathe hype with a passion.
After time passes it becomes easier to look back and see whether it was justified. In the Scottish music scene, few bands were hyped as quickly as Franz Ferdinand. Their debut album remains a classic and they are a band I’ve always admired even though I don’t own any of their records.
Their latest single ‘Right Action‘ is a solid effort which will appeal to fans. I’d be surprised though if it sets the world on fire.
The world of CHVRCHES however is already hurtling along at the speed of light.
I doubt hype has had a chance to even catch up with the band yet. Until now I’ve avoided writing about them because you ask yourself, what’s the point? They are THE hottest Scottish band around and if their recent Jimmy Fallon appearance on U.S. TV is anything to go by, one of the hottest pop bands on the planet. The media is not exactly ignoring them!
Yet it’s only because of the continued emergence of extremely talented artists from Scotland that it continues to punch well above its weight in the pop world. If a band like Travis were Irish, you could imagine the Irish music industry all pushing their latest comeback album.
As it is, Scotland doesn’t need to do that regardless of what quality the new Travis record is. There’s always another potential global act popping up and creating waves. It is taken for granted because it keeps happening. Scotland qualifying for FIFA World Cups was taken for granted too and look how that turned out.
And haircuts? You don’t really want me to start blogging about that now do you?
FRANZ FERDINAND’S NEW ALBUM IS OUT AUGUST 26
CHVRCHES DEBUT ALBUM IS OUT SEPT 23
