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Pop bands shun major labels to go indie
As the music industry implodes, we introduce the rising young pop bands taking a leaf out of the indie rulebook
It's a brilliant time to be making pop music and a terrible time to be making pop music. The music industry's way forward concentrates on two mutually exclusive concepts: labels want to make money out of bands by having a stake in every aspect of their career, while artists are starting to find that they don't need labels at all. What does this mean for pop wannabes? Either they cave into their labels' money-making schemes, corporate sponsorhip and the like. Or they opt for the DIY route, get on to MySpace and attempt (embarrassingly) to copy the majors' massive marketing spends with the proceeds of four Saturday jobs.
There is a third way. Alternative (in the Snow Patrol sense) acts learnt their fan manipulation tactics from pop, but what if pop learnt some tricks from indie? The new idea is this: start off small. Robyn scored a No 1 single at the end of last year following a brilliantly executed, 12-month campaign. Don't: spend £300,000, then watch your first single flop, or have your debut album need to shift a million to break even. Do: find your fans, let your fans find you. Tour a bit. Tour a lot.
Which brings us to the Wonky Pop tour. Its line-up includes Alphabeat, who moved to East London last year. They have achieved big success in Denmark with an album of uncomplicated but studiously crafted nuggets. Joining them is Vincent Frank, aka Frankmusik, a 23-year-old electronic pop whizz. Leon Jean Marie whose current single, Bed of Nails, blends classic songwriting cityscapes with Mark Ronson production. Along for the ride are the charismatic London four-piece the Clik Clik, who sing about London's unreliable Tube network and more politically sensitive topics such as My Dunks, which is about keeping white sneakers clean.
It's an unashamedly incestuous line-up - Frankmusik and Leon Jean-Marie are labelmates, Leon shares management with the Clik Clik - but that's typical for this network of musicians who, between them, are defining a new subset of pop alongside acts such as feisty London girlgroup the Real Heat and the US solo artist Sam Sparro.
This is not a reflection of all pop, of course. The Brits launched last month with their “pop is back” mantra hinging on the odd trinity of Leona Lewis, Take That and Mika, and there'll always be pop fans who require a routine and glitter for evidence of “proper pop.” Alphabeat's drummer, Troels Hense, prefers to mix things up: “A guy at a gig asked me if we were put together by a record company and I was stunned. Some people are surprised when they learn we write our songs. It's unusual these days for a real band to be as pop as Alphabeat, and vice versa.”
This new generation, with big ideas and big songs - and who really are as accessible as the boy and girlbands of yesterday pretended to be - show that proper pop is all about reworking the underground in an accessible way. Another important factor is whether bands actually see themselves as pop. “We're not manufactured, we play instruments and there's no dance routines, but the music we make is pop,” says Maya Yianni, the Clik Clik's 18-year-old singer.
This new wave of artists certainly provides one answer to an uncomfortable question facing many of pop's remaining champions: what would happen if, tomorrow, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes both split up? To many they not only typify but actually are all that is brilliant about modern pop, but they've opened an important door. “They've pushed, in a clever way, the idea that pop can be progressive without scaring people off,” Vincent Frank says. “We've been here before - pop music as much as rock music is about rebelling against what came before. It's a new layer to the pop onion. He adds: “It's getting harder and harder to sell processed pop to people, “just as supermarkets are having trouble selling processed food. The answer is to go organic.”
POP ACTS GOING INDIE
THE CLIK CLIK
Lineup: Stefan, Maya, Drew, Henry. Stefan and Maya formed the band two years ago and have become a big draw on the London live circuit.
Key songs: Fizzy electro ditty Did You Wrong is “my best way to say sorry, so I'm sorry”; My Dunks is about polishing trainers.
Sounds like: Lily Allen and Jamie T having a discussion about something important.
Most likely to: Be so amazing that it is necessary for the BBC to regenerate Top of the Pops solely for the Clik Clik's benefit.
www.myspace.com/theclikclik
ALPHABEAT
Lineup: Anders, Anders, Anders, Troels, Stine, Rasmus, who moved to East London late last year after signing to the EMI imprint
Charisma for the purposes of UK chart success. The band's name is inspired by Prince's wobbly, multi-coloured video for Alphabet Street.
Key songs: Fascination is an irresistible retropop wonder; the punchy get-your-hands-off-my-fella anthem Boyfriend showcases the band's classic pop songwriting.
File alongside: CSS, High School Musical, Now That's What I Call Music Volumes 2 through 8.
Most likely to: Need a minibus.
www.myspace.com/thisisalphabeat
LEON JEAN MARIE
Lineup: Leon Jean Marie; 24 years old with a fair few “personal ups and downs” under his belt.
Key songs: Mark Ronson-produced current single Bed of Nails; jaunty ode East End Blues.
File alongside: The Kinks, Beck
Most likely to: Enjoy reasonable success with his debut album in the UK, then large amount of success in the US, and subsequently enjoy a huge amount of success all over the place with his second album.
FRANKMUSIK
Lineup: Southeast London boy Vincent Frank writes, performs and produces his own music, also running his own label, Apparent.
Key songs: 3 Little Words and Confusion Girl are speedy, brash and bewilderingly beautiful moments.
File alongside: Vincent's music sounds less like any music you've ever heard before, and more like a punch-up in a games arcade.
Most likely to: Become the Simon Cowell it's “all right to like”.
LYKKE LI
Lineup: 21-year-old Lykke Zahrisson is the protegee of Peter, Bjorn and John. Her debut album is enigmatic and eccentric, but heavy on the tunes, a bit like Bjork with Kylie's pop sensibility.
Key songs: Spooky triumph Little
Bit is out this week; Everybody But Me is an under-the-radar pop smash in waiting.
File alongside: Annie, Robyn, the Knife, Paula Abdul.
Most likely to: Get bloggers slightly excited.
THE REAL HEAT
Lineup: Shaki, Zaza and Suki - three sisters from Brixton immersed in a world of crunchy synths, home-made electro backbeats and fluorescent GIF animations.
Key songs: Hearts Not Innit, with its radio friendly chant of “you wanna f*** but your heart's not innit”; ice-cold Richard X collaboration Come We Go.
File alongside: Prodigy and Sugababes.
Most likely to: Start a fight with Girls Aloud at next year's Brits.
SAM SPARRO
Lineup: Sam Sparro - a charismatic 24-year-old from LA who signed to Island last year and releases his first UK single in March, having released a limited edition EP in the States last summer. Chaka Khan likes him.
Key song: Black & Gold is an undulating, timelessly modern electrosoul masterpiece.
File alongside: Prince, Scissor Sisters, Hot Chip.
Most likely to: Be Elton John's new favourite pop star.
PIN ME DOWN
Lineup: Russell (out of Bloc Party) and a lady called Milena
Key song: Cryptic, as featured on teh current Kitsune compilation
File alongside: Kim Wilde, Bloc Party, Girls Aloud.
Most likely to: Force russell to have a serious think about where his priorities lie.
