It’s interesting going through the massive number of ‘best albums of year’ lists, if only to see the diversity of music unleashed on the market in 2010. It’s been another wonderful quality release year although, for me, not quite as good as 2009.One name missing from most of the lists I’ve seen is Eminem and for the life of me I cannot understand why. ‘Out Of The Box’ (not single releases) airplay in the USA was unprecedented with 6 songs included in the Billboard Hot 100 list. Here in the UK 3 singles have been played extensively but what makes this record special for me is Eminem’s wonderful, heart-on-sleeve writing, performance and production. Perhaps he’s not cool any more amongst critics who cannot possibly be seen admiring him - the Nickelback syndrome…

An unwelcome trend is the willingness of the media and especially BBC R1 to heap praise and airplay on an act on the strength of just one ‘decent1 song (something we would never do). There’s a couple of records missing from my list including, most notably, Mumford & Sons, but there is a reason: no communication or music to review from the band’s record or PR company. Now this is particularly galling because early in 2008 I saw the band in a support role and the following day emailed a record company owner after being told the band weren’t signed. No names, but the label owner did not follow up the lead which he must regret today… Anyway I did speak to the band’s keyboard player and followed it up with an e-mail to send over any recorded material. But nothing so perhaps an album that should have been included high up in our extensive list is missing.

Sky’s IT MUST BE THE MUSIC threw up better talent than the massive budget X-Factor. I e-mailed the winner at her MySpace page wih no response. Emma’s Imagination is a wonderfully talented Scottish singer/songwriter who we would love to airplay and feature on our site but that’s going to need something called ‘communication’. Over to you Emma…

In 2010, as in previous years, we alone have strongly and consistently criticised the play-list policies of BBC Radio 1 and 2 as biased, unrepresentative and largely to blame for the dumbing down of UK music. But more importantly, the station’s producers are ignoring huge swathes of great talent from the UK and overseas who struggle to be heard on British public service radio, or indeed any UK radio station. While artists like Ellie Goulding, GaGa et al are heard unremittingly every day other great artists and music don’t get a look-in. Whether the BBC understands this or not I have no idea but the following ‘experiment’ is planned early in 2011:

RADIO 1 GOES ALL NEW MUSIC IN JANUARY

There have been rumours circulating for a few weeks now that Radio 1 bosses are considering moving Huw Stephens to breakfast when Chris Moyles inevitably departs the nation’s favourite next year, in what would be quite a radical revamp for the station’s daytime output.

That said, it’s possible this special week of programming is actually the source of that rumour. It’s also possible this special week of programming is an opportunity to test out the potential of a radical ‘Bannister-style’ overhaul of Radio 1, something the increasingly tired sounding youth station really needs to safeguard its future.

Anyway, for a week in January Radio 1 will be shifting its evening presenters into daytime, so that Lowe will be on breakfast, Annie Mac mornings, Huw Stephens lunchtime and Nick Grimshaw on drive. It’s what Radio 1 bosses are calling ‘the specialist takeover’, though one can only hope there’s a clever BBC exec somewhere quietly dubbing the week “the dream team Radio 1 line up for 2012.

The week of special daytime shows is part of a month of special programmes to promote new music on Radio 1. Winners of the BBC Sound Of 2011 poll will also be announced during that week, and then later in the month there will be special editions of BBC Introducing as well as In New Music We Trust and In New DJs We Trust weeks.

Shuffling the cards is not the answer. ‘In new music we trust’ is not the answer. The presenters mentioned bring nothing new or improved to the table relying as they must on fucking A, B and C play-lists. And what precisely does ‘new music’ mean anyway? As far as I know that is all that’s played on daytime radio, so perhaps they mean new artists…? Judging by the BBC Sounds of 2011 list I shudder to think…

At Shakenstir it’s the music that counts and the capacity of an act’s album to provide several great songs that we can play on radio. The Americans call it ‘out of the box’ which simply means that radio producers and DJs listen to whole albums and rather than rely on singles pick out songs that they feel are good enough for radio airplay. For us, it’s the music that counts and not whether an act is brand new, signed or unsigned. In the past year all too often BBC R1 has been guilty of over-hyping an act on the strength of just one song. Often the songs play-listed have no meaning or aim yet these songs are being picked by presenters as ‘songs of the week’ and ultimately play-listed for weeks on end - day-in, day-out. Take for example the twice regurgitated ‘Barbra Streisand’ which is an old dance song with Streisand’s name added as the only lyric. It has been played for weeks on end and is clearly dreadful. Where’s the quality control at the BBC? Who is responsible? Is this what the licence-fee paying public is paying £145 per annum to listen to?