For a country that has such a diverse range of musical styles this show was a complete waste of time. No matter what your feelings about them, where were the representatives of Dance? No Goldfrapp, No Basement Jaxx. Where were the representatives of the Urban sound? No Dizzee Rascal, No Amy Winehouse.

Too many U.S performers and not enough homegrown talent.

Any one of Missy. Alicia, Gwen, Bouncy, 50Cent would have been fine. But not all of them!

Leave Rap and R&B to the MTV music awards. These aren't styles of music that originated in the UK. If the U.S is completely subsumed by this stuff then that's up to them.

We have a richer diversity than that in the UK. We don't need to ape the U.S. We should be proud of our music industry.

Sadly it would appear that the organisers of this year's Brits disagree.

Comments?

I don't think it was quite as bad as you are saying - performance-wise we had Duran Duran, The Darkness twice, Busted (ugh!), Katie Mehlua (yum!) and that other chap and 11 out of 15/16 of the awards were apparently won by Brits.

I do agree to an extent though - a little TOO many U.S. acts - and why on earth was Justin Timberlake presenting the award to Duran Duran??? Surely it should have been a UK act? I even would've put up with Busted doing it!
[This message was edited Wed Feb 18 4:41:00 2004 by bryanpage]

Forum's wrong! Reported!

I agree, it should be more about British performers - but maybe British performers are too cool to turn upto these events, so they have to get all the Americans in who never miss a photo opportunity and start singing when the fridge door opens.

There are far too many 'international' awards that always go straight to American performers - best international female, best international male, best international group, best international album, best international breakthrough artist - it's ridiculous! About 50 PERcent of the awards are given to Americans!

Beyonce, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, Missy Elliot, The Black-Eyed Peas, Outcast - all performed and all American!

I thought Outcast did a good performance, I like them more and more when I see them.

50 cent - in all the years that rap has been around, they still haven't got any further than stomping around the stage with a load of buddies who can't sing backed by half-dressed dancing girls - been seeing that type of perfomance all this decade, not very original!

The 'Kiss' performance was terrible - Alicia sang well I thought, but Gwen's voice is more for rock and besides, her mike wasnt' working properly, and Missy Elliot bursting out is turning into an awards show cliche.

Of the few British performers, I thought Muse gave a fantastic performance even though I don't actually like them - they rocked!

Busted were okay I suppose - if they really were playing their guitars - I don't know how they can hit the right chords jumping up and down like that, then again, their songs are pretty simple.

Katie Melon and Jamie Gollum - I just don't why people rave about them - a bit of fluffy jazz by some fresh-faced music students and the reviewers go nuts!

The Darkness were okay, but everybody knows they are a one-trick pony - I can't see them producing classic album after album through the years.

Shame Dido wasn't there - she is our biggest international act at the moment, and she got into the top 10 british music earners last year - right behind Iron Maiden?!!! Ehh?!! Obviously they must sell lots of merchandise....

And Duran Duran... I think Duran Duran are great, but the performance made me wince in places, far too many off-key moments and dodgy guitar notes. I fully expect their arch-rivals Spandau Ballet to receive the outstanding contribution award next year...

Or Busted.

metalorange said:

I agree with EVERYTHING that metalorange said (I probably don't like Duran Duran as much, but they actually sang more notes in tune than their signature performance on the BBC New Year's Eve show a few years back - they were truly atrocious that night, and deserved an award for audacity).

I was also particularly disappointed when 50 Cent and his team managed to outwit the group of Eastender understudies (fortunately all caught on film for the next Crimewatch) and make it to the stage.
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[This message was edited Thu Feb 19 0:56:39 2004 by langebleu]

Couldn't agree more. I love watching the Brit awards to see stuff you don't normally see over here. But it was almost all American artists. And most of them we seen on the Grammy's. And I love Outkast but "Hey Ya" needs to be given a rest. Right now!