Do radio stations dictate relevance and success?

Singer/songwriter Ryan Tedder's group OneRepublic have, after an absence of six years, returned to the UK top three this week with their highest peaking chart hit to date, Counting Stars. Tedder can claim two of the songs in the top three this week with Ellie Goulding's former chart topper Burn, which he wrote, easing down a place to No.3 after five weeks on the chart. Although Tedder has been responsible for a number of UK chart hits since OneRepublic's heydey in 2007/8 with the hits Apologize and Stop & Stare, this is the first hit single for the group in over half a decade. So what happened to them since, and how have they suddenly burst back into the charts? 

The answer is that the band have never gone away, have been releasing albums ever since and have remained a big name in other parts of the world with anthemic radio hits such as Secrets and All The Right Moves. Yet UK radio have more or less ignored them ever since 2008. In the meantime, Tedder has penned hits for Leona Lewis, Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and Adele, amongst many others, and his anthemic heavily produced pop/rock 'sound' has ruled the airwaves for the past few years. Despite providing vocals for a couple of UK top 20 hits in the form of Far East Movement's Rocketeer and Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso's Calling (Lose My Mind), Tedder has remained firmly behind the scenes in the minds of the UK public. 

Counting Stars, taken from OneRepublic's latest album Native, has been steadily climbing the charts and soared to No.2 on the latest chart thanks to a number of factors. Firstly iTunes handily reduced the track to 59p, giving on the fence buyers more of an incentive to purchase. Secondly, there was no competition standing in the way of success aside from Katy Perry's monster hit Roar - Counting Stars sold under 40,000 copies to climb to No.2 this week, the lowest sale for a No.2 single in 18 months! Thirdly, radio programmers have been more kind to them this time around, and this is surely the biggest step for any band to achieve on their seek to regain relevance. Having ignored them for years, Radio 1 have added Counting Stars to their a-list, and the song also has major airplay from big hitters Heart and Capital. So is a great song all it takes for any act to score another hit, no matter how long ago their last one was? The answer is no. No matter how brilliant a song is, without any promotion or support people are unlikely to hear it (short of it being a viral internet hit a la Harlem Shake) and therefore unlikely to buy it. Is Counting Stars really THAT much better than the ignored single Secrets? Probably not, but that lacked any sort of support and therefore failed to become a hit of any kind in the UK. 

Radio are the hitmakers in this country, even moreso than the television music channels and the internet. Tens of millions of people tune into various radio stations daily and the music that they hear helps to shape their tastes and what they are likely to purchase. Tedder also penned Delta Goodrem's recent Australian top ten single Heart Hypnotic, an uplifting pop-dance song that has international hit written all over it. Except for the fact that Delta hasn't had a hit here for nearly a decade and radio programmers are unlikely to ever give her a chance again due to this. Despite the fact that she's still in her 20s, she is perceived as being 'past it' to radio programmers. 

Robbie Williams' chart topping single Candy from last year was famously snubbed by Radio 1, who labelled him irrelevant to their audience. Does advancing age equal irrelevance when your music quality is still as strong as ever? How many acts can you find on the Radio 1 playlist that are younger than 40? One week 15 years ago in late 1998 the UK top four singles chart consisted of Cher, George Michael, U2 and Culture Club, all well on the way to being or way past 40 at this point. Radio 1 playlisted all of these releases so what is it that they have against aging acts nowadays? And as an aside, why do they blacklist certain artists from the playlist as soon as they have a few underperforming single releases - Christina Aguilera, Robbie Williams, or Alexandra Burke for example. Heart and Capital are just as much to blame for not supporting artists later on into their career. Yes it's right to promote new talent, but what about supporting new songs by older talent too, rather than a neverending stream of 'club classics' and 80s songs.

The point is that OneRepublic's return to relevance has happened because this time around they've had a favourable set of circumstances, but more than anything they've had strong radio support. Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera had been facing diminishing returns in the charts for years but suddenly Moves Like Jagger got heavily supported by Radio 2, Capital and Heart and suddenly it's a million selling single, and Maroon 5 are as big as ever. Would this have really been as big a hit for these two fading artists if radio had completely ignored it? Loreen's Eurovision winning anthem Euphoria from last year was a huge No.1 single all across Europe and stalled at No.3 here before dropping like a stone. Why? Because she was deemed irrelevant, ignored by UK radio programmers and had nothing to keep her and the song in the public consciousness. Why is she supposedly so irrelevant to the UK but so relevant to every other country in Europe? 

Is it fair that a panel of a few people on each radio station basically dictate what the nation listen to? Or should it be more democratic, with listeners perhaps voting for their favourite tracks out of a selection each week, the most popular being added to the radio playlists, regardless of how old or 'past it' an act might seem to a radio bigwig. It will be interesting to see which acts are the next to be re-embraced or completely ignored by radio, and what impact this will have on their careers. For every Will Young and Enrique Iglesias who resumed their success in the last few years with major help from radio, there's a Nelly Furtado, Mika and Duffy who were completely abandoned after mega success in the late 00s, leaving them with little more than quickly failing careers. If Mika's Popular Song, featuring rising star of the moment Ariana Grande, was picked up by radio, it seems that he could be the next former star to have a reignited career, much like OneRepublic are currently enjoying now!

Five b-sides that are better than their a-sides!

Over the years I've bought many hundreds of singles physically or digitally, and every now and then I've found a b-side (bonus track) that's better than the main single itself! Here are five of my favourite examples, kicking off with the song that inspired this thread;

Tensnake feat Fiora - 58 BPM (b-side to See Right Through)

There's only a teaser video for this on Youtube at the moment but track down the full song on iTunes if you're intrigued. German DJ Marco Niemerski, better known as Tensnake is perhaps best known for his brilliant early 90s house throwback Mainline. For his latest single release See Right Through he's enlisted the vocal talents of Fiora. Whilst that track is perfectly good in its own right, it pales in comparison to the gorgeously downtempo 58 BPM which is like Cyril Hahn producing a Jessie Ware track, sublime.

Kylie Minogue - Made Of Glass (b-side to Giving You Up)

Kylie recorded a few new tracks for her 2004 Ultimate Kylie compilation but only the now classic I Believe In You and the less interesting Giving You Up made the cut. The latter was released as a single in early 2005 and gave the Australian legend another UK top ten hit but I can't help but feel that the swirling electro pop of b-side Made Of Glass, which was cut from potential inclusion on Ultimate Kylie, would have been a far bigger hit for her. Whilst Giving You Up was a fairly clunky and pedestrian album filler type track with a terrible video, Made Of Glass was one of the best things Kylie released during the noughties, a real missed opportunity. 

Take That - We All Fall Down (b-side to I'd Wait For Life)

For the third single from huge comeback album Beautiful World, Take That mysteriously decided to follow up two deservedly massive hits (and now modern classics) Patience and Shine with the nice but dull ballad I'd Wait For Life. The song was more or less a Gary Barlow piano solo and didn't exactly show off the band as a whole like 'obvious single that never was' Reach Out would have done. The single limped into the UK chart at No.17 before dropping out of the top 40 the following week so very few people got to hear the brilliantly melodic acoustic track We All Fall Down, led by Mark Owen but with fantastic harmonies from the whole band. Luckily, they finally saw its potential, beefed the production up a bit and included it on the re-release of Beautiful World alongside Rule The World ready for Xmas 2007!

Oasis - The Masterplan (b-side to Wonderwall)

I'm not going to try and argue that The Masterplan deserved single status over the iconic Wonderwall but as one of the most famous b-sides ever, it would be rude not to include it in this post. Mancunian indie rock act Oasis were at their career peak when Wonderwall was released and almost everything they touched turned to gold. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? was quickly becoming one of the defining albums of the 90s, and indeed is now one of the biggest selling albums of all time. But even the b-sides from the era are almost all universally heralded as Oasis classics. You get the feeling that they could have put out a double album in 1995 without suffering any dip in quality. Sung by Noel Gallagher, The Masterplan is a stirring Britpop anthem complete with lavish production values that make it sound far too grand to be wasted as a b-side. Despite criminally not featuring on any of the band's albums, the song was later the title track to b-sides compilation The Masterplan and also featured on the 2006 Stop The Clocks EP as well as the best of compilation album of the same name.

Delta Goodrem - Take Me Home (b-side to In This Life)

For me, Australian singer Delta Goodrem is queen of everything the b-side. As my all time favourite artist I've bought all of her singles on CD and therefore got to enjoy all of her high quality b-sides, even if this has meant obtaining the majority of them on import from Australia, seeing as she stopped releasing music in the UK in 2005! The Riddle, Hear Me Calling, Here I Am, Silence Be Heard, Fever, Beautiful Madness and Uncovered are just a selection of the best songs of Delta's that she deemed not good enough for inclusion on an album! But it's 2007's Take Me Home that's the real head scratcher. Whilst a-side In This Life was a jaunty and uplifting pop song, a No.1 in Australia and probably the perfect lead single, tucked away on the b-side was one of the bravest tracks musically that Delta had produced to this point. Take Me Home is a dramatic ambient dance track similar to something Madonna might have done during the Ray Of Light era. The chorus is soaring and triumphant and it's frankly unbelievable that she didn't feel this song was fit for inclusion on her mostly rather pedestrian self titled third album Delta. Not only would this have made a great album track, it was worthy of being a huge hit single!

Three rising male stars to watch out for!

Vance Joy is a singer-songwriter from Melbourne and has already hit the Australian top ten with the brilliant Riptide. The 25 year old's acoustic indie tune almost sounds tailor made for charming and quirky independent film soundtracks. It has a warm summer evening feel to it and will hopefully manage some interational chart success in the coming months!

TJ Bilham is an upcoming singer-songwriter from Glasgow who's set to release his new single One More Kiss in September. The single, co-written with Andy Brown from Lawson, showcases TJ's instantly distinctive and powerful deep voice. It boasts an anthemic chorus and some fantastic pop-rock production similar to Katy Perry's hit Waking Up In Vegas.

Matt Cardle is hardly a rising star so perhaps it's cheating to include him in this post but his profile has certainly been resurrected with the release of his new single Loving You, a duet with Spice Girl Melanie C. The rousing duet, written by Matt, is set to be his biggest hit since he won X Factor 2010 (beating One Direction no less!) with the now million selling single When We Collide. Sounding like a cross between James Morrison and Nelly Furtado's Broken Strings and Melanie C's own Bryan Adams collaboration When You're Gone, the duo put everything into this fantastic song and it seems certain to debut inside the UK top 15 this weekend, giving them both their biggest hit single in years!

The Big Interview: Jimmy from 911!

Following their success on The Big Reunion, 911 are set to release their first album in almost a decade and a half on September 8th. 'Illuminate: The Hits and More' is a 14 track album that will feature 7 brand new tracks and 7 classics that have been re-recorded and had their production updated. Lee, Spike and Jimmy are also set to release their comeback single and video, 'Two Hearts One Love', a preview of which you can watch below;

I asked Jimmy from the band (far left in the picture) some questions about the comeback and what his highlights have been during his time in the popular trio;

Hi Jimmy, I was in the audience for the first Big Reunion show at Hammersmith Apollo in February and was really wowed by your performances. It was the first time I'd seen you live in 15 years, as you performed at my primary school near Brighton way back in 1998! Your vocals are as strong as ever and all three of you still have the moves. How did you feel coming out for the first time in years in front of an excited packed crowd at Hammersmith, singing the words back at you? 

Hammersmith was a very exciting but nervous time. We love being on stage but seeing the great reaction was amazing. We still have a lot of loyal fans and hopefully new ones too.

What are your favourite memories/stories of the Big Reunion tour? If there was to be a second series, which other 90s/00s bands would you like to see taking part? Top of my wishlist would be A1, S Club 7, Eternal and The Corrs!

My memories from the tour were great ones. Mixing with all the bands and talking about the old days was very interesting. Playing at arenas again was the highlight for me and obviously the o2 being the biggest. I would like to see Eternal, S Club and East 17 back for next year.

So the new album is called 'Illuminate: The Hits and More'. How have the old hits been updated? 

'Illuminate' has 7 old songs that have ben updated on the production side of things. We thought it would be good to give them a little polish after so many years.

Can you tell us some more about the new songs from 'Illuminate: The Hits and More'? 'Two Hearts, One Love' is a very anthemic rousing pop song, it's mature but retains the old 911 spark and is a great comeback single. Are the other new tracks similar or are there some more uptempo songs along the lines of 'Bodyshakin' and 'More Than A Woman' too?

'Two Hearts One Love' is a great anthemic song, the rest of the album has some good uptempo stuff on it as well as big ballads. Bit of everything for the pop people out there, just a little maturity in the writing.

You were very honest on the Big Reunion TV show about your past and present lives and working relationships. How have you got on with the writing process of 'Illuminate: The Hits and More'? Have you found it easy to get back together and write with one another?

We always said we would be honest with the TV show and i think we have done it well. Getting back together has been like therapy really, we have aired all of our problems and now we can get on with writing great music. It's been very easy getting together to write in the studio again.

You were incredibly popular across Asia at your peak, as well as in the UK, what was it like being adored by millions and causing hysteria wherever you went? Do you still experience that now, and how do you cope with it?

Asia was insane for us, whole of the top floor of hotels, army escorts everywhere etc... We were amazed by the reaction and are hoping to get back over there soon. We don't experience that now as we are only just making a comeback but fingers crossed!

In the years that passed since your split and reunion, boybands very much fell out of vogue in the UK, and were seen as very uncool in the noughties. Are you pleased that the likes of JLS, Lawson, The Wanted and One Direction and the returns of Take That, Boyzone, Blue, 5ive and yourselves have brought boybands back? And why do you think that the boyband concept has suddenly become so popular once again?

Boybands will always be around as they are part of a teenage girl/boy growing up process. The latest bands are doing really well and we wish all the luck to them all.

What is your absolute favourite single from your back catalogue and why? 

For me, my single would be 'The Day We Find Love'. Just a great song with lots of memories while writing it.

'More Than A Woman', 'Bodyshakin' and 'A Little Bit More' are undeniable pop classics but my personal favourite 911 single was the 1999 top three hit 'Private Number'. Do you have any idea what happened to the brilliant female singer on it, Natalie Jordan? 

'Private Number' was also a great song. We still meet up with Natalie for coffee. She is doing well, still singing and screenplay writing.

Fellow Big Reunion-ers Blue did well representing the UK at Eurovision 2011, finishing the night with 100 points which is almost 100 more than we usually get! Would you be open to doing Eurovision if you were asked?

I dont think Eurovision is good for anyone, but you never know.

Thank you Jimmy, I wish you all luck with your new album and can't wait to hear the new tracks! 

A trio of recent gems from South Africa!

It's fair to say that South Africa isn't exactly the biggest exporter of global smash hit singles. In 2010 a few South African acts entered or came close to charting in the UK. Zany rap collective Die Antwoord's Enter The Ninja peaked at No.37 whilst Afro-fusion act Freshlyground featured on Shakira's epic official World Cup single Waka Waka (This Time For Africa). Twin brothers Locnville had some UK airplay with Sun In My Pocket but the single failed to chart. It's a great shame that success is so limited to these acts because South Africa actually has a great untapped music scene and you feel that quite a few of their domestic smash hits could easily go global. So I'm going to look at three of my current favourites from South Africa but also be sure to check out a couple of classics, Wind It by Jody, the Rihanna smash that never was, and Secrets by Jamali, a gorgeous melodic girlband single reminiscent of something by Cleopatra or The Honeyz. And now look at these;

DJ Kent feat The Arrows - Spin My World

Kento Sasaki aka DJ Kent's latest album The Weekent has just been released and the single Spin My World is the absolute highlight. A stunning house track with spades of garage influence, a pulsing bassline, a gorgeous piano melody and beautiful vocals from female duo The Arrows, this instantly likeable single could easily become a smash hit in the UK if given some attention.

Nádine - I Will Be Strong

Originally released as a soaring Celine Dion-esque ballad as part of Nádine's This Time I Know album in 2009, the production has been drastically overhauled and I Will Be Strong is now a schlager triumph, sounding like the love child of Sanna Nielsen and Agnes. An absolutely fantastic track in either version, Nádine's belting vocal really sells the emotion of the track and the melody is as strong as they come. Also worth looking out for from Nádine are her recent albums Eindeloos, which features this track, and her seasonal collection Christmas In South Africa which features unique covers of festive classics in a South African style alongside the brilliant pop anthem Light In The Sky.

BlackByrd feat Craig Hinds - From The Bottom Of My Heart

And showing a completely different side to the South African music industry, female trio BlackByrd have teamed up with singer Craig Hinds to make this instantly familiar and classic sounding country duet From The Bottom Of My Heart. Pretty much the strongest single that Lady Antebellum haven't yet made, this one sounds like it could be rather huge in the US.

Spotlight: Brazilian pop-rock singer Cléo!

Best known globally for having the most legendary football team in the world, amongst other things, Brazil is not particularly known for its pop music. In recent years novelty hits Ai Se Eu Ti Pego! and Balada (Tchê Tcherere Tchê Tchê) by Brazilian artists Michel Teló and Gusttavo Lima have become huge global smash hits but London based Brazilian female singer Cléo's music is a world away from those. With her red hair, infectious bubbly personality and great pop voice she makes an instant impression. 

Cléo has just released her first EP, The Unlucky Girl EP which you can buy here. It includes five fantastic pop songs - Unlucky Girl, GRU, Drive, Just Me and In Your Arms. The former is the lead single and is an excellent contemporary pop anthem with a catchy chorus and infectious marching percussion. A promising sign of things to come for this exciting talent, GRU and Drive are slightly rockier songs where Cléo shows off her impressive vocal range, belting out some fantastic notes! Just Me and In Your Arms meanwhile are snappier pop-rock songs. An excellent debut EP, fans of Kelly Clarkson, The Veronicas, Vanessa Amorosi and other confident rock influenced female pop singers will absolutely love Cléo and with some London gigs already under her belt, her career looks to go from strength to strength over the coming months. Watch Unlucky Girl below!

Sweden: Pop powerhouse punching above their weight?

Icona Pop & Charli XCX's I Love It, a #2 hit in Sweden last summer that has been slowly but surely conquering the globe ever since, has gone to the top of the charts in the UK this week, in fact the first major territory where it has gone all the way. Joining it on the current Radio 1 a-list are Avicii's Wake Me Up and Reload by Sebastian Ingrosso. Only British acts are more represented than Swedes on the a-list of the UK's biggest radio station. It all begs the question, how on earth did Sweden become such a heavyweight on the world music scene? There have been 25 UK number ones hailing from Scandinavia, and of these an incredible 80% of those were from Sweden. Those were just the ones fronted by Swedish acts, it doesn't include the many number one hits written or produced by the likes of Max Martin, Dr Luke, Jörgen Elofsson, RedOne and numerous other talented Swedes. 



So how did Sweden come to the forefront of the global pop movement, rivalling and sometimes even bettering the UK and the US at their own game? Perhaps it lies in the Swedish public's continuing love of pure pop music. The Eurovision Song Contest and it's preceding national final Melodifestivalen are more or less the most watched TV shows in the country every year, with up to half of the population tuning in. The Swedes of course hosted a fantastic Eurovision themselves two months ago after Loreen won with the stunning Euphoria in 2012. The Swedish charts are still full of bubblegum pop, the likes of which faded out of view in other countries years ago. Dansband artists can still score huge hit albums regularly (dansband being a genre of schlager/pop music with country and western and jazz influences), where they would be ridiculed anywhere else. 

Looking across to neighbours Norway and Denmark, it's clear that whilst both have produced their fair share of successful international artists - A-Ha, Madcon, Lene Marlin and Röyksopp amongst others for the former and Aqua, Whigfield, The Cartoons, Infernal, Alphabeat and Junior Senior for the latter, they don't have the same global reach that Sweden seem to in general, and their brands of pop seem to be more serious in Norway or more novelty in Denmark, whereas Sweden have the pure joyous power pop genre down to a tee, without coming across as being kitsch in most cases.

It's probably fair to say that ABBA opened the door for Swedish acts to do well globally. After winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in 1974 with Waterloo, they went from strength to strength to become arguably the second biggest pop band ever worldwide, after The Beatles. 8 of the 20 Swedish chart toppers in the UK are from the super troupers, including classics such as Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All. Further 80s and 90s Swedish chart toppers in the UK came from Europe, Ace Of Base and Rednex whilst duo Roxette managed four in the US, despite never having one here. 

It's since the turn of the century however that Swedish pop has started to dominate once again, in a way not seen since ABBA's glory days. 1999 saw an ABBA resurgence with ABBA Gold going back to No.1, Charlotte Nilsson winning the Eurovision for Sweden with the schlager stomper Take Me To Your Heaven and Westlife and other major pop artists scoring UK chart toppers with Swedish penned songs. In the following years these hits continued with the likes of Gareth Gates, Shayne Ward, Hear'Say and Steps all scoring big hits with songs written by Swedish pop maestros. 

The Swedish dance scene has improved greatly over the past decade and in the last decade there have been UK No.1 hits from dance acts Eric Prydz, Basshunter, Shapeshifters (half Swedish), Crazy Frog (yes, Sweden were responsible for that!), Robyn with Kleerup, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii. The latter looks increasingly likely to score his second UK No.1 in quick succession with new single Wake Me Up, which is already dominating charts worldwide and is released in a few weeks in the UK. Icona Pop, a feisty female duo from Stockholm, are just the latest in a long line of Swedish stars hitting the big time abroad. And that's without mentioning those Swedish acts that went global but never managed a UK chart topper - Loreen, Agnes, September, The Cardigans, Roxette, Nena Cherry and her brother Eagle-Eye, Alcazar, Emilia, Sunblock and Andreas Johnson, amongst many others. 

Producer RedOne practically revitalised pop music in in the last five years, responsible for global smashes such as Bad Romance, Poker Face, Just Dance, On The Floor, I Like It, Remedy, Fire Burning, Poison, Starships and Pound The Alarm. Swedish artists, songwriters and producers are arguably the third most influential on a global scale, only after those from the US and the UK. A pretty incredible feat for a country tucked away in northern Europe with a population of less than 10 million with no logical reason as to why they should have any more influence than their neighbours other than the fact that they live and breathe pop music, and it shows.