Last Bank Holiday Sunday night, I decided to tune into a local radio station after they posted on twitter that they would be playing contemporary Irish music. Worth a shot I thought, however, after listening to the same station for about 20/25 minutes I had to switch off, here’s why.
The station in question first played Van Morrison’s ‘Real Real Gone’, a single from his 1990 album ‘Enlightenment’. They played Brian Kennedy’s ‘Crazy Love’ from 1995. They also played The Adventures’ ‘Broken Land’ from 1998, which I will admit is a great song. The only contemporary song they played was The Kanyu Tree’s ‘Radio’. Oh, Josh Ritter also made an appearance as an Irish artist before the presenter quickly defended his choice.
As a lover of music, I believe that we must support our own artists. The term ‘signed’ or ‘unsigned’ isn’t relevant anymore, anyone can get on iTunes and have their music freely available. I do believe that any artist, no matter how far into their career, should be able to stand up beside national or international artists. To make a living from music now, Irish artists need to be able to have a network outside of here. The wealth of talent and the international appeal of Irish artists such as James Vincent McMorrow or Adebisi Shank says it all. (more…)