Author: Tiarna Armstrong

First the Oscars, and now the Brits. Once more, concerns have been raised for the lack of diversity at the Brit Awards which took place on 24th February in London’s O2 Arena. All the winners were white and the only nominated non-white artists fell into the International Artists sector. In a similar backlash to the Oscars, people took to Twitter with the hashtag #BritsSoWhite to express their concerns with this year’s nominees. I have never personally been a fan of the Brits anyway so this doesn’t come as a shock to me. However, these allegations have caused a divide in opinions.…

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This is certainly a difficult question to answer. It isn’t something you think about often. But when you do, it’s always the same songs that spring to mind. Those classics such as Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’, and Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’. Or perhaps more modern models such as Plain White T’s ‘Hey There Delilah’, and Jason Mraz’s ‘I’m Yours’. Love songs have the appearance of being ageless, they constantly evolve with time. Although often mundane and monotonous, the subjects of love songs are not simply restricted to significant others and relationships. So, is it really fair…

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It’s undeniable that streaming has taken the music industry by storm. There are roughly 500 million audio streams each week in the UK alone. Large streaming firms such as Spotify and, more recently, TIDAL and Apple Music with a combined total of 27.5 million paid users are revolutionising the way in which people find and listen to music. Streaming services are everywhere and are hard to ignore, but the question is, how effective are they really? The way in which money is divided in the music industry is changing, and artists are not making money from record sales like they…

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It goes without saying that small venues are crucial in the building of new, up and coming bands and artists. These venues mould and shape the artist; allowing them to grow and to set their sights on bigger goals in the music industry. However, over the past couple of years, there has been a major decline in the number of small and medium-sized music venues all over the UK, leaving amateur artists in a critical position. Every musician has to start somewhere, so with the closure of roughly 35% of small venues in London alone, where are they supposed to…

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