Apoplectic British music magazine NME has just issued its latest Future 50 list—”the 50 acts pushing things forward in 2009,” in the rag’s sorta-esteemed opinion—and one thing that’s sort of surprising to me is how pop-centric the overall list is. Sure, the top two slots are taken by Pitchfork darlings (a one-two punch of Animal Collective and The Knife), but the list also includes Lady GaGa, frequent Girls Aloud collaborators Xenomania, and the Idolator-beloved site Popjustice? Also the kids’ program Yo Gabba Gabba!, and… The Take That stage show?? Also, perhaps to goose newsstand sales by putting a little bit of the fear of God into anyone browsing the list online, the hyper-annoying, hypersexist, Hypercolored outfit 3OH!3 is at No. 41. The full list after the jump.
50. Gaggle
49. Xenomania
48. Invasion
47. Yo Gabba Gabba!
46. Diesel:U:Music Radio
45. Cooly G
44. Star And Shadow Cinema
43. Sonar Festival
42. Blackout Crew
41. 3OH!3
40. Stephen McGregor
39. Opera
38. Aldene Johnson and Hannah Marshall
37. Project Natal
36. Lady GaGa
35. Rostam Batmanglij
34. Hyperdub
33. Seb Chew
32. Sweden
31. Greg Kurstin
30. Beck
29. Sonic Boom
28. Take That’s stage show
27. Bandstocks.com/Patrick Wolf
26. Micachu
25. Salem
24. Gigbaby
23. The Dream
22. Ray Tintori
21. Platform
20. The Big Pink
19. Twitter
18. Popjustice
17. Mike Sniper
16. Nick Zinner
15. Norwich
14. Bradford Cox
13. Mattias Arrelid
12. Dan The Automator
11. Blocks Recording Club
10. La Roux
9. Little Boots
8. VBS.TV
7. Jack White
6. The XX
5. Omar Souleyman
4. Dizzee Rascal
3. Trent Reznor
2. The Knife
1. Animal Collective
I don’t know about you, but for some reason, this list makes me a little excited about at least the next 15 minutes of what music might bring us. (Although thanks to the inclusion of Twitter, I’m trying to figure out if “Opera” is a reference to the style of music or the Web browser.)
The NME: The Future 50 [NME]
pointless listmaking
The “NME” Looks To Pop (And Crabcore) For Its Future
Categories:
pointless listmaking
pointless listmaking
(Although thanks to the inclusion of Twitter, I’m trying to figure out if “Opera” is a reference to the style of music or the Web browser.)
See also: 32. Sweden
(no I haven’t clicked through to see the list…)
I think we should all just give up and accept our Crabcore future.
As for the list, am I allowed to think Jack White is not really doing much of anything to push anything forward in 2009? Then again, this is probably the worst concept for a list I’ve ever seen.
BTW, Popjustice is awesome, and I thank this blog for sharing it with me.
@RobMurphy: Sweeden actually should be higher IMO. (Robyn, PB&J, Knife, Fever Ray and a long list of etceteras)
@RobMurphy: And I forgot the Allmighty Royksopp. Accept my apologies, Kings of my Soul :P
I think Trent Reznor is a leeeeeeetle to high on that list.
No ALPHABEAT?!
@fre2daa: BUT HE QUIT TWITTER BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE DID
dan the automator? is this from the 2000?
am i missing something?
That picture of La Roux is absolutely horrifying, and I say that as a pretty big fan.
@NunyaB: She looks like one of the precogs from Minority Report.
@Maura: Maybe the NME thinks that now that he’s stopped tweeting, he’s finally got some time to write some decent music, ha!
All I’m saying is, don’t sleep on Omar Souleyman.
Beck? Pushing things forward? Guess they haven’t listened to his most recent records.
Whose future is this, exactly? I am not so sure it’s mine…