The Sound Of.....self-fulfilling prophesy

The BBC’s Sound Of….. is always a reliable guide to acts that are likely to break in a given year, partly because it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy. The people involved in picking the acts have a prior knowledge, speciality, expertise - they are the star makers.

 

Of course by making the list at all you could suspect that the beeb themselves suddenly have a vested interest. If they’re the acts the stations are most likely to play then they instantly stand more of a chance of breaking big.

As I’ve said before on the whole prophesy market, all of us that do it want to look well-informed and this list is the epitome of that.

AlunaGeorge
A*M*E
Angel Haze
Arlissa
Chvrches
HAIM
King Krule
Kodaline
Laura Mvula
Little Green Cars
Palma Violets
Peace
Savages
The Weeknd
Tom Odell

If you wanted to be sniffy about it (as I often do) you might claim that – for example – it’d have been more prophetic to have picked a band like Peace last year, before they signed to Sony. Being signed to Sony and on this list instantly makes them ‘more likely’ if you like.

At any rate as I said at the start of the year, none of us gets it right all the time and it’s better to be trying to recommend acts than not. I’m not entirely convinced by this year’s winners, Haim, but I do like Laura Mvula (another Sony act):

I prefer Jacob Banks though, he is some talent:

Sadly, I’m no expert as this proves. I still think Holly could and should be a big star though.