In Praise of BBC 6 Music

David Bowie: “6 Music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame”

Bear with me as I give my opinion about the threatened closure of BBC 6 MUSIC. I can’t (and don’t intend to) speak for the rest of the AGCS writers but this is something I personally feel strongly about.

Although I generally find the notion of national ‘pride’ alienating the BBC is an example of an institution Britain definitely should be proud of. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop an army of twattish men with their fuckwit dogs constantly moaning if their license fee is spent on anything they don’t personally agree with. These will be the same wankers who were offended in their masses by Sachsgate without even hearing the supposed offence. In short, dickheads.

It’s because of these dickheads, egged on by a dickhead press, that the BBC is consistently under attack, feeling the need to defend every bit of programming, every scrap of expenditure against the angry mob. So it is that both BBC 6 Music and Asian Network look set to be scrapped in a futile attempt to placate this baying crowd. I can’t say I’ve ever listened to the latter but this serves to underline the point of BOTH stations - they cater to niche markets because that is their remit, and lest we forget (as Director General Mark Thompson seems to have) part of the BBC’s remit as a whole.

Before I get into full on rant mode, there IS a point to this. The closure of BBC 6 Music will have wider implications for British music. To my mind no other station plays as much new music; every time I listen I hear something I haven’t heard before, and most of the time it’s something good. All the station’s DJ’s, and in particular Steve Lamacq, show a genuine interest in discovering the new. Without this potential source of early support, it’s going to be harder for upcoming acts to get noticed. It’s also important to established acts like Yeasayer or Field Music, who have both featured on the station’s playlist recently. These are bands who will rarely, if ever, get airplay on other stations, but on 6 Music they have the chance to reach a national audience receptive to alternative and independently-spirited music.

6 Music is the only radio station I listen to regularly - and if it goes I can’t think of any other which will be able to do the same things that it is able to. The BBC’s entire digital radio output costs 10p of the license fee per month, yet it appears a bunch of shit-eating Daily Mail readers and the prospect of a BBC-bashing Tory government are going to persuade Mark Thompson that this isn’t a price worth paying. That would be a damn shame, because in less than a decade 6 Music has become an important part of British indie culture. I’m sure there’ll be some petitions doing the rounds, and if you want to search them out that’s great, but if I could give you one piece of advice it would be to just listen to 6 Music. While you still can.

Jed. x