English popular music

On MTV2 in the US, they show a program called Subterranean that show videos for ``alternative'' music. I guess the gist being that it's underground. Hah.

(I might should first point out that MTV2 is this TV channel that shows, pretty much exclusively, music videos. Quite a notion.)

Anyway, once a month (except when they forget), they also show a show called Subterranean UK. The idea, I think, being that they show us videos for alternative UK acts. It's certainly hosted by a British guy in London (in that Eye thing, presumably -- notably not subterranean). I say ``I think'' because I got to thinking that it might just be ``alternative'' to US sensibilities -- that it might be regular old pop music to you Brits. (It certainly seemed that the Canucks listen to wildly different stuff based on the year or so I got MuchMusic before they changed it to something else to fit the US market.)

Anyway, I made a CD of the contents of the last two episodes that I've been listening to. (I know -- I really need to get that empeg installed.) Here's the listing and you Brits might be kind enough to tell me if this is off-kilter stuff for Britain or not.

The Cooper Temple Clause - "Promises Promises"
B.R.M.C. - "Stop"
Elbow - "Fallen Angel"
The Hiss - "Clever Kicks"
Crackout - "Out of Our Minds"
Funeral for a Friend - "Juneau"
Futureheads - "First Date"
Har Mar Superstar - "EZ-Pass"
The Rapture - "House of Jealous Lovers"
The Thrills - "Big Sur"
Grafiti - "What is the Problem"
The Libertines - "Don't Look Back into the Sun"
Razorlight - "Rock 'n' Roll Lies"
Muse - "Time Is Running Out"
Snow Patrol - "Spitting Games"
Million Dead - "Breaking the Back"
Jetplane Landing - "Calculate the Risk"
Dizzee Rascal - "Fix Up Look Sharp"
Jet - "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"
Chemical Brothers - "The Golden Path"

Some of the reason I ask is that there's some stuff that they probably have played on ``regular'' Subterranean and some stuff that would never get played there mixed in with the stuff that feels distinctly British. For all I know, it's just the personal favorites of the guy that hosts the show.

The BBC Radio 1 playlist is a good guide to transient mainstreamness; the tracks you list seem to be a mixture, with Dizzee Rascal and the Chemical Brothers squarely mainstream, the rest more off-kilter (to the extent that I haven't heard of half of them).

For all I know, it's just the personal favorites of the guy that hosts the show.

IMO all the best music shows are like that.

Peter

amazing. that radio 1 playlist featured everything i refuse to listen to here. id fit right in not listening to it across the water.
only exception lies at the bottom of the 'c' list. white stripes. i do listen to them. rather, i dont go out of my way to avoid listening to them.

Never confuse popular with good

I occasionally listen to radio 1 but the last time i though it was good was mark and lard did a no playlist day

Having an empeg really negates needing radio either that or i am too old for mainstream

On MTV2 in the US, they show a program called Subterranean

Cool (says the card-carrying member of Subterranea Britannica)

that show videos for ``alternative'' music

oh.... :-/

It's certainly hosted by a British guy in London

- And I bet he speaks with that estuary English that I mentioned in another thread!

It's some guy named Zane who could be employed by MTV solely for Subterranean UK, but I doubt it. My guess is that he's on MTVUK, too.

I usually fast-forward through the host segments, as I don't care what he has to say and he's fairly annoying anyway (usually every band he plays is his favorite), but, from what I remember, he has a fairly flat London accent. Nothing, I think, like Jamie Oliver's, although I'll admit that Jamie's lisp is the most significant part of his voice to me.