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24/05/2007

BBC Four’s music programming - no longer aimed at grown-ups

Up to about 12 months ago, BBC Four music programming was consistently outstanding; I eagerly devoured 80% of it. At least half of my music TV viewing (which is heavy) was BBC Four programming.

Now? I hardly bother to check their schedules any more.

BBC Four programmes praised on www.musicforgrownups.co.uk over the last few years include:

* Ring Cycle
* Charlie Parker
* Mose Allison (and Georgie Fame, his acolyte)
* African RnR Years
* Coppersongs
* Piaf
* Folk Hibernia
* Gillian Welch/Beck/Springsteen/Bowie gigs
* The Fall
* Stiff Records
* some of the Dylan season (but not the smug, self-serving one about BBC wiping the tape)
* Stones - Maysles film.

They were eclectic, engaging, best-in-class. I enjoyed and learned from all these programmes.

The type of BBC Four programming which doesn't focus on best-in-class musicians has included stuff broadcast on lesser lights like Matt Monroe, Alma Cogan, middling niches like Hotel California, Jazz Britannia, Soul Britannia, and almost everything in the last six months.

BBC Four are confusing nostalgia with excellence: just because it's old doesn't mean it's any good. Who'd listen to Matt Monroe ahead of Sinatra, Bennett..., or Alma Cogan ahead of Ella, Billie H, Sarah Vaughan... ? Life's far too short, unless you're into pap nostalgia, but then your needs are already catered for by some dubious radio stations.

Excellence (in any musical genre) was BBC Four’s keynote: but its relentless surge downmarket is undermining its USP. If there's no audience for excellence - in music as in other fields - BBC Four has no purpose and should be closed.

Sure, they could increase their audience with, for example, a series on ‘50s Britpop - Cliff, Marty, Adam... blah, blah. But then they’d also attract bigger audiences by broadcasting porn (or property renovation porn): there's a point beyond which it's not worth going. BBC Four has already passed it.

Pity. Great pity.

Gerry Smith

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