Pop in 2011 – a preview
Pop in 2011 – a preview Our critic Kitty Empire has doubts about the end-of-year drive to find the next big thing. But since you insist… Jessie J, winner of the 2011 Brits Critics' Choice award. Photograph: Paul Farrell An album used to have two sides to it. The act of flipping vinyl over created a new beginning, ripe with possibility. The pop year used to have two sides to it as well – the autumn, when students went back to university, flush with unspent funds, keen to impress cute strangers with their tastes. Bands hung lanyards round their necks, went forth and pulled crowds. And then – flip! – January, the dead of winter. No gigs to speak of; even fewer releases. The sales did allow you to sample records by artists you would never buy at full price, and NME traditionally staged its new bands tour in this fallow period. But commerce abhors a vacuum, and in recent years the culture of tipping new acts for ...