UK Blog Sound Of 2014

Today, along with a number of other UK new music blogs, we reveal the results of the UK Blog Sound of 2014 poll.  

What The Poll Isn't

The poll isn’t a ‘tips for success list’ although we’re pretty sure that most bloggers would like their favourite new acts to go on to have some sort of success – albeit the type of success the artist would like, which may not necessarily be of the commercial sort.

The UK Blog Sound of 2014 isn't designed to criticise the ubiquitous BBC Sound of 2014 which was published yesterday. Indeed the original idea of the poll was to compliment the BBC list, providing an alternative to compare and contrast. Ironically last year the results of both polls found a large degree of similarity, although the Blog Sound list did include a number of lesser known independent artists in the long list, but the year before that there were plenty of differences, including (notably missing from the BBC list) the likes of Bastille and Mercury prize winners Alt-J. This year just 3 acts (Banks, George Ezra and Royal Blood) are common to both lists. 8 of the acts on the BBC list didn't receive 1 vote from the voting bloggers.

What The Blog Sound Of 2014 Is

The concept of the UK Blog Sound poll is simple. It’s an attempt by way of a democratic vote to determine the most popular emerging artists amongst a selection of UK music bloggers.

The Blog Sound of 2014 poll is the biggest yet with 59 blogs each nominating their 3 favourite bands or solo performers. You can see the full long list of sixteen most voted for artists below. The list shows a strong bias towards indie guitar / rock acts, singer songwriters and UK artists. Other genres of music such as hip-hop, urban, electronic, dance and pop either have a minority representation or didn’t receive enough votes to feature on the list at all. 

How We Cast Our Votes and Some Thoughts

From a personal perspective we’re pleased to see two of the acts that we voted for, namely Wolf Alice and Sophie Jamieson feature on the list. However, despite strong support from blogs during the course of the year, our third choice, Chloe Howl, didn’t make the cut - but then not many pure pop acts did. Of the 16 acts named on the UK Blog Sound of 2014 list we've featured 10 on the blog (compared with 7 on the BBC list). It shows. The artists named on the Blog Sound list is in the main quite different from the BBC list, containing more organic sounding acts, more groups and more independent or unsigned acts. Which list do we like best, the BBC's or the Blog Sound? We like them both - Breaking More Waves has always straddled the taste divide of commercial pop vs alternative sounds and we've never differentiated between the mainstream and the underground. We suspect some people will hate the Blog Sound list, others will find it far more palatable than the BBC list, that after all is what taste is all about.

What Happens Next

The most voted for act and runners up will be revealed on the 2nd of January 2014. For now here’s the full list of acts. We’ve included video or Soundcloud streams for each artist for your listening and viewing pleasure.

The nominated acts for the UK Blog Sound of 2014 are:

Banks - Sultry electronic soul from Los Angeles



Embers - Epic cinematic rock from Manchester



George Ezra - Singer songwriter with bluesy tones



Hella Better Dancer - Dark atmospheric indie rock



Hockeysmith - Genre hopping sisters from Cornwall



Honeyblood - Raw D-I-Y Glasgow duo



IYES - Boy girl pop duo from Brighton



Khushi - Melodic acoustic based pop



Lyla Foy - Solo singer performing intimately quiet songs



Marika Hackman - Female acoustic singer songwriter



Mt Wolf - Folktronica with ethereal / operatic vocals



Rhodes - Male acoustic singer songwriter



Royal Blood - Dirty lo-fi rock 'n' roll from Brighton



Sivu - Idiosyncratic singer songwriter



Sophie Jamieson - Atmospheric folk



Wolf Alice - Grunge and indie referencing band



The music blogs that took part in the voting were as follows:

17 Seconds, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Cat From Japan, Daisy Digital, Details Of My Life, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots and Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Echoes and Dust, Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, God Is In The TV, Gold Flake Paint, Hearty Vibes, I Love Pie, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Like 1999, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music : Love Life, Music Broke My Bones, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Band’s Better Than Your Band, My Day By Day Music, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Pop Dodger, Repeat Button, Scientists Of Sound, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory, Sleep In Music, Some Of It Is True, Sound Influx, Sounds Good To Me Too, Sounds Of Now Music, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Sound Of Confusion, The Underclassed, This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, Von Pip Musical Express, When The Gramophone Rings

To see the past poll results click the links below

Blog Sound of 2012 (Most voted for = Friends)

Blog Sound of 2013 (Most voted for = Haim)