A West Midlands YouTube chart - August 2017

New players? Yup. And Leshurr crushes it again.

This post covers a Radio to Go fixture: The Summer 2017 Chart for local acts' YouTube views. 

Up until last year I did this every six months. Workload and illness put a stop to that in February, but I'm back now.

House compilation rules are:

• The chart displays acts that are local to, or who have come the West Midlands
• Videos must be three years old or less
• The two most viewed videos go into the reckoning
• The numbers can change. One in particular is going up by tens of thousands a day right now, because it's so new: Lotto Boyz' Birmingham (Anthem). By the time you read this the numbers will probably need revising afresh. But by definition all totals will be out of date by the time I publish this. 
• Official videos preferred where possible: no wobbly smartphone live stuff.
• I do make mistakes. I miss things; please so sing out if you spot something amiss and I will it fix.
• Totals were checked early this past week.

So here's the chart, and I have a lengthy commentary afterwards. There's a LOT to digest.

Artists	Vid 1	Vid 2	Total
Lady Leshurr	Queens Speech 5	Queens Speech 4	67213030
Jacob Banks	Worthy	Love Me (with Wide Awake)	11810818
Jorja Smith	Where Did I go?	Blue Lights	5608426
Laura Mvula	Overcome	Phenomenal Woman	3262702
Lotto Boyz	Birmingham (Anthem) ft JayKae	Bad Gyal	3010731
Editors	Life Is A Fear	Ocean Of Night	2722388
Oceans Ate Alaska	Vultures and Sharks	Escapist	1842741
Mahalia	We The Generation (With Rudimental)	I Remember	1558944
Robert Plant	Rainbow	Turn It Up	985199
Tom Aspaul	Better By Your Side (with Aeble)	Do It Well (with Xyconstant)	833986
Claire Maguire	Elizabeth Taylor	Don't Mess Me Around	742472
Napalm Death	How The Years Condemn	Smash A Single Digit	647834
Tempa	Gimme Respect	Road rage	582753
Peace	Gen Strange	World Pleasure	576992
Tantskii	Storyteller	Storyteller pt 3	555374
Broken Witt Rebels	Guns	Georgia Pine	526214
Anaal Nakraath	Idol	We Will Fucking Kill You	348293
Call Me Unique	Time To Love		307020
Superfood	Mood Bomb	You Can Believe	274546
Ekkah	Last Chance To Dance	Small Talk	259050
Electric Swing Circus	Mamacita	Empires	220919
Swim Deep	Namaste	One Great Song And I Could Change The World	217659
Goldie	I Adore You	Prism	215673
Dapz On The Map	Oh My Days	Shinobi Pt1	209955
Dexys	Both Sides Now	Carrickfergus	194183
Stone Foundation	Your Balloon Is Rising	Beverley	159233
The Enemy	It's Automatic	Don't Let Nothing get in the way	125871
Beverley Knight	Middle Of Love	Marvellous Party	123927
Slick Don	BRAP	Feds	112523
Scott Matthews	Elusive	Let's Get You Home	104890
Jaws	Right in Front Of Me	What We Haven't Got Yet	90458
Magnum	Crazy Old Mothers		75535
Laurence Jones	Got No Place To Go	Touch Your Moonlight	74527
Jump The Shark	Robot Song	There's Always One	64292
God Damn	Dead To Me	Shoe Prints In The Dust	57479
The Twang	New Love	On The 24th	51672
Answer Back	She's into Rock'n'Roll	You've Got Me	49660
Rebecca Downes	Believe	Messed Up	49637
Harry and The Howlers	Hell In High Heels		46167
Truemendous	OTYL	L.I.S.P.	39314
The Wonder Stuff	For The Broken Hearted	Don't You Ever	33789
Lion Art and Friendly Fire	Run Away		33606
The Assist	Love	Tell Her How You Feel	29738
Ed Geater	Steady Strides (Enigma Dubz mix)	Don't Think	26854
Dissident Prophet	Human 2.0	Writing on the wall	24254
Tayla	Call Me Danger	Coming Back Around	24146
Johnny Foreigner	If you can't be honest be awesome	Le Schwing	23880
Cantaloop	Dig It		23597
Kioko	Tired of Lying	Deadly Roots	23103
Victories At Sea	Bloom	Up	21857

Some conclusions? Just a few

This chart raises almost as many questions as it answers. There are big changes. New tech has barged in and upset the applecart - again. It also shows how videos are consumed, with massive impacts on this chart.

We're looking at two universes. I'm really not sure if the same measurement criteria apply: one sector racks up numbers far, far in excess of other genres, and in many cases these do not chime with Spotify numbers or sales patterns.

So it's a different game, again. We've always had record company 'assisted' numbers - that's just an extension of chart-fiddling practises from last century, and I'm pretty sure that's always affected this chart at the top end. But there's more going on. As usual, the new stuff comes out of left-field.

Brum Grime - the BIG new factor

First it was underground. Now it's in the open, with truly startling numbers. Brum Grime is huge. Interestingly, Walsall's favourite son Goldie, now doing different things, places below the current hot male acts (JayKae, Dapz, etc), who have racked up sensational viewing figures.

Towering above everyone is Lady Leshurr, whose two most-viewed videos do better than the rest of the chart put together. Interestingly, her recent Queens Speech videos are made in bright sunshine or with well-lit backgrounds, and they use lots of cute post-production. They do better than her newer, darker, but still successful Unleshed series.

Leshurr hasn't stopped growing her numbers, unlike some of the mega acts that have preceded her at the top of the chart. Her already vast totals show a 40% leap up from last year. I strongly suspect that the vast majority of her viewers are female, in sharp contrast to her less successful male counterparts. There's a couple of reasons for this.

So who is looking at what? And where?

I do think the numbers need to be taken with some caution - Grime videos, especially from blokes (the overwhelming majority of videos, if not by viewing numbers), might just be made for smartphone consumption. It's certainly statement music. The only time I hear Grime, unless I tune in to 1Xtra or something more specialised still, is on smartphones played by spotty white boys on the bus or the train. I also hear it from amped up sound systems in muscle cars. So, yes, it's on the radio and online, but essentially it's underground... just with massive numbers.

There may be, too, a different consumption pattern to that of conventional music videos. The density of Grime lyrics makes for repeated visits; that's generally not the case with 'straight' music videos. A Grime video is an end in itself; a straight music video is normally a sales tool, made to sell a record.

Boys are still boys (sigh)

Interestingly, Grime shares values with old school Metal: Leshurr apart, it's largely young men with attitude protesting an unfair world. Sometimes those protests are entirely justified. But often our boy is just bragging, or even lecturing, with his heavy mates, all blokes, all on the bad side of town, or looming from a muscle car with blackout windows. Where women are present, they tend to be adoring girlie types wiggling in the background. Oh dear.

Fine, if that's what you want, and a lot of people do. Me, I've seen all that just a few too many times, in Grime and elsewhere. Hard Rock used to be a particularly fertile ground. 
  

Elsewhere? Not good news

Meantime, over in video-as-promotional-tool territory, things are rough. You can knock up a video on an iPhone, and many people do - it works great where the groove or the rhymes are the heart of the project.

But that doesn't quite work for rock, folk, jazz, dance or indie. The past five years or so have seen less new videos being produced by acts at the lower end of the chart. Those videos cost, and times are tighter than ever. And there seems to be a slackening off of viewing figures for Indie and Rock; some big names are sliding down, or have even slid off this chart. Take a look at last year's chart for a comparison. And on the more current front, some of our hottest and most tipped new Indie outfits, who didn't make the chart, are scoring numbers that are, frankly, embarrassing.

Winners? Look at the astonishing Male/Female splits. 

Take a bow, Lady Leshurr, Jacob Banks, Jorja Smith, Mahalia, Lotto Boyz, Tempa and a few others... Lower down, I'm delighted to see some pals like Harry and the Howlers, Ed Geater and the (big-time) return of Electric Swing Circus making inroads. 

But take a bow, women artists: it's not just Leshurr's contribution that makes the views by gender split so interesting.

In this list we have 14 female or female-fronted acts, 36 male or male-fronted. Now look at these totals:

Views for Female acts	79,517,768
Views for Male acts	25,983,582
Average for Female	5,678,941
Without Leshurr	946,518
Average for Male	72,766

So, while the field is still dominated by blokes numerically, the reactions to their work is dwarfed by reactions to Female or Female-fronted videos. Even when you strip out Leshurr's extraordinary numbers, which you really should not. Lessons to be learned, maybe? 


The improvers

You want more? Big improvers on last year are shown in these two breakout charts, sorted by percentage and numerical increases respectively.

Artists	% difference		Artists	Difference
Electric Swing Circus	1294.07		Lady Leshurr	20,012,294
Jorja Smith	605.24		Jacob Banks	7,205,217
Laurence Jones	183.34		Jorja Smith	4,813,180
Jacob Banks	156.44		Lotto Boyz	3,010,731
Claire Maguire	113.93		Laura Mvula	1,465,363
Dexys	101.48		Mahalia	663,679
Beverley Knight	90.03		Tempa	582,753
Stone Foundation	81.65		Claire Maguire	395,405
Laura Mvula	81.53		Goldie	215,673
Mahalia	74.13		Dapz on the Map	209,955

So that's it. Lots to glean from a chart, which, while imperfect, still has trends to digest. I wrote over a year ago about the rise of female artists in the region. It's still going on. 

And if I missed you out, holler. 

More music business posts on Radio To Go

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I still do stuff on Brum Radio, a volunteer-run internet station. It's online here; download the Brum Radio app here. My Brum Radio page is here; scroll down for all the shows. 

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A West Midlands YouTube Top 50 - August 2016.

The 8th bi-annual Radio To Go video survey

Late August. Time to check who is doing well on YouTube. There are interesting conclusions to be drawn:

• The enduring appeal of some music genres
• A huge generational distance between different sets of fans
• Maybe suspicious increases in numbers - you'll have to work that one out for yourself, but the numbers are there
• A changing of the guard near the top. 

We still have the same leader as in February, but the appeal of her format may be on the wane. Details after the jump...

Hitting New Heights: A West Midlands YouTube Top 50: February 2016

BIG changes at both top and bottom of the 7th YouTube chart

Lady Leshurr on top; Laura Mvula and the Editors on the foothills.

Every six months I tot up YouTube numbers for local acts: the two most-viewed videos in the past three years, strictly defined. The totals let me do a bit of basic analysis - who is piling on the views? Who's made the biggest percentage improvement? 

A statistical health warning applies: I do this chart on my own, out of curiosity. It's perfectly possible I have missed your act. If so, please tell me and I will instantly rectify matters. 

There's some spectacular results to be picked out of this. 

A West Midlands YouTube Top 50: August 2015

Here's the sixth bi-yearly local acts video views chart: who's making YouTube waves?

I do this ranking every six months. The exercise is starting to build up some long-term analysis potential. There's some interesting straws in the wind. I think YouTube viewing numbers are increasing overall, based on a rough analysis of upwards trends for many on the chart. But there are some caveats...

The headline? Laura Mvula still rules – just. But I think that she's going to be overtaken on the next chart by another spectacularly talented Birmingham woman who plays by her own rules. You may not have heard of her yet. But you certainly will.

A West Midlands YouTube Top 50: February 2015

If you don't know already, you'll be amazed at what goes over BIG from our patch  

February 2015 is here, so here's this blog's six-monthly roundup of West Midlands artists, ranked by viewing numbers on YouTube. There's a couple of surprises, and a fistful of impressive new entrants. 

This is statto heaven, and you can pick out seriously interesting patterns if you compare results over the time I've done these charts: links to earlier rankings are at the bottom of the post. 

Winners, losers, runners and riders after the jump.

Gigs, bands, venues, surprises, changes and some disappointments. 2014 has been eventful.

This is the last Radio To Go post of 2014, tucked into that awkward half-holiday, half-not space between the Christmas blowout and New Year's Eve. 

Some performers are hardily prepping for their NYE shows; many more are slumbering through this interim week before things start to rev up again in 2015. 

So this, as in previous years,  is a good time to look back. All of this is highly subjective. It's stuff that struck me as notable. You will have had different ideas, different joys and pleasures. I'd be delighted if you felt like joining in the debate. 

Gigs of the year contenders

By Richard Shakespeare - crowds at Mostly Jazz     

There were LOTS. We've had so many excellent bands, new venues (see below), and most nights, especially most weekends, we've had a ridiculous choice. I particularly enjoyed:

- Boat To Row's single launch gig at the Old Joint Stock Theatre, 28 Feb
- Miles and Erica at the Hare and Hounds, 22 May
- Brothers Groove at the Jam House, 22 July
- Pretty much everything at Moseley Folk, but that's much more of a social gathering in the sun anyway.
- Everything and everyone at this year's Songwriters Cafe: 9 fantastic house concerts which ran on Thursdays from September to November

Earbleed of the Year

Prince at the LG Arena, 19 May 2014. Atrocious sound and dangerous volume levels. I can take one or the other, but not the two in combination. It actually hurt to listen. This was a shame, because Prince delivered, in parts, a killer show. This audio shambles was thrown into sharp relief by the very good sound the same PA delivered for Laura Mvula, who gave an excellent, excellent opening set.

Venue thoughts

I am so pleased to see developments underway at the Dark Horse, now part of the same company that runs the lovely Prince of Wales, both in Moseley in Birmingham. I'm hoping for big things. 

Props too, to the lovely people at Ort Cafe, who have crafted a super intimate acoustic venue in Balsall Heath. 

The guvnor Birmingham place is still, of course, the Hare and Hounds. Two years on from the last development scare, things seem to have gone quiet on that front. However, the threat has not, to my knowledge, receded. Things will not be rosy until venues know where they stand. For that to happen, our beleaguered and broke council must, once and for all, establish and then respect the principle that if an established and effective venue exists, new owners who wind up adjoining that development must recognise and respect that. 

So, property developers: do the right thing and build in effective soundproofing. And on that note, a big welcome back to the Fiddle and Bone, which reopens in 2015. Let's also celebrate the continuing success of the Asylum venues.

Unexpected pleasures

A few nice things/events which caught me unawares and delighted me:

The Stacks at The Wagon and Horses, August. 

The Stacks are from Nuneaton/Leicester way, so I hadn't seen them before they supported the very likeable Broken Witt Rebels. Stacks were sharp, tight and inventive. They attracted a posse of admiring girls as well as the usual coterie of hard-rock boys – an audience combo that's always a good sign for guitar-slinging wannabe rock gods.

'5-Star Review' on Erica Nockalls' EN2 album. In the middle of a set of artfully crafted hyper-musical noise terror you'll find the sweetest love song ever. Fabulous. More on this album here. 

Dan Whitehouse and Chris Tye's Christmas song. Just great. Two huge talents, and a good cause. It's available here and there's a blog post here on these guys.

Record Store Day - silly activities in a good cause. 
Probably because I grew up in the vinyl era, I still really can't get excited about music distributed on vinyl – especially the fetishising of the medium. But if it helps preserve independent retailers who are passionate about music, I'm all for it. Here's what Goodnight Lenin did

'Mighty Hard Time' on Ruby Turner's 'All That I Am' album: 

Ruby just gets better and better. Quality, seriously deep old-school soul, a fine perspective, no compromise whatsoever, and focus like you've never seen. Proud to know her and proud that she's from Brum. There's an interview here.

The Spoken Word

This happened by accident. I'm so happy it did.

Once in a while I get asked to voice something for, say, an album project. I'm normally happy to do this – it's just nice that my voice is remembered from my prehistoric radio days. But this year's outings were quite different. 

Firstly, a radio producer I greatly respect and admire, and who moves in very different circles from me most of the time, asked me to voice a bit part in a radio drama. Rosie Boulton, who now works independently after a long and storied career at the BBC, has produced a sweet and elegant one-hour play, 'The Kindness Of Time' which is online for anyone to listen to, for free. So this was work with a script, bouncing off a different voice actor, cooking up the relationship, working in a very different studio to the ones I'm used to (C-Mat in Handsworth), and it was both a challenge and a lot of fun. More on this here.

Then the wonderful and very different Layla Tutt developed her multi-media Song Of the Woods project and invited me to voice. I got to play a great romantic lover and a very satisfying baddie. It was lovely.

Finally, I voiced for James Summerfield's latest project: a set of poems written by local author Darren Cannan. Some are set to music, some are fully arranged. The book and ep are out imminently. Everything I've heard sounds fabulous. Then again, I'm a fan of James' work, and I thought Darren's writing was terrific. So I am privileged and excited to be a part of this.

And as you can see from this trailer, I'm in good company.

The JB's book!

Another book worthy of your attention, partly crafted by another person I greatly admire: Roy Williams, who helped run the legendary JB's in Dudley from the very early days. A near-forty year span of time in rock history, seen through the eyes of the team who ran one of the best-loved clubs in the Midlands. Stories, memories, extraordinary facts and figures. 

You won't believe who played there. Nor will you believe what they got paid. There's a detailed post in the works. In the meantime, you can find out more, here.

Bad news

Dying Orchestras 

This was announced last week in Denmark: a kickstarter campaign... to try to keep an decent orchestra in existence. I hate this. Orchestras should be part of our cultural mix. We need that reservoir of talent; we need that pathway to a music career for our promising musos. We need to keep celebrating demanding and experimental work. But all over the country and all over Europe, funding taps are being turned off. The Ulster Orchestra is under severe threat too.

Steady progress department

- The wonderful Cadbury Sisters, scoring loads of love from Radio 2 and a vinyl release on RAK records; 
- Brothers Groove, also scoring R2 love - and a gong at the British Blues Awards 2014;

- Another milestone for the excellent Katherine Priddy, who sold out at Kitchen Garden Cafe. Her first headliner and her first sell-out. Well done the Prldster.
- Electric Swing Circus went fully pro and toured the world. Bravo!

Albums

Laura Mvula's Orchestral CD was startlingly good and confident. Not that I was in any way surprised.

Goodnight Lenin - In The Fullness Of Time
Out now. It's lovely. At last! 

Ruby Turner - All That I Am
So good, so clear, so focussed. 

Erica Nockalls - EN2 As above, but in a wholly different music realm. But I think Ruby and Erica would get on like a house on fire. 

Dan Whitehouse - Raw State
Dan revisits some of his older songs with a fresh perspective, and by golly, it works. This kind of approach doesn't always work, but in Dan's case – oh boy, does it ever. Moving, warm and powerful. 

Chris Tye - The Paper Grenade
Go Chris! Tye simply gets better and better. Super stuff from one of our best.

Hopes for 2015: Music

I'm eagerly anticipating the next set of songs from Goodnight Lenin.

I would so love to see the rancorous dispute between UB40 and their former lead singer resolved. Ali left, noisily, some years ago. Now, equally noisily, he is fronting a rival operation and aggressively laying claim to the name of the band that he, let us remember, actually left. This does nobody any good, least of all the remaining members of UB40, who picked themselves up and set about damage limitation on several fronts with courage and dignity, not to mention solid musicianship. All this demeans and cheapens a noble name.

I hope for good things from among others, Chris Cleverley and Harriet Harkcom.

Otherwise? I hope to be enchanted and surprised by more fresh and wondrous talent. That's certain to happen - just don't know when.

Hopes for 2015: Broadcasting

Auntie
It's no secret: I would love to see more national BBC output generated from the Midlands, to reflect the talent we have in abundance. Who knows? Only the BBC, and they ain't telling. Again.

The rise of the hybrids. 
New media, new platforms. It's coming, and when it gets into gear, this could be a game-changer. The keys? Cheap tools for one, but what is essential, mission-critical in fact, is clear and precise strategic thinking. Put that together, and things will change, and faster than anyone expects.

Local Television
After an embarrassing set of stumbles, we are, finally, due to get a local TV station in February next year. It will, now, largely be run by local professionals who understand television, which is a good thing. I wish them all the luck in the world - because they will need it, and a lot more besides - and humbly suggest that they take a good hard look at the wealth of videos on offer from local talent. 

Have a wonderful end of year. 

See more posts on venues, posts on broadcasting and posts on music business on Radio To Go

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