UK Americana artists need to keep calling on broadcasters and the wider media for more airtime, a panel at the Americana Music Association (AMA) UK Conference has urged.
Drew Hill from Proper and Del Querns from Music’s Not Dead made the comments as part of a seminar at the AMA UK Conference, taking place in London 2 February.
Commenting on the current health of the genre, Drew said that while it was becoming more respected, it needs more support from broadcasters, particularly as there had recently been a big swing towards ‘big hat wearing country music’ to the detriment of Americana artists.
‘It certainly feels that without the support of Ralph McLean and Bob Harris that there aren’t that many people at the BBC willing to go out on a limb and support Americana,’ he said.
‘However, these things are cyclical - we’ve seen that with jazz, folk, with world music. There’s no doubt in my mind that radio and specifically the BBC really does help drive sales - so all of us in this room need to keep on at the Beeb so that Americana gets its airtime.’
Del suggested that the genre was also suffering from getting 'grouped in with country music'.
'This immediately turns a lot of people off,' he explained. 'They think 'I just don’t buy country music' and believe Americana is the same thing.'
Elsewhere on the panel, Joe Porn from Music Glue suggested that the success of artists like Mumford & Sons was important to the genre.
'Although Mumford and Sons and Bear’s Den are not necessarily Americana, they have done a lot to open up the general public to a style of music that maybe people weren’t listening to on a mass market level before,' he stated.
Visit theamauk.org for more information on the genre and conference.
Drew Hill from Proper and Del Querns from Music’s Not Dead made the comments as part of a seminar at the AMA UK Conference, taking place in London 2 February.
Commenting on the current health of the genre, Drew said that while it was becoming more respected, it needs more support from broadcasters, particularly as there had recently been a big swing towards ‘big hat wearing country music’ to the detriment of Americana artists.
‘It certainly feels that without the support of Ralph McLean and Bob Harris that there aren’t that many people at the BBC willing to go out on a limb and support Americana,’ he said.
‘However, these things are cyclical - we’ve seen that with jazz, folk, with world music. There’s no doubt in my mind that radio and specifically the BBC really does help drive sales - so all of us in this room need to keep on at the Beeb so that Americana gets its airtime.’
Del suggested that the genre was also suffering from getting 'grouped in with country music'.
'This immediately turns a lot of people off,' he explained. 'They think 'I just don’t buy country music' and believe Americana is the same thing.'
Elsewhere on the panel, Joe Porn from Music Glue suggested that the success of artists like Mumford & Sons was important to the genre.
'Although Mumford and Sons and Bear’s Den are not necessarily Americana, they have done a lot to open up the general public to a style of music that maybe people weren’t listening to on a mass market level before,' he stated.
Visit theamauk.org for more information on the genre and conference.
