Blog Sound of 2013 - Results

The Blog Sound of 2013 poll is a survey of UK music bloggers to find out what emerging artists they think are best.

The votes have been counted, the results are in and the winners can now be revealed.

Congratulations to the winners Haim, who narrowly held off runners up CHVRCHES by just 1 nomination!

The 5 artists that received the most votes by the 49 UK music blogs that took part in the poll are:

1st -  Haim

2nd - CHVRCHES

Joint 3rd - Savages

Joint 3rd - Pins

5th - The Neighbourhood 



The Blog Sound poll was run by Robin Seamer from Breaking More Waves and Andy Von Pip from The Von Pip Express asking 49 UK music bloggers what emerging acts they were particularly excited about.  The poll wasn’t intended to criticise the BBC’s Sound of list, but to simply represent the tastes of the voting bloggers.

The 2013 Blog Sound long list contained 7 acts that were also then revealed to be on the BBC Sound of List (AlunaGeorge, Chvrches, Haim, Laura Mvula, Palma Violets, Savages and Tom Odell) and 8 that weren’t (Curxes, Daughter, Mo, Pins, Randolph’s Leap, Rhye, Seasfire and The Neighbourhood).

In total just over 170 acts received at least 1 vote in the poll, but Haim and CHVRCHES were way ahead of the chasing pack when it came to the final count.  Pins and Savages, tied for third place with The Neighbourhood, the second US act on the list after Haim in fifth.

Of the five most voted for acts all of them are bands and four of them have lead female vocalists.  Two of the bands (Haim and The Neighbourhood) are from the US.

The winners Haim have been one of the most talked about bands of the last few months and were the second most blogged act by UK Hype Machine listed bloggers in 2012.  Haim consist of three sisters from California and were originally in a band with their parents called Rockinhaim.  They signed a record deal earlier in 2012 and will release their debut album in 2013.  Their sound fuses elements of classic rock, r ‘n’ b and pop and they have been compared with the likes of Fleetwood Mac, TLC and Wilson Phillips.

For us here at Scottish Fiction it's great to see CHVRCHES take a strong position, effectively the top UK act, and further boosted by their 5th place position on the BBC Sound Of 2013.

Blog Sound Of 2013

The Blog Sound Poll was first published in 2011.  The concept of the poll wasn’t to criticise the established BBC Sound of list, but simply an experiment to see if UK music bloggers could come up with its own list of emerging artists that was more representative of their community and give the artists that were nominated some extra publicity.  Indeed the idea was to compliment the BBC list in many ways by providing an alternative to compare and contrast.

Last year’s final long list provided some interesting alternatives to the BBC list; most notably it included Alt-J, this year’s Mercury Prize winners, who didn’t feature on the BBC list at all.

The Blog Sound of 2013 poll has expanded with 49 UK blogs nominating their 5 favourite emerging artists.  Just over 170 acts received at least 1 vote.  The winning act received votes from around 25% of all bloggers. 

The long list represents the very best of new music and draws from major label, indie label and completely unsigned acts.  The likes of Haim may be featuring on a lot of new music tip lists at the moment, but the Blog Sound poll also highlights lesser known bands such as Curxes and Randolph’s Leap, bands that do not have big PR representation, and this is what makes the Blog Sound list fascinating and exciting.

The poll was organised by Robin Seamer (Breaking More Waves) and Andy Von Pip (The Von Pip Express).

“Each blog was allowed to vote for five acts and the diversity of the nominations was staggering. Based on the evidence of the spread of votes anyone that says that music bloggers are sheep and are all writing about the same artists has got it wrong.  However, the results of the poll show that certain artists do have a lot of support and love from a significant portion of UK bloggers and those artists make up the Blog Sound of 2013 list,” says Robin.

The Nominated Artists For The Blog Sound Of 2013 

AlunaGeorge - Infectious R&B influenced pop from London

Curxes  - Dark industrial-pop electronic duo from Brighton and Portsmouth

Chvrches – Scottish electro pop trio formed from a variety of other bands

Daughter – Minimal / ambient sounding folk

Haim – Classic rock from LA with pop sensibilities

Laura Mvula – Jazz / soul singer hailing from Birmingham

MØ – Hip soulful female vocal electronic pop from Denmark

Palma Violets – Raw and energetic indie rock band

Pins – Edgily cool and raucous all female indie band from Manchester

Randolph’s Leap – Glasgow based indie folk pop with a twist of brass

Rhye – Smooth and blissful pop duo

Savages – Intense post-punk with female vocals

Seasfire – Modern rock band from Bristol who mix electronic beats with guitars

The Neighbourhood – Atmospheric Californian 5 piece rock / pop band 

Tom Odell – Piano based singer songwriter originally from Chichester

The 49 blogs who voted in the poll are:

A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Details Of My Life So Far, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, Folly Of Youth, Flying With Anna, God Is In The TV, Harder Blogger Faster, Howl, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Kowalskiy,  Love Music : Love Life,  Mudkiss, Music Broke My Bones, Music Fans Mic, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Bands Better Than Your Band, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Real Horrorshow, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory,  Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too, Storm’s Brewing, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Electricity Club, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Music Hoarder, The Recommender, This Must Be Pop, Von Pip Musical Express, 17 Seconds

Shortlist and winner announced 3rd January 2013 !

Get involved on Twitter using hashtag #blogsound2013

Personally I'm happy to see two of my five nominations make the long list, in the shape of Randolph's Leap and CHVRCHES.  As a Scottish blog focusing on Scottish music, it's great to see these two representing for north of the border.  However, the whole concept is far from patriarchal championing and the long list has thrown up a few bands I've heard of, and some I haven't, and shown the UK blogging scene has a wide and diverse taste, far from all following the same buzz bands.  I'd highly recommend getting stuck into listening to all 15 acts and enjoying the best the UK, and beyond, has to offer.