POP WILL EAT ITSELF

The Pop on Trial series has been up and running on the red button on BBC for the last week. Tracks from the 50s to 90s have been shown. Stuart Maconie has worn progressively worse shirts as the decades have gone by whilst the music has varied from the gruesome to the glorious.

There will now be a series of shows and a panel(s) that decide which decade was/is the best. I'm not holding my breath but hey, here's the blurb:

BBC Four teams up with BBC Radio 2 to put British pop music in the dock. Over six parts, Pop On Trial scrutinises pop from the Fifties to the Nineties, reviewing the good, bad and ugly music of each period.

Stuart Maconie presides as three guests per episode debate the relative merits of each era and work towards a final judgement on the best musical decade.

A 90-minute finale invites one guest back from each programme to put their case for the best decade to a pop jury. The panel then makes the final decision on the best musical decade based on the evidence put to them.

While the TV panel examines the evidence, listeners to Radio 2's Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe Show decide their all-time favourite track.

This first episode scrutinises the Fifties, with musician Pete Wylie, pop historian CP Lee and eternal rock 'n' roller Joe Brown reviewing the decade in which pop was born, with the help of extensive archive material.

The panel discusses how Bill Haley – a middle-aged man with a kiss curl – imported rock 'n' roll to a nation of excited youth, whether skiffle brought Britain's first pop star in Lonnie Donegan and how a hip-gyrating bad boy called Cliff sang on Britain's first rock 'n' roll single.

Under Stuart's supervision, the guests look at the fashions and lifestyle of the period, give first-hand accounts of a music revolution taking place and see some of the most passionate, vibrant music performances which rocked the world to its very foundations.

An exclusive compilation of great pop performances from the Fifties will be available to digital television viewers after the programme via the Red button.

Pop On Trial is part of BBC Four's Pop! What Is It Good For? season celebrating British pop music.

So Maconie and his cronies will decide what era is the greatest. What a load of fucking bollocks!

Music is either good or bad. Somebody's bad is somebody else's good ... and frankly who cares?
My favourite era is the 70s - that's because I was a teenager then and if your favourite records don't come from your teenage years, well it's really not worth bothering.

As for the sartorially delinquent Maconie looking at "the fashions and lifestyle of the period" I think we'll reserve judgement! It is quite simply a series that should not be taken seriously and ought to be watched just to see the good, the bad and the ugly of whatever they deem to be pop music.

The whole look at pop on tv starts tonight with Pop Britannia (1/3) - BBC 4. 10.00pm - 11.00pm

The history of pop music from the aftermath of the Second World War to present day. This episode charts British pop from post-war to the early 1960s.programmes