This year we were invited to take part in the “Blog Sound of 2013” vote, which is where the crème-de-la-crème of UK bloggers come together to decide upon who we think will be the most exciting acts to watch out for in the coming year. The concept of the poll isn’t intended 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, whilst giving the nominated artists some extra publicity.
Last year’s final long list provided some interesting alternatives to the BBC list; most notably the inclusion of 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 now expanded with 49 UK blogs nominating their 5 favourite emerging artists. With just over 170 acts receiving 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. You will find the full 15 longlist nominees below, with the 5 most voted for acts, and the ultimate winners to be announced on the 2 January 2013.
AlunaGeorge – “Your Drums, Your Love”
Curxes – “Spectre”
Chvrches – “The Mother We Share”
Daughter – “Medicine”
Haim – “Don’t Save Me”
Laura Mvula – “She”
MØ – “Pilgrim”
Palma Violets – “Best of Friends”
Pins – “Shoot You”
Randolph’s Leap – “Hermit”
Rhye – “The Fall”
Savages – “Flying To Berlin”
Seasfire – “We Will Wake”
The Neighbourhood – “Let It Go”
Tom Odell – “Another Love”
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.
