Music in the UK

I cannot describe the thrill from downloading my favourite songs from iTunes.

I've been digging out a couple of old songs from memory. In the early '00s I was obsessed with the music that was coming out of the UK. There were cheesy #1s (yes the stations were forced to play Bob The Builder when Can We Fix It? became #1) and there were epic chart battles (S Club's Reach lost to Sonique's Feels So Good, which went on to stay #1 for 3 weeks). Those were the songs of my life and truth be told, not many of my friends were in sync with the music I was in to.

I loved the distinctly British sound and character, always quirky, fun, never taking itself too seriously, yet producing some of the most wonderful voices (Gabrielle and Simply Red spring to mind). There were the amazing dance-tracks that ruled the chart, those days were DJs could be number one with epic dance tracks that spun and gained fame in the underground before exploding into mainstream consciousness (Roger Sanchez's Another Chance, Rui Da Silva's Touch Me). There were the already mainstream acts like Atomic Kitten, Blue, Kylie and Daniel Bedingfield, S Club 7, who relentless notched up hits every couple of months. The Spice Girls broke up and found #1s - Geri Halliwell's Bag It Up, Mel C's I Turn To You, Emma Bunton's What Took You So Long?. Victoria Beckham bagged a huge, huge #2 with Out Of Your Mind (I bought the physical, CD single), losing out by a small margin to Sophie Ellis-Baxtor's Groovejet!

To me there's always a bit of magic in British music. Something unexpected, something surprising. The songs on the chart don't sound much like each other - it's hard to capture in a single adjective (except those Westlife singles, for which the word would be "bleargh!").

My favourite artistes (except Britney Spears) have all come from the UK. However it took a relatively young, unknown, dramatic songstress (not you Cheryl) to blow everyone worldwide out of the water with her amazing vocals very very recently. It's about time, you know, for British music to surface to English-speaking territories far and wide instead of rolling in the deep.