Well, its that time again folks. That’s right, Brit Vote Rigging time. The idea of having certain awards open to the public to vote for is both an exercise in widening the democracy of the event and to get people involved. People think the Brits are all rigged and voted for by five blokes at EMI. This is not true, there are some very strange choices on the very large “academy” (mine included). Nevertheless farming out four or five awards to MTV, Radio 1 and The Sun to add to the excitement of the event stumbles when the very accessible system they use is prey to attempts to vote rig. Unfortunately this will come with the territory (cf the Belle & Sebastian scandal two years ago) and in the end should be seen as part of the fun. Everyone will try and do it, no-one moaned that Fran’s bit of stuff voted multiple times for Pop Idol. The most rabid fan base wins.
But then since when were the Brits, or any award, about quality? To pretend otherwise will be a sham. The votes for the academy led awars are all Single Transferable vote, a voting system which leads to a blanding out of taste. That is what will be awarded tomorrow. The most acceptible, the least offensive. Which is possibly why the Gorrillaz will not win anything.