Right-Wing Media Watch: British music for British people? GB News’ latest culture war comes with a playlist
“The press release explicitly mentions ‘Northern Ireland’, so I’m expecting loads of Kneecap.”
GB News, the right-wing news channel, owned by British hedge fund manager Paul Marshall and Dubai-based investment firm Legatum Group, has announced plans to launch an ‘all-British’ digital radio station in November.
Called GB Music Radio, the new 24-hour station promises to be a “Fearless Champion of British Music,” playing exclusively artists from Great Britain and Northern Ireland. U2 fans, presumably, will have to look elsewhere and Christmas without the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York just won’t be the same.
The station will feature programmes including the Great British Breakfast and the Great British Drive Home, combining its music output with hourly news bulletins and traffic and travel updates. A dedicated website, GBMusicRadio.com, will also carry the station’s broadcasts.
According to GB News, the launch is the first in a series of initiatives designed to take the broadcaster’s content into new formats and celebrate Britain’s cultural contribution.
The station will stream around the clock, with every track performed by an artist from Great Britain or Northern Ireland, or by a band whose main proportion of members are British.
A GB Media spokesperson said: “We are a media company that has demonstrated its commitment to celebrating Britain and its rich culture.”
They added that the station would showcase artists from Great Britain and Northern Ireland “across the generations,” describing British music as one of the country’s “extraordinary achievements on the world stage.”
GB News chief revenue officer Ross Sergeant was equally enthusiastic, saying: “GB Music Radio gives advertisers something genuinely new: a station built around a single, warm idea that almost everyone in this country can get behind.”
British music, but who decides what counts?
The announcement attracted considerable attention online, although not all of it has been the enthusiastic reception GB News might have hoped for.
“British music for British people…” posted campaign group Leeds for Europe, capturing the nationalist overtones of a station whose central selling point is the nationality of the people making the music.
“Can artists refuse to have their music played on it?” asked one commenter, probing at the practicalities of a patriotic playlist.
Another wondered: “What happens if the British artists are signed to US labels or singing songs written by foreigners?”
The station’s inclusion of Northern Ireland also prompted mockery. “The press release explicitly mentions ‘Northern Ireland’, so I’m expecting loads of Kneecap,” one person joked.
Another commenter imagined artists “queuing up to remove the rights for this station to play their music.”
British music has, of course, never been a neatly bounded national product. The Blues, born out of African American experience, helped shape British rock and roll, while Caribbean rhythms transformed everything from ska and reggae to punk and British pop. Yes, British music has been enriched by migration, international collaboration and artists who routinely cross national borders. GB News’ promise only to play British music for British people, is therefore a little short-sighted, to put it mildly.
And whether the artists themselves will be keen to join the party, well that remains to be seen.
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