MBW Reacts is a collection of analytical commentaries from Music Enterprise Worldwide written in response to main current leisure occasions or information tales. Solely MBW+ subscribers have limitless entry to those articles. The under article initially appeared inside Tim Ingham’s newest MBW+ Evaluate electronic mail, issued solely to MBW+ subscribers.
If Sir Lucian Grainge bought an even bigger festive present for his daughter-in-law than for his personal son final month, Elliot Grainge would absolutely have understood why.
Grainge Jr. is, in fact, head of Atlantic Music Group, over at Common rival Warner.
Throughout Thanksgiving, a video landed on TikTok of Elliot’s spouse, Sofia Richie Grainge, dancing with a pal to a tune she loves: Messy, by UMG/Island’s Lola Younger.
By mid-December, that video, and the Messy dance craze it impressed, had gone berserko-viral. (Richie Grainge’s video has over 30 million performs; a ‘tribute’ TikTok from Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell has an extra 20 million. There are numerous others.)
Now, as we head for the twilight of January, this contagious sprinkle of influencer stardust has helped thrust Lola Younger firmly into the worldwide highlight.
Messy, already a UK No.1, is presently at No.25 on the Billboard Sizzling 100… and rising quick.
Younger’s dazzling efficiency of the tune on Jimmy Fallon the opposite evening has catalyzed the second, and her label at Island Data US (on a sizzling streak, by way of the likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan) is urgent the Massive Main Report Firm Button. Younger’s agent at WME (Kirk Sommer) is buzzing, too.
Don’t be misled by the Messy dance, nevertheless. This can be a slow-cook relatively than microwave story.
Younger’s identify was first talked about to me by Louis Bloom, Island’s UK boss, over a lunch six years in the past. Even then, Bloom was satisfied his newest signing may, in time, change into one thing the UK had lengthy been craving: a brand new British expertise able to gatecrashing the worldwide large leagues like Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, and Adele as soon as did.
Younger’s co-managers, Nick Huggett and Nick Shymansky, every have a roadmap of how one can navigate this promised land: Huggett signed Adele to XL Recordings 17 years in the past, whereas Shymansky was the long-time supervisor of Amy Winehouse. (Shymansky can be the nephew of… Sir Lucian Grainge. It’s a household affair, this story!)
What’s essentially the most heartening factor about Lola Younger’s profession explosion?
Talking selfishly (whereas daubing myself in red-white-and-blue), it’s that it nods in the direction of a possible shock development for 2025.
The UK is BACK, child!
Erm, M-UK-GA!
Along with Lola Younger’s ascent, the debut album from British rapper – sure, British rapper – Central Cee seems set to make a mark within the High 20 of the Billboard 200 this week.
Elsewhere, Polydor-signed UK act Chrystal is climbing the decrease half of the Billboard Sizzling 100, Myles Smith’s Stargazing has simply surpassed 600 million Spotify streams, and – with ‘Brat Summer season’ within the rearview – Charli XCX is about to have a giant have a look at the Grammys.
In the meantime, Headlock by one other British artist, Imogen Heap, initially launched in 2005, is quietly changing into a 2025 streaming hit. Boosted by TikTok virality and public super-fandom from Ariana Grande, Heap’s observe is presently registering 1.3 million Spotify streams per day, by way of an indie label: Nick Raphael and Christian Tattersfield’s NWS. (Raphael signed Heap to Sony 20 years in the past for her debut album, that includes Headlock. The copyright is now owned by the artist, licensed to NWS.)
Okay, Lola Younger apart, that is inexperienced shoots stuff. However for a UK market that’s been written off for years as “struggling within the US”, is a riposte lastly constructing?
Possibly. Simply perhaps.
M-UK-GA!
To my eyes and ears, Lola Younger represents one thing much more important than mere jingoistic verve.
She is the newest in a contemporary class of blockbuster alt-pop star brimming with originality and, most significantly, character.
You solely want take one look at Younger to know she’s uncommon.
You solely want hear a snippet of Messy (after which uncover it could also be a message to her mother and father) to know she’s flawed, humorous, and filled with struggle (“I’m not skinny and I pull a Britney each different week”).
And also you solely want learn the bubbling teen YouTube feedback beneath her Fallon efficiency to know the place that is all headed.
This theme extends into the front-running Grammy nominees this yr (Chappell, Kendrick, Billie, Sabrina, Beyoncé, Charli, Submit and so on.).
Be trustworthy: you won’t love all of them, however you’d be hard-pressed to argue that any of those individuals are boring.
Whisper it, however the current period of dead-eyed, forgettably excellent pop stars singing algo-jacked tunes is now… if not fairly totally over, then working out of steam.
And guess what? That is all nice information for the music business’s largest battle right this moment – towards the regurgitative menace of generative AI.
Blowhards at Silicon Valley’s Lightspeed Companions claimed final yr that AI platform Suno – during which Lightspeed led a $125 million funding spherical – would quickly be making “full-length songs worthy of high 40 radio airplay in mere seconds”.
Discuss lacking the purpose.
In 2025, ‘High 40-quality music’ means nothing if the particular person behind it doesn’t drop jaws, crack smiles, or swell hearts.
For a very long time, we on this enterprise have heeded the truth that, in music, it “all begins with a tune” – and it most definitely does.
Nevertheless it soars with a character.
On this matter, I’d encourage you to savor each phrase of this quote from the sci-fi creator Neal Stephenson – broadly credited as the person who invented the time period ‘Metaverse’.
In 2023, the Monetary Instances requested Stephenson why he wouldn’t be utilizing ChatGPT to co-write his future novels.
He stated: “My concept is that once we expertise artwork – whether or not it’s a online game or a Da Vinci portray or a film – we’re taking in an enormous variety of micro-decisions that had been made by the artists for explicit causes. In that approach, we’re communing with these artists, and that’s actually vital.
“One thing generated by AI may appear similar to one thing produced by a human, which is why individuals are so excited. However you’re not having that consciousness of communing with the creator.
“Take away that, and it’s hole and uninteresting.”
Hole and uninteresting. Sure certainly.
And never the slightest bit messy.Music Enterprise Worldwide
