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NME are proudly announcing that the Arctic Monkeys have seven nominations between them in the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008. They’ve also scooped an award for Best Pop at the South Bank Show Awards and are nominated for this year’s Brits.

It seems like if there’s an awards ceremony, the Arctic Monkeys will be invited along to it. ‘Serious’ music publications are falling over themselves to declare their genius and they’ve definitely spawned an industry of copycat acts.

However…Tom Clarke from The Enemy has some choice words to say about them:

When the ‘Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ video came out I thought ‘there’s a bunch of working class lads…playing a tune like they mean it and it’s quality’. I thought it was top. But I was bitterly disappointed when I got the second, ‘cos it’s just dull.

I’ve got a lot of respect for them because they’re an incredibly successful band but certain aspects of their music and certain aspects of their personality in the press just come across as dull.”

The gold came later in a comment about the Arctics prominent showing in various awards nominations, specifically NME: “They’ll probably win it because they win everything and they’re nominated for everything, but whether they deserve to win it is another thing.”

Tom’s hit the nail on the head with regard to the overrated nature of the Arctic Monkeys. I like what they do, it’s entertaining and witty music delivered without pretension (at least I think so). But they probably just don’t deserve the amount of acclaim they get from music mags like NME.

Once you overhype a band, it becomes a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes - everyone will nod in agreement until somebody chimes in with an “actually, they’re not that good”. Thank you Tom from The Enemy.

Poll Results

We ran a poll on this topic over February 2008. It was a close run thing, but ended with 113 votes, 63 of which said the Arctic Monkeys are overrated. And in fairness, they were the leaders of the poll up until about a week ago.

The poll is now closed, but the comments are open if you still want to have your say.