DON'T BELIEVE THE TRIPE

If there's one thing that vexes me more than those smug, self-congratulatory end-of-year critics' polls, it's the same critics' self-serving predictions of musical 'ones-to-watch' in the forthcoming 12 months.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good list as much as the next mildly autistic beta male, even if I find the whole Nick Hornby schtick slightly tedious in polite conversation. The problem is that it doesn't take Nostradamus-like levels of prescience for music journalists to predict what's going to be big in the next year when they're so obviously instrumental in setting the musical agenda.

So when the NME tells us that the Klaxons will be big in 2007 (and against my better instincts I actually quite like the Klaxons, even if their new single does sound like Spandau Ballet) , it's an entirely self-fulfilling prophecy, as their young and hugely impressionable readership will lap up whatever's thrown at them, so long as it's cutely-packaged with good hair. And why shouldn't they? This is exactly what I did when I was 16. The Internet may have allowed people to be more discerning in their tastes, but never underestimate the pull of the well-oiled media hype-machine when it comes to dictating musical trends.