Sky’s news story was based on an analysis of the results from music steaming platform Spotify’s Application Programming Interface (API). It revealed that songs from genres with more spoken words like hip-hop and grime have been nominated for more mainstream music awards than others in recent times.

Commenting on the decline of rock acts being represented, Professor Zagorski-Thomas said,

These sorts of artists used to sell albums, but not singles. The album has sort of disintegrated and doesn't exist anymore, but rock acts tend to still put out things that look like albums.

The streaming for each of the tracks on the album probably adds up to the same number of streams as the one 'hit' that an artist from another genre has produced. And rock artists are also selling out larger tours for the most part.

We're likely to see a continued lack of rock acts [among song of the year nominees] because that kind of buying or streaming of rock singles is diminished, but that doesn't mean rock is less successful than it used to be. It's just hidden behind a more nuanced set of statistics."

The Brit Awards is one of the major events in the UK music calendar. Freddie Mercury, who attended UWL when it was known as Ealing Technical College, won four Brit Awards as a member of Queen. Another former student, Little Simz, was shortlisted this year for Best Hip-Hop Act and Artist of the Year.

The big winner at The Brit Awards 2024 ended up being Raye, who made history by winning more awards than any other artist in one evening by collecting a total of six Brit Awards out of her seven nominations.

LCM, which is part of the University of West London, is the largest specialist music and performing arts institution in the UK and was established over 130 years ago.

As an all-Steinway school with one of Europe's largest studio complexes, LCM offers an impressive range of innovative courses which are respected worldwide and delivered with creativity and passion by our expert staff.

• Find more information on courses and facilities at the London College of Music
• If you are looking for a knowledgeable expert, contact communications@uwl.ac.uk
• See the full article on the Sky News website