18 August 2005
James Blunt’s ‘You’re Beautiful’ followed at number one by its transatlantic kissing cousin, Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad Day’, both colossal chart and radio hits: what’s this as a trend of 2005? Early ’90s grunge, post-Alanis late-’90s confessional rock and the cult of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ had all congealed into the ’00s singer-songer: “authentic”, sensitive, bland enough to be an Everyman to all. I’d also throw in the early ’00s post-Westlife ascendancy of “relatable” guy-next-door male singers (Will Young, Gareth Gates, Ireland’s You’re A Star breakout acts, even solo Brian McFadden) with a line in mundane observation and domesticated romance: no Motown-style bad ‘uns or Bonnie Tyler cataclysmic events of the heart, just the daily wear and tear of a life-sentence relationship. My scare quotes around “authentic” and “relatable” are because those are contestable terms: record companies in 2005 knew that music tagged with those keywords topped the charts, in the same way you could get a sure-fire hit in 1975 with “glam” and “tartan”.
If ‘Bad Day’ could be said to have any such ambition or forward momentum, it chases down that Westlife-style rom-dom balladry and ’00s singer-songer posture with eyes on the prize. It’s relentlessly dreary and humdrum by design. The video (below) solidifies the vibe of the lyrics: a bad day in Powter-world is really just your average morning commute, working hours and evening commute again. This, though, is “relatable” catnip for radio programmers. Your presentation went badly? Boss on your case? Have a wallow with the relatable sounds of Daniel Powter! He feels your Weltschmerz! There’s more to life than this, and there’s certainly more to pop music than settling for mere Powterism.
