Caroline Frost: The very act of me tuning into the BRITs is a sign for younger people to switch off

For this, I feel no shame and deliver instead two unmarriageable truths: 1 Chart music is for young people. 2 Young people do not watch primetime TV, or in fact any if you discount Love Island and the odd ancient Top Gear on a rainy afternoon.

This is borne out by the sliding ratings for the BRIT Awards, which hit a new low last year with an average audience of 2.5 million. The organisers were keen to highlight tip-top digital engagement, but that would seem only to support my case.

It wasn’t always the way. I’m of the generation who created my entire musical palette based on what the editor of Top of the Pops told me it was. While this had limitations – Black Lace, Bros, Bucks Fizz – it did mean that I was one of millions who were invested in the BRITs and tuned in religiously to see which one of my idols would walk off with the prize.

This, too, had limitations. 1983’s battle for best solo male artist saw Paul McCartney pitched against Cliff Richard, Phil Collins and Shakin’ Stevens, which is a bit like Rory Stewart battling with Alastair Campbell – differences are all relative. The era’s scarcity of female hit-makers also meant Annie Lennox won best solo female artist 12 years in a row (OK, in truth, only six times over that period, but still!).

However, what the show lacked in cultural breadth, it made up for with its wealth of water-cooler moments. These days, the lack of knowhow revealed by 1989 presenters Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood no longer seems so shocking. At the time their stupefaction in the face of technical chaos, plus their difference in height, was jaw-dropping.

In 1996, Michael Jackson was performing his indigestible Earth Song when Jarvis Cocker decided he could take no more, pointed his rear at the audience and was arrested. Two years later, the drummer from Chumbawamba, enraged by “Cool Britannia”, gave deputy prime minister John Prescott an ice bath. In between, Ginger Spice wore a Union Jack dress that later fetched £36,200 at auction. Era-defining incidents all.

Cocker and co clearly defined the line between establishment and disruptors, but music has moved beyond those boundaries. All playlists now have a bit of everything from rap to rock.

While our palettes are the richer for it, the BRITs ceremony can’t possibly keep up, particularly with only 16 awards to hand out, compared with the Grammys’ bottomless 94. Organisers clap loudly when an original talent like rapper Dave bags best album, but they’re secretly relieved by wins for crowd-pleasers Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.

For most of us at home, names like Dave, Charlie XCX and Beabadoobee mean nothing, but they’re not meant to. I just about wake up for Coldplay, making me the 2025 version of Grandma, watching the Top of the Pops Christmas special and singing along to Peter Skellern.

The very act of me tuning into the BRITs is a sign for the much cooler, younger people to switch off. It’s time for them to find their own thing. I don’t begrudge it. We had ours.

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The BRIT Awards 2025 airs at 8:15pm on Saturday 1st March on ITV1 and ITVX.

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