Ahead of the game

Sometimes, of course, I'm caught out.  Like when I cited two particular grime MCs in the early days of this blog who have since had crossover hits which in three out of four cases (I'll still stand up for "Take Me Back") are excruciating or worse (Elton John is by far the most bearable bit of the new "Tiny Dancer", and even he, even when he first recorded that, was just another shell in the end).

But more often, I actually think, I can lead the way in terms of inventive thought.  In 2004, I was posting extensively in various places - few of which I'd particularly want to revisit now - about the way those who had historically been part of the traditional elite had jumped on to pop music in the 1980s, and that this had had long-term ramifications for both pop and the society it exists in. Anyone could say that now and nobody would bat an eyelid.  But I was saying it before even I, let alone anyone else, had heard of David Cameron.

That is why I fear my current predictions may be correct.  To a substantial extent, I think I foresaw Cameron, and what he would mean for whatever his territory may eventually be, before he rose without trace in a way nobody else I have read did.  I hope I am not doing the same for future developments now.  But I fear I am.