Who is popular today?

Full of CGI and grating displays of wonder, the D:Ream keyboardist turned astrophysicist’s new show is either trying to teach us about the cosmos – or lure us into a sun-worshipping cultI’ve been trying to figure out who, based on the defining factors that shaped Professor Brian Cox’s keyboardist-to-astrophysicist career pivot, might be our next Professor Brian Cox. We all know his origin story by now: Cox was a roving member of the English-Irish pop-rock band D:Ream, who are only now remembered for the adopted New Labour anthem Things Can Only Get Better. TCOGB was first released in 1993; Cox’s broadcasting career hit its stride in 2010, a gap of roughly 17 years. This means our ideal candidate will have released a single – which did well, but did not lead to a sustained top-tier music career – somewhere between January 2003 and December 2004.Fame Academy’s David Sneddon is an early frontrunner, with his January 2003 chart-topper Stop Living the Lie. Justin from the Darkness and Paul from S Club 7 (who had left the band by the qualifying January 2003 period – this, to me, is very Coxian) are both in with a shout, as is Daniel Bedingfield. One of my personal preferences is Charlie from Busted, who in 2003 was ascendant, in 2004 was huge, and by 2005 had left to form Fightstar – a perfect microcosmic music career within our parameters. But looking at it realistically the only candidate is former Pop Idol winner Will Young, who has a nice soft voice, is very BBC Two-friendly (he’s already been on Gardeners’ World twice), and has a 2:2 in a boring subject (politics). If we can fast-track Will Young a PhD then we’re good to go. Continue reading...