These Boots Were Made For Dancing

By Joe Kavanagh

It is difficult to overstate the profound changes that have blown through the world of music since the emergence of the internet, ushering in a malaise that record companies and artists alike are still struggling to come to terms with.

In less than a decade, album sales have shrunk to the point of almost being irrelevant to all but the highest selling artists in the globe, and for all the talk of how the internet has allowed artists to connect with their public as never before, quite how those artists are expected to make any money is open to often impassioned debate.

As an illustration of just how patterns have changed in the past few years, it is interesting to take a look at the list of the best-selling albums of all time, leading off with Michael Jackson's 108-million-selling Thriller, a record that will likely never be eclipsed.

In fact, of the top 31 selling albums of all time, which each sold over 25 million copies, 13 of them were released in the 1990s and only one after 2000, the latter being the Beatles, 1, which would tend to suggest that those buying it were of an older demographic and thus not the most internet savvy at the time of its release in 2000.

Of the 61 albums from history that have sold in excess of 20 million copies, only six have come in this decade, and four of those were in the year 2000.

No album has sold over 20 million copies since Usher's 2004 album, Confessions, which only squeaked onto the list at number 61, making the search for stars that can shift units all the more frantic among those labels that have managed to stave off bankruptcy.

The internet may have made the talent pool larger than it ever was before, but the cold hard fact is that it has also decimated the number of anglers casting lines into that pool, in their search for the next big fish.

All of these machinations have served to add even more importance to beginning of year lists, where journalists and their ilk serve up those acts that they expect to break through on the international stage, with perhaps no other list in Europe being more influential than the BBC's Sound of 2009, which was released last week.

At its head is Little Boots, known to her parents as Victoria Hesketh, an articulate artist who exhibits still another characteristic that is an increasing feature of today's performers.

Where those in the past tended to stick to one sound, usually for convenience in a marketing sense as much as anything else, Little Boots and those charging along behind her are happy to embrace any sound, as long as it results in good music, making them far harder to pigeonhole, but far easier to enjoy by an audience that increasingly searches for diversity.

The days of an act just being punk, ska, heavy metal etc. are numbered and Little Boots is at the forefront of those ushering them out the door.

Born and raised just outside Blackpool, Hesketh grew up in a seaside city that bills itself as the UK's version of Vegas, which is probably true except for the fact that the people aren't as attractive, the buildings are shabbier, the weather is poor and you don't see too many people in Las Vegas with knotted handkerchiefs on their heads on sunny days.

Although she readily admits that growing up in Blackpool was central to her development, even Hesketh describes the city as being "full of strip bars and fat people walking round in swimming trunks, dying on the rollercoasters or murdering each other."

She found an easy escape from her surroundings, however, when at only four-years-old she began imploring her family to buy her a piano and though they could not afford one, an uncle of hers discovered an unused piano in a local pub and, after cleaning it up, she began a love affair that saw her soar through her grades as she learned classical and jazz styles.

The connection with music also inspired her to take up flute and harp and by her teens she had also begun singing, under the tutelage of "proper mental singing teacher with lipstick all over her teeth who made me sing Broadway numbers with a chair on my head."

As time went on, the love affair only deepened and she became consumed with the idea of pursuing a career in the only thing she'd found that she truly loved.

Her first flirtation with fame came when she auditioned for TV show Pop Idol (the UK version of American Idol) and although her voice was enough to see her through three rounds, her nervousness and lack of - in her own words - "a big personality" impeded her progress.

Although the rejection reduced her to tears at the time, it surely was only a good thing given the path she has subsequently taken.

Chastened, she returned to her school orchestra and even toured Europe with them, playing big band music, before playing in a local jazz band.

A true music junkie, she also spent time playing in a Blink 182 cover band and a local indie band called Rock Lotus Quest, before leaving to attend college in University of Leeds, where she took Cultural Studies and even did her dissertation on "The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum."

She also paid her way through university by playing piano at weddings and restaurants throughout the north east, and although she hated essentially playing Norah Jones cover versions, she sated her true love by continuing to perform in a variety of other acts, playing styles as diverse as jazz, prog-rock and indie.

Upon leaving university, she endured her second encounter with the edge of fame, when she and two university friends formed indie-pop band, Dead Disco, who were rated highly enough to be sent to LA to work with Lily Allen producer, Greg Kurstin.

Despite such success however, Hesketh grew disillusioned with their indie guitar direction and walked away from the band, which limped on until December of last year without her.

In her own words: "It was obvious to me that indie was getting boring, and things were going to go more pop. So I quit my guitar band and got my hands on a few synths, a stylophone and a Tenori-on, and started writing very melodic music." It would prove a prudent choice.

Early last year she assumed the name Little Boots, which had been given to her by a friend after watching the movie Caligula, not because she is an epicurean who thinks of herself as a god and is prone to murderous outbursts, but simply because the name means "little boots", which fit with her diminutive stature and love of boots.

Within weeks, one of her demos made it to Hot Chip main man, Joe Goddard, who was so taken with it that he worked with her on tracks that eventually emerged in the form of the infectious Stuck On Repeat, and the Arecibo EP, which spawned another single in the form of Meddle.

The two releases set off a firestorm of interest from critics, with hugely influential website Popjustice, calling her "the future of pop", while one hack notably described her style as "future pop with a twisted heart", and another referred to her as "evil Kylie".

Hers is pop music with impact and soul, intelligently written, beautifully arranged and a credit to her inspirations, which she lists as Kate Bush, Bowie, Kylie, a list of others and - in her own words - "walking around, getting thrown off the bus, buying bagels."

Several remixes of the tracks also emerged, making her a star on club dance floors and she moved to London to capitalize on her growing profile.

She soon tired of the party scene in the city and, on a whim, one night decided to set up a webcam and do a cover version, which she posted on Youtube.

The response was such that she began taking requests and doing a new cover version every week, which soon gained her a cult following on the internet as she churned out her own spin on tracks from artists as diverse as Haddaway, Girls Aloud and MGMT.

Now she sits at the top of a list that been adorned in past by names like Adele, 50 Cent and Mika, and the underground buzz has now burst into the mainstream in anticipation of her album, which is due for release some time in the spring.

While the hype certainly comes with its own pressure, given her poise and undeniably immense talent, expectations are that she will meet the challenge, although she recently confessed: "I think my biggest worry is that I won't sell any records. Because then I won't be able to make music all the time and that's the scariest thing in the world."

While that may be the case for other artists in this brave new world, Little Boots will surely be marching for many years to come.