A change in Sheffield’s music scene

A major turning point for Sheffield’s music scene was the massive success of the Artic Monkeys. Around the time of the monkeys rise to fame there were many bands surfacing from Sheffield creating a very busy music scene for a few years. However, after this surplus of music there seemed to be a couple of years where music in Sheffield wasn’t really heard.

More recently the scene has grown and changed, for most people if you asked them to think of a band from Sheffield their answer would probably be along the lines of the Artic Monkeys or maybe pulp. It seems to a lot of people that Sheffield’s entire music scene was shaped by bands like Pulp or Heaven 17 but is defined by the Artic Monkeys who are still a very relevant band globally. 

There have been bands from Sheffield that have had air time but because of their accents and their sound they are usually seen by the mainstream media as an ‘Artic Monkeys rip off’. 

Joseph Food, editor of Exposed magazine, said “Until a band comes along that’s bigger or just as big as the Monkeys that sound a lot different that kind of thing is going to stay in peoples heads.” 

The success that the Artic Monkeys have achieved for some people can be really inspiring, if they see that a band of boys from High Green have made it to this global phenomenon then it might give them some hope that they can achieve the same thing no matter the place they were born as it has been done by multiple bands in the past. 

However, because of this label of a ‘rip off’ band a lot of Sheffield based bands have started to steer away from the pop punk sound that a lot of big Sheffield bands are known for. Therefore, limiting Sheffield’s music scene to this genre does not show the true diversity in sounds that are existing within the city.

One person that has been gaining a lot of attention from music journalists in Sheffield is Otis Mensah, who was named the poet Laureate by the lord mayor Magid, he is known as an alternative, hip-hop and spoken word artist. Which is a newer sound that has formed within Sheffield that is gaining a lot of traction.

Food spoke about the increase of spoken word artists in Sheffield saying “Poets have kind of started coming to the front of Sheffield’s music scene, I think its really interesting and exciting.” 

Although Sheffield’s music scene for a long time was labelled as this pop punk and rock scene it is clear to see that this is changing and that the city’s creative scene being pigeon-holed by a single band or genre is loosening allowing more incredible artists to be seen by the world. Though it is impossible to forget the giant impact that the Artic Monkeys had on the city it is important for everyone to see that the talent in Sheffield runs way deeper and has a much larger variety than what has been seen before.