Just a quick response to a point made in Graham's post: I've never felt that the nastiness exhibited by the British music press had much to do with Tanita Tikaram herself, or the music she was making at the time. Many of the journalists responsible for making these remarks seem to think that adopting a posture of facile cynicism is the same as demonstrating critical acumen, when in fact there is nothing in the content of their writing to demonstrate even the slightest ability to comment knowingly on the subject at hand. Without exception the uglier aspects of this kind of gutter press begin and end with the most superficial aspects of Tanita's public persona. Certainly I agree that it is largely anti-intellectual, though perhaps only as a consequence of a stubborn determination on the part of those involved to stop at the surface of whatever music they may be listening to. No doubt we could each compile a very long list of other artists who have been dismissed and/or unappreciated in a similar manner, or, just as revealing, lists of over-exposed fad musicians who are extended far too much goodwill by the press despite their lack of talent (Kylie, anyone?). God forbid a journalist should actually have to invest some critical attention to the music they are paid to write about.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can see the pettiness of many of these comments. Anyone who has actually listened to a Tanita Tikaram album understands that she creates work that is far more complex than the press were capable of understanding at the time. Perhaps this is inevitable when the artist involved stands outside the fads of the day. The press in the early 1990's would have you think that her albums are morose intellectual chores to listen to, when in fact it she is often a joyous, sly and even goofy. It is a shame that certain journalists were never able to see beyond the cut and colour of Tanita's suits. Perhaps they would have understood her better if she had allowed herself to be photographed as a tart, like so many of her peers. It is to her credit that she resisted this tendency. Personally, I think there is political wisdom in the choices Tanita made as a teenager (compare her public persona as a teen on Ancient Heart , for example, to the persona of a teenage Christina Aguilera), wisdom that becomes more profound each year as younger and younger female singers with less and less talent are dolled up and paraded across an increasingly uncritical media. At the rate we are going, those black suits from early in her career are almost revolutionary, to say nothing of the songs themselves.
