Zavvi, latest high street victim, goes into administration

Zavvi, the music retailer formerly known as Virgin Megastores, has been placed in administration, adding further woe to an already miserable year for high street shops and music retailing.

Zavvi's website has been unable to sell anything since the collapse of the Woolworths-owned EUK distributor, Zavvi's main supplier. It has been reported that Zavvi owed a substantial sum to EUK. Administrator Ernst & Young have said they'll try to keep the chain running until a buyer can be found for the business.

In the same week as Whittard of Chelsea and The Officers Club folded and Woolworths' administrators began to close their shops, Zavvi's failing will leave even more shopworkers concerned for their 2009 outlook; the company operated 125 shops across the UK.

If Zavvi closes it would leave the record industry with just HMV, owners of Fopp and Waterstones, as the last major music chain selling their physical products on the high street. It's unlikely that pressure from supermarkets and the internet, in particular Amazon, will let up on the business, but the failures of Woolworths and Zavvi in quick succession should at least give His Master's Voice a breathing space.

In better news, independent record seller Rough Trade, celebrating its 30th birthday in 2008, reported its business growing by an impressive 7% year-on-year despite being caught up in the failure of the distributor Pinnacle earlier this month. If big chains failing offers hope to the likes of Rough Trade, perhaps there's some semblance of a silver lining to the gloom. Here's hoping so at least.

Does your music define you?

Widely reported across the news networks (and on BBC News) is a study by a Professor Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University which claims musical taste and personality type are closely related.

Apparently people can be lumped in to genre categories, much like some music publications lump music. And it seems being a Metallica fan tells the admen lots about you. Over to the Prof: "If you know a person's music preference you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to."

This might be rather sinister were it not so obviously flawed. It presupposes that classical music fans would only ever listen to classical music; that Metallica fans would only ever dress in black and thrill to the sound of Kirk Hammett's axe.

At least he clarifies one thing: "The general public has held a stereotype of heavy metal fans being suicidally depressed and of being a danger to themselves and society in general. But they are quite delicate things."

The study claims that if you identify with whatever "indie" is these days (English boys strumming their way to major label Tesco success, perhaps) then you have low self-esteem, you are creative but not hard working and, most curiously, you're not gentle.

Yet I'm probably not alone in knowing of people who are as happy listening to a Philip Glass CD as they are throwing shapes to whatever Paul Oakenfold happens to be spinning. Depending on my mood I'm as happy with The Field's electronic dystopia as I am with the lonesome acoustica of Bon Iver.

Does the Prof understand the people he presumes to study? Do you define yourself by your music taste?

Classic FM, Schoenberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber

I switched on Classic FM in the car the other day only to hear Schoenberg being played. Things were looking up.  After a few seconds it was turned off though - it seems it was a quick illustration of how all atonal music is "rubbish".  The presenter was one Alex James, a blurry sort of fellow.

On the subject of populist opinions, it was amusing to see Andrew (The Lord) Lloyd Webber "getting angry" because of the public's poor opinion of who should or should not be Nancy.  Doesn't it occur to him that it's the public's shit taste which has put him where he is?

Paul Whelan

Congratulations to ENO for the coverage they've got out of the complete non-story of Paul Whelan singing from the wings at Lucia on Saturday.  Nearly every TV news programme, and plenty of print media besides, have fallen for it.  I don't know if the team at ENO did it themselves or if they got an agent in but they've done a great spin job.  Well done to them.