Does the BBC's Star-Studded Music Video Represent an Institution Under Threat?

As you probably know by now, the BBC monopolised their entire network to blast out “God Only Knows”: a big name, back-patting rendition of the Beach Boys classic 1969 hit - released to drive both their new BBC Music initiative, raise some cash through sales for Children in Need, but also, and quite clearly, as a PR exercise for the BBC itself. Understandably, it featured all your favourite musicians that perfectly encapsulate British music culture, and whose music speaks to you on a deep and meaningful level, like: Jools Holland, Chris Martin, Dave Grohl (as God), Emeli Sande and more. Right?

It also gave some new musicians a real chance to shine. Although, when we say new musicians, we mean Jake Bugg. And when we say chance, we mean three seconds. Jake was assigned the complex lyrics of “la la la” and he somehow managed to absolutely nail it.

Great work Jake.

Lorde looked like she had tried to fly off the set, but after smashing into the windows repeatedly, had begrudgingly agreed to sit down and do her lines.

Elton John was covered in butterflies in such an oblivious way, that I reckon he’d be well embarrassed if someone pointed it out.

And, One Direction took a break from inflating all the condoms found in their collective wallets to deliver some pristine male pop harmony.

The video is supposed to launch a BBC Music Initiative - a plan that was unveiled back in June as "the biggest commitment from the BBC to music in thirty years." It's a far-reaching project - spanning radio, television and online - that they describe as an "ambitious wave of new programmes, innovative partnerships and groundbreaking music initiatives". Which is all well and good.

And reading through the initiative, you can see it includes a massive push for the new music credentials of BBC Introducing, with two new skills and events based partnerships, that aim to help emerging artists develop and give them opportunities in showcase events across America. BBC Four is going to bang out plenty more genuinely interesting docs about recent music history, like their recent series - Oh You Pretty Things - on music’s relationship with fashion. The websites associated with BBC Music are going to become more tailored to each visitor’s individual music tastes, which can only benefit vital offshoots like 1Xtra. This will all lead nicely into this winter's BBC Music Awards, which will hopefully shake the plastic pillars of the Brit Awards until it comes crashing down around James Corden's witty banter.

However, the video to supposedly "launch" all of this is so luxurious and excessively star-studded, that it utterly sanitises itself as a result, and feels quite alien in relationship to the initiative. Why the video is even being tagged with as the launch is surprising considering the BBC Music initiative launched four months ago and has been in action ever since.

Shown at the same time across BBC One, Two, Three, Four and Radio 1, 2, 4, 6 and 5 Live, it got the kind of coverage usually reserved for war announcements. And, indirectly, this is kind of a war announcement. A war against a spiralling decline that is besetting the BBC, as a reluctance towards the licence fee grows in a new generation of audiences who don't watch that much TV. Add to that a summer of the Conservatives trying to break them up, with journalist Polly Toynbee declaring at a Guardian fringe debate: “I think probably one of the most important things the Liberal Democrats have done so far by being in government is prevent the Tories selling off the BBC.”

In essence, the BBC knows it has something to prove and prove fast. So, as each political party in the UK begins to advance through the gears ahead of 2015’s general election, so too does the Beeb, well aware that the outcome could decide its future.

You don’t need to look far to find problems besetting the BBC when it comes to music. Radio 1’s station controller Ben Cooper admitted to The Independent in February of this year that despite the station being engineered to appeal to 15-29 year olds, the average age of listeners is jammed at 32. And as Alex Petridis wrote for The Guardian yesterday: “You could, if you wished, level a lot of criticism at the BBC’s music coverage, particularly of pop on TV: it’s too white, it’s too male, it’s obsessed with the past at the expense of the present, it’s a little too obviously aimed at the fortysomething dad slumped on the sofa, a couple of glasses of wine to the good on a Friday night.”

No surprise then that they pull out all the stops in this superstar-toting campaign video, which looks to firmly remind us that the BBC is still the biggest broadcaster in the world, and as far as they are concerned, everything is swings in the sky, smiling orchestras and Chryssie Hynde sitting on the moon.

It’s hard to tell whether those lyrics are directed at us or them. God only knows where the BBC would be without us: the licence fee paying public, or god only knows where we would be without the BBC: an institution of British broadcasting. Perhaps, the popularity of this sickeningly sweet, fairy tale fame-fest will go a long way to show if we are singing from the same hymn sheet as these lot, and whether or not we’re still all aboard HMS BBC.

Follow Joe on Twitter: @Cide_Benengeli