We Asked the Teens of 2018 if They Know What the BRIT Awards Are

Many moons ago, when I was still at school, the BRIT Awards were interesting/relevant enough to be a talking point among friends. If I close my eyes and concentrate really hard, I can just about picture a time before the red carpet resembled a conveyor belt of faceless orbs that could be either Rita Ora, Sam Smith or Ed Sheeran when squinting. These were times of fucking weird production and possibly very gakked up presenters. When Cat Deeley arrived riding a giant champagne bottle. When Oasis sang Blur’s “Parklife”. When Geri Halliwell slid down a fireman’s pole and screamed “Show me yer boobs!” before ripping off her shirt to reveal what looked like a Primark support bra. Chaos reigned, mishaps were standard and British celebs looked like your aunt's book club pals rather than Instagram influencers peddling health smoothies.

Fast forward to now, though, and I have no idea who watches the BRIT Awards other than music journos, PRs and managers. Young people, especially, don’t watch traditional television anymore – they just watch their friends' faces with superimposed puppy ears and snouts – so I doubt anyone’s showing up to class tomorrow being like “omg, our boy Beck won international male solo act?! Sick!” But all of this got me thinking… do teenagers know what the BRIT Awards are? Like, do those three words mean anything to them? And if they don’t, where does that leave them? So many questions. I ran outside the office during half term to find out some answers.

Noisey: Hey! Do you know what The BRITs are?
Max: *Shakes head*

Do you think anyone your age is interested in them?
*Shakes head* Do you think anyone your age is interested in music awards in general?
*Shakes head*

Do people just not watch TV?
*Shakes head*

Nice chatting to you, Max!

Do you know what the BRIT Awards Are?
Ellie: I've heard of them… I think? I don't know what they are.

Do you have any idea if anyone your age watches them?
Not really, to be honest. I think it's just not important anymore. It's like Top Of the Pops – that's something my parents watched when they were kids. But you don't need that anymore to know what's trending.

What kind of thing do you watch instead?
I don't watch anything; I use social media.

Have you ever watched The BRITS?
Aoife: I've watched clips… but I've never sat down and watched the full show. If I found out that an actor that I like won something, I might look it up?

Do people your age watch television?
Maybe some do, but not on such a regular basis like when we were little kids.

Do you remember watching The BRITs as a kid?
Literally no.

What can you tell me about The BRIT Awards?
Abby: I know that they're the biggest British music awards and they're really famous.

Do you or your mates ever watch it?
Nah, people don't really watch TV anymore. Maybe with their parents? But I can't imagine anyone sitting down and watching.

Do you think they'll die out because younger generations aren't interested?
Possibly! But for people in the music industry, maybe not? I like reading about it on the internet afterwards and seeing what everyone wore, but that's about it. All I can remember is that time Adele won 'Album of the Year' and she swore.

Do you know what The BRIT Awards are?
Leigh: They're awards for… I don't know.

Do they have any relevance whatsoever?
I can't say that they are at all relevant to my daily life, sorry.

Does anyone your age ever speak about them?
No one that I know anyway… nope, never heard that at all.

What do you know about The BRIT Awards?
Sarah: I just know that it's an award show on television… I don't know what it's for though.

So I'm guessing you've never seen it?
No! I see some people tweet about it on Twitter, though, if someone they like did well in it or something? Otherwise, I would never know if it's on or anything like that.

You can follow Daisy on Twitter.