We like to party, party

It's a sad sad sight. A previously affluent industry pooling their last few coppers and trying to party like the good times are still rolling.

We've all seen the stories. Illegal downloads are killing music. The Internet is murdering the purveyors of our melodies. Dear sweet Lord...how brave they are to celebrate their talent for our entertainment when they know we'll all be back to Pirate Bay tomorrow.*

But hang on. What's this? Their much diminished profits stretch to hiring the O2 and getting James Cordon, he of the limitless knowledge and passion for the popular ditty, to compare? It's hardly sack cloth and ashes now is it?

This then was the year the music industry had a go at making the Brits relevant again. New venue, new host and goodbye to the 'Outstanding Contribution to Music' award. They even allowed some of the acts who waver between alternative and mainstream come along for a cheeky vimto or two.

Did they manage to rejuvenate the format and make us all see why we need record companies so much? Maybe...a little...well, it had more of the fun and small acts of tongue in cheek rebellion.

Take That opened the show with one of those little wry nods and as much social commentary as a grown up boy band can muster. A full battalion of TT-branded riot police kettling the band as they sing new single Kidz ("there'll be trouble when the Kidz come out"). It was good fun, it was even uite funny, but it also had the faintest whiff of political and social commentary so sadly absent from pop music for the last decade or so.

And the awards went to? Well, a mix of cyborg pop puppets (hello little Justin Beiber, Take That), the urban heroes (Tiny Tempah, Jessie J) and misfits (The Arcade Fire, Laura Marling). They also gave something to Mumford and Sons, a band in the vein of the Wurzels without the charm of having a song about a combine harvester.

A lacklustre performance from Rihanna, a shambolic duet between Cee Lo Green and Paloma Faith, and a number of presenters called up from Pop Glory Past. It might not have re-invigorated the award ceremony format but it recaptured the indulgent fun of Brits past.

* I do not in anyway endorse or encourage the practice of illegal downloads. I mean sure, most people are just trying before they buy and go and spend their cash on music anyway but still. It's illegal. And you mustn't even think about doing it.