Soul of 2008?

I’m about to conduct an experiment. I’m about to type the word “Duffy” into Google and see what it throws back. Come with me on this. It’ll be an adventure. Typing … Enter … Loading … Okay. In order!

1. Myspace.com – Duffy – UK.
2. Duffy – Official website coming soon.
3. Flash forward: Duffy | OMM | The Observer.
4. BBC – Radio 2 – Music Club – Duffy.
5. Duffy – Rockferry – youtube.com.
6. debris.org.uk: index (Funny animated and visual poetry and web art by Steve Duffy).
7. Duffy on Later with Jools Holland – watch videos!
8. Drowned in Sound – News – Duffy releases debut single, announces tour.
9. Peter Duffy Ltd – Civil Engineering and Utility Services.
10. Welcome to DuffyLondon (a range of contemporary digital art, photography, lighting and furniture created to order).

Of those ten, seven are the same Duffy. Three aren’t. I expect you, discerning reader, to be able to figure out which is which. I also expect you to read this as I do: it perhaps is a strange marker of our times – yes, we really do live in a world in which your fame can be quantified by your ubiquity on the mighty Google, brought up by any average web-hound feverishly tapping away with two index fingers.

So, to business. Who is this Duffy? What are her political leanings? Has she read Paradise Lost? Well, to start with, she’s a musician. Yes, this is one of those articles. An article on the latest 'emerging' act, someone who will likely be so famous by the end of the year you’ll wish that instead of recording that lo-fi single in their bedroom they'd just stayed home, had a cup of tea, looked up the Positions Vacant in the Shropshire Bugle and gone to work for minimum wage at Waitrose - thereby rendering them completely incapable of ever invading your car, work or home stereo ever again. The NME won't touch you if you've worked at Waitrose.

Interestingly though, that’s kinda what Duffy did, and still she’s the subject of this article.