Mercury Prize

Saw a bit on the news about the Mercury Prize winners, never heard of Alt J, but i liked what i heard, at least its interesting. Was quite surprised that the reporter went on to mention other acts that the mainstream won't have heard of but with the help of the Mercury Prize they may get some mainstream interest. One of these was Ben Howard, who even i have heard of and to be honest doesn't impress me. There are a huge number of acoustic guitar/songwriters out there now, and to me they have to pretty bloody special and i don't think Ben Howard is, but i had heard him. So how good is the prize in bringing the publics attention to abstract-ish artists. For me quite good, as i no longer buy music magazines, in hard copy or online so i suppose i'm out of the loop, preferring just to make some music and whack it online via a digital distribution company. Perhaps i should take more notice of trends............no sod that.