After hosting the first Awards for World Music in January 2002, the BBC announced in august 2008 that they were being axed. Had they run their course, would someone step in to save them, do we actually need awards ? Jill Turner set out to find some answers.
A Brief History
The concept of Awards for World Music were first proposed by fRoots editor Ian Anderson after witnessing the positive impact that the Radio 2 Folk Awards had in lifting the British Folk music scene. His initial proposals were received enthusiastically by Radio 3 controller Roger Wright where world music was beginning to find its home on the BBC. Indeed so enthusiastic were the BBC that they incoroporated the fRoots Critics album of the year as part of the overall BBC Awards for World Music.
Further partnerships were formed and nominees for the awards were derived through votes from delegates at WOMEX, the annual world music trade fair. Once collated the votes, in each category would be distilled into a shortlist of four ready for the jury, to ponder over, discuss and decide the eventual award winner.
Whilst they have become embraced for their influential role, this has been mainly by the music industry itself, the distributors, labels, djays and journalists. Keen list scanners, over the years began to see repetitions of nominations, there became the syndrome of the usual suspects. Was there a bias towards the larger labels, given that most of the global roots music is published by small independent labels ? Was it fair that you could only be nominated for an award if you had released a cd in the year in question?
Oh save me from all these people with too much time on their hands.
The longer the awards went on for the longer the lists of controversy, the audience award, although a predetermined short list was the only category in which Joe and Joanna Public, the cd buyer and radio listener could vote in but it wasn’t without controversy. Remember, Seize the Day and the threats of naked protests. Then there was the attempt to rebrand the awards as The Planets, not sure where this came from but it certainly didn’t take off, they had always be regarded as The Radio 3 World Music Awards, just like a Dyson will always be a hoover.
Even this year the poor BBC seemed that they couldn’t get things right with their decision to broadcast the Award Winners concert as part of the Summer Proms season and the decision not to invite certain winners to this event but to include them in a smaller “industry only event held earlier in the year to announce the nominees”. This too was criticised but for all the possible reasons it was for not having enough pzazz and glamour.
To quote Ian Anderson in a recent telephone conversation, “Oh save me from all these people with too much time on their hands, awards in general will always have positive and negative points but the positive always wins out. There's a boost to music in the area of the awards, it gives mainstream media and excuse to publish news on the subject and retailer and excuse to push more music. Regardless of who wins it means that the music is afforded a more serious look and we couldn't risk letting the music vanish back into the woodwork because the BBC have axed the awards”.
I doubt that would be a consequence as there are so many avenues through which to explore music currently and good music shouldn't have to rely on the BBC for exposure, as much as it did in the past. On that point, Ian goes on to say that awards, “provide a focus once a year.” He's a great admirer of the Mercury Awards for Music, not the fact that you have to pay to participate but the strength of just being known as a nominee, without having to win.”. He quickly follows that up with his delight in being able to reveal ten nominees in the fRoots Critics Album of the Year award. One immediate benefit of no longer being incorporated by the BBC as one of their four nominee categories.
So what about all the other aspects of the awards, now a regular fixture in the calender of events and with all the reported positive benefits and the industry momentum behind them, it seems they should continue.
We want to make a strong retail event.
At a meeting of interested partners, the promoters Serious, Songlines, the Rough Guides and WOMEX delegates it was unanimous that the awards should continue even if there was no money in the pot, everyone had energy and enthusiasm. Ben Mandelson suggested that Songlines should come up with something.
Songlines, have now announced that they will be picking up the award ceremony baton, dropping the word “World" from the title and and running with the Songlines Music Awards, which will comprise four four categories, Best Artist, Best Group, Best Newcomer and Best Cross Cultural Collaboration all culminating in an award winners concert at the annual WOMAD festival. When speaking with Paul over the telephone, he told me that before being invited into the Songlines magazine relaunch, his publishing background included a stint at The Gramophone, who he advises me, “know how to put on a good awards ceremony”. This in turn created the desire to apply this knowledge in the field of world music but then there was the little matter that the BBC had come out with their awards first. Songlines have always been behind the BBC in support of their awards for World Music and over the phone Paul’s absolute delight in their new opportunity was apparent, “ The BBC has a lot of red tape and there are so many initiatives out there but they have no strong retail ties. We want to represent, celebrate and hopefully introduce people to more weird and wonderful sounds. So many good artists just aren’t selling that many cd’s, we want to make a strong retail event and increase the profile of Songlines Magazine”.
On the question of inter magazine rivalry Paul said, “We’re specifically not having an album of the year and are leaving this to fRoots, the two magazines are working together”. Ian added, “its ridiculous for two magazines to compete, its absolutely complimentary”. Another positive to have come about, the once well reported inter magazine rivalry has been put to one side for the benefit of the music.
On talking with both parties it is clear just how much momentum has built up behind the annual awards and this could not be allowed to fall away. fRoots are delighted to continue with the album of the year as they have done for the last 22 years. Broadening out the album based awards, there will be further categories for the Best Compilation / Reissue and Best Packaged Album. This was felt important as compilations in particular attract a large proportion of the votes which could skew the result. The year the Robert Johnson compilation won album of the year was cited as a case in point.
Democracy in Progress
So how’s it all going to work I hear you ask….
One thing for sure is the accent is firmly on the cd, not necessarily the sale although retailers, pr people and distributors should be rubbing their hands with all the extra publicity and strategic partnerships.
For any award nomination, it is clear an artist will have to produce a cd. For Songlines it will need a UK distribution and crucially it will need to have been reviewed in their magazine. Voting details will appear in the forthcoming issue with a street date of 12th December . There will be an initial list of qualifying candidates who’s albums have been reviewed in Songlines Issues # 50 - #57. Voting is open to all Songlines readers through their website and also subscribers to the WOMAD e-list. The shortlist will be confirmed by the end of March for publication in the May/April 2009 edition of the magazine, the jury of Songline’s editorial staff will then decide the winner in time for WOMAD in July.
For fRoots, its business as usual with votes cast for anyone who has published a cd of music relevant to the magazine during the period mid Nov 07 – mid Nov 08. The votes are cast by over 300 people invited from across the industry and around the world, labels, distributors, journalists, djays Womex delegates, compilers of the European World Music charts etc.
The album in each category with the most votes wins, simple. This year the best album will be announced on Charlie Gilletts programme Friday December 5th.
You can see a list of the nominees in the 2008 fRoots Critics Album of the Year below.
You can start the retail event ball rolling by clicking on the widgets below and ordering cd's for your beloved. As with all the Amazon widgets on the website any sales generated will result in a small comission coming our way tto help offset some of our expenses.
