Busybee
Norgdom
Perth Music2006 ARIA Commentary
Congratulations to Bernard Fanning and Eskimo Joe for winning the Album of the Year and Single of the Year ARIA Awards last night. It was great to see the rock bands back to the top of Australian music and also Australian Hip-Hop starting to get the respect it deserves.
In my mind, this years awards really showed the evolving nature of Australian music and by looking at the nominees and winners of most categories, you can see a few trends popping up here and there.
One trend that might be finally coming to an end is Australian’s love affair with manufactured Pop. Even though 3 of the 5 nominees for Highest Selling Single were ex-Australian Idols and 1 nominee was a cover, the award went to TV Rock for Flaunt It. It was quite a surprise to see a dance song as the highest selling single of the year but a pleasant surprise as a TV show wasn’t selling the song.
The Breakthrough Artist Award is a joke at the ARIA’s and should really be replaced with Best Newcomer Award. Having a look at the nominees for Breakthrough Artist Single Award proves this with the winner (Youth Group) being together for 10 years and releasing 3 albums, nominees Hilltop Hoods starting up in 1991 and releasing 5 albums and Gyroscope forming 9 years ago and releasing 2 albums. Surely a Newcomer Award would make more sense than awarding an old band with finally breaking through.
One category that shows a need for more Australian variety is Best Male. 2 of the nominees are on a break from their usual bands (Bernard Fanning and Bob Evans), leaving Ben Lee, Dan Kelly and Pete Murray. The only usual nominees missing are Alex Lloyd and Keith Urban meaning their are only 5 male Australian artists making music at the moment and Pete Murray and Alex Lloyd really make the exact same music. There was a time when we had John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Diesel, Tim Finn all making incredible music that was completely Australian.
Other things from the 2006 ARIA’s to take note of are:
Best Children’s Album is still dominated by 2 nominees with The Wiggles and Hi 5 winning 10 out of the last 12 years,
Australian Hip Hop has finally started to give up copying Amercian Hip Hop and thanks to groups like The Hilltop Hoods, it sounds good to hear an Aussie accent in a Hip hop song,
Even though Human Nature finally won an ARIA after 15 unsuccessful nominations, it was quite ironic that they won an ARIA singing other people’s songs (Reach Out:The Motown Album),
Great to see Album of The Year nominees The Sleepy Jackson and Augie March getting recognised for being artistic and not necessarily popular.
