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ARIA brand takes a hit

Media today is now dissecting the remains of the ARIA Awards, following anger over the presentation on TEN on Sunday night.

Media today is now dissecting the remains of the ARIA Awards, following anger over the presentation on TEN on Sunday night.

Last night The 7PM Project played three “comic” presentation moments, including Jessica Mauboy, Bob Katter and Lara Bingle. The show of course comes from Roving Enterprises, a previous ARIAs producer. But even they couldn’t ignore some of the more alarming moments.

Celebs who had been involved in the night spoke up via Twitter.

Ronan Keating suggested they be called the Hilarias: “Cannot believe Guy did not get at least 3 Awards at Aria’s last night. Industry folk are a joke. Guy is best artist in the country.”

Eddie Perfect said: “And Jess Mauboy’s error could easily have been avoided. She made it in rehearsal. Terrible no-one corrected her, actually.“

Ricki-Lee: ‘For those that didn’t understand the joke that was scripted in last nights show with Eric Stonestreet – the ‘awkwardness’ WAS the joke….”

Meanwhile The Age suggests the ARIAs head off to Pay TV.

“The future of the ARIA Awards on free-to-air commercial television is in doubt following a disastrous showing on Ten on Sunday night,” it wrote. “The two-hour broadcast of Australian music’s ‘night of nights’ averaged just 624,000 viewers in the five mainland capital cities.”

The Herald Sun: “Producers tried a different tack with the show, broadcasting from the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.

“Presenters were perched messily on the edge of the crowd and lacked any authority.”

The Daily Telegraph said, “There is no dispute the performances of the 2010 ARIAs were its saving grace but the rest of it was so shambolic, too many people switched off before Washington pulled off her Broadway-style triumph or Sebastian rose to the occasion with his I Like It Like That choir.

“The resounding criticism was levelled at putting the presenters in the middle of the crowd on the Sydney Opera House steps where most of the winners, organisers and fans couldn’t find them. And their patter was cringeworthy.”

Yesterday The Australian said, “As well as the broadcast on Network Ten at 8.30pm, the MTV at the 2010 ARIA Awards Red Carpet was screened earlier on pay TV’s MTV from 6:30pm. It was no better.”

A number of readers on TV Tonight drew comparisons with a much better SBS broadcast of RocKwiz presents the ARIA Hall of Fame, produced by Renegade:

“Interesting contrast between the Rockwiz presented Aria Hall of fame and Ten’s main Aria presentation. One event was cool, sophisticated, funny and well produced the other was a bigger car-crash than the one that claimed young Ms Rafter last week!”

Rockwiz did a far better job with the hall of fame. A much more classy event”

“The Hall Of Fame event last week was fantastic. ARIA, please give the event to the same producers as the Hall Of Fame.”

64 Responses

  1. Just been reading through and have to agree, really, with Richard W. The problem is that the ARIAS are known as majorly indie, and the people who like their mainstream pop therefore don’t bother looking or listening via TV.

    And again, as its TV – the indie supporters don’t do that, because it IS TV (after all, its sort of like a reality show, with a few more winners).

    Perhaps if those taking on the show for 2011 keep these points in mind, might make it work a little stronger. Have noticed over the years there always seems to be one act each year that gets a whopping amount of Awards. And that always looks a little ‘rich’ and under the counter. Probably not, but thats how it comes across. Like awarding some actor 1/2 doz awards, it tends to look a bit odd.

    Congrats to those who won, I thought the pre-shows were great, actually got to one myself and couldnt fault it. And yes, I think Guy could have been given 1 award, but he really doesn’t need it, his voice and ability have always spoken for themselves over the 8 years

  2. @ Jason

    One last thing can you explain to me if Washington is one of the “least popular artists in the country” Why she had four sell out shows in Melbourne, and everyone one of her shows in Aust sold out? No you can’t cause you have no idea what you are talking about.

  3. @Jason says:

    “If you think that Australians make good music, then answer me this simple question…Why did only 680,000 people watch the show?”

    Because they are not interested in watching a crappy awards show; they were out seeing live bands; were out to dinner; listening to a CD; maybe they have a life and don’t sit at home and watch TV, do you want me to go on???

    What’s your point, if you don’t like Australian music that up to you, i don’t really care. Sounds like you are more interested in being a sheep and just following what everyone else does.

    The music industry in Melbourne is alive and well and you can pretty much go see a live band every night, but what would you know you think commercial radio is the be all and end all.

    There is heaps of fantastic Aussie bands just because you don’t know who they are doesn’t mean anything.

    You say “Im pretty sure everyone in australia agrees with me” Yer because you know pretty much everyone in Australia don’t you??

    You might think i sound old (which i am not).

    Thanks Andrew, once again your post has provided me with a great laugh. Goodbye

  4. @ V
    you couldnt be more wrong!!! Your comment is not even worth my energy for me to reply…but i will anyway.

    If you think that Australians make good music, then answer me this simple question…Why did only 680,000 people watch the show?

    You want to know why…just re-read my comment! I dont know what type of music your listening too..you sound like an old person to me. What i do know is that people like angus and julia stone, sia, and washington are the least popular artists in the country, and these awards are only so that they can get some coverage and are for sympathy. Although i hate guy sebastian…i still believe he should have won most of the awards..why..because he has been more successful than anyone else. its not about who is commercial or not commercial.

    Im pretty sure everyone in australia agrees with me, except for the 680,000 and You who watched on sunday night. Remember, from junior masterchef, 1.44 million people were leading into the show, and half changed channel. Why…because Australian music sucks! Period!

    Australian artists dont even compare to international artists, which is why no one watched the show. So you can go and listen to your JJJ music that no one even knows about LOL

  5. Really @Barry. Have to correct you on your statement.

    That is an old wives tale spread by disgruntled people who don’t like the artists who chart. For your information, yes accreditations do go on shipments, and once the accreditation is received it stays regardless of how many are actually sold. But ARIA chart position for the Weekly and End Of Year charts, and for that matter the End Of Decade chart released by ARIA at the beginning of this year, go on retail sales alone. How many tracks or albums actually sold. That is why the End Of Decade chart looked a little out of whack, with some albums and singles finishing much higher up the order than some albums and singles which had higher accreditations. Because ARIA positioned them in order of real sales, not in order of how highly they were accredited.

    You can rest assured that if an artist appears at #1 on the ARIA charts, that artist sold more than anyone else in that week or year or decade. Check the ARIA site and you will see I am correct. The charts go on retail sales. Accreditations on wholesale distribution. But these days it is difficult to over accredit a single as almost all of them are downloaded so there is very little opportunity for mass distribution. Still very possible with albums though. But the ARIA charts positions are awarded for genuine sales. AuspOp supply many of those figures each week in their Chart Watch.

  6. Hi David always enjoy your site

    so here is my view of things:

    Mainstream artists get snubbed most years but this year it seemed worse – Aria changed the rules this year to suit themselves. Where were the highest sales Aria nominations for example this year? Things like this added to the disharmony of the 2010 Aria Awards I reckon.

    Highest selling categories were replaced with a publically voted award system – which who officially regulated and made Aria honest and accountable as to who they thought winners should be???

    NoOne expects mainstream artists like Guy Sebastian to get a peer voted award from the “too cool for school” ARIA panel but he had the highest selling single in 2009 in actual sales that went 3 x platinum and the 2nd single went 2 x platinum from a platinum selling album – if the rules had not been changed this year, he at least would have walked away with an Aria or two for his high sales which would have kept his fans some what happy.

    ARIA stands for Australian Recording Industry Association and Guy is the only Australian male vocalist in ARIA Chart history to achieve four No. 1 singles. With over 1.6 million CD sales in Australia alone and 21 platinum and 2 gold in his 7 year recording career.

    Would it be too much to ask that an artist that has supported the Australian reccording industry with actual high sales gets a peer voted award after 7 years of consistent touring and gigging and delivering new music and albums on a regular basis over this time.
    .
    As a career artist, I think he has paid his dues and in today’s music culture where people prefer to swipe music off the internet rather than pay for it anymore, he supports Australian Music and its growth by people buying his music..

    I think more people would watch the Arias if mainstream or pop artists were acknowledged or represented more along with the indie artists.

  7. @v. No I don’t have you confused with anyone else. You make some terrific points. However commercial radio is its own business. It is not up to commercial radio to support someone else’s business i.e. the recording industry. If the Australian Recording Industry was still producing quality, mass appeal music then commercial radio would play it. Commercial radio spends a fortune on product research and only plays what appeals to its audience. It is listener driven.

    Mainstream = mass appeal, with a high public profile. Dan Sultan, Sia, Birds of Tokyo, Megan Washington and Angus & Julia Stone are not mainstream.
    Powderfinger, Eskimo Joe, Vanessa Amorosi, Jet, Guy Sebastian and even the Temper Trap are! Many of today’s mainstream artists have been discovered by Triple J. The unearthing of Killing Heidi is a great example. Again I will repeat Triple J is not mainstream, it is not allowed to be – by law. It’s ABC written charter is as a “youth alternative station”. Please feel free to acknowledge your source for the J’s listener’s average age.

    You hear breaking artists first on Triple J, then when they make it big, they disappear from Triple J and make it to mainstream. Triple J’s audience is minuscule compared to mainstream radio which is why the majority of people had never heard of the artists showcased by their record companies at the ARIAS. The live music scene is dying, like commercial radio, clubs and pubs are businesses, they too do what’s profitable. It’s up to artists to understand their market if they want mainstream acceptance, not the other way around.

  8. Did anyone even look at the charts? Even the Take 40 countdown compared to the Aria charts – only a tiny number of the not so many Aussie artists only just rating missed out (or if they weren’t nominated most were presenting). I’m talking Zoe Badwi, Shortstack… Most of the top rating Australian artists in sales at the moment are played regularly on Triple J! Not that Triple J is the be all and end all – but I think the issue here is a lack of other Australian music being played on commercial radio, rather than the Arias getting them wrong! I think Triple J is the only higher rating radio station that plays Australian music (and many people are whinging about them going too mainstream too…). Either the Arias need to move away from the charts – so that everyone is being reeducated in the Australian music scene – or maybe we need to acknowledge that we don’t make Lady Gagas and Justin Biebers in Australia!

  9. Ronan Keating, thinks that the industry is a joke because Guy didn’t win. No bias there, I can see. Eddie Perfect: Er…you noticed, let it happen and now you’re going “”Terrible no-one corrected her, actually.”??

    And for all you moaning about how Guy Sebastian should have won as if it were a fact (which of course it’s not, it’s incredibly subjective), let me remind you that Guy was nominated for two public voted awards and he didn’t even win either of those. So please don’t give me this crap about rigging.

  10. @ V – I agree with what you said – you have had quite a bashing on here.

    I want to add one more thing – who was voted the most popular band and most popular album this year by the public?? Hmmm….quite interestingly Powderfinger, who back in 1996 released “Double Allergic”, an alternative band from Brisbane…and in 1998 they got an ARIA for their album “Internationalist”.

    On many occasions when they have won ARIA awards and were voted number 1 on Triple Js Hottest 100, who do they thank for playing their songs?? Triple J 🙂 So for those people who have never heard of Angus and Julia Stone or Dan Sultan, maybe in 15 years time when they hang up their boots you will go “Oh, I have heard of them, the ARIAs awarded them for their talent back in 2010″…

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