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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.

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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

  2. Here’s my suggestion. Give it to the Nine Network and have Richard Wilkins as the host. You could have live crosses to Scott Cam and Shelly Craft, I’m sure it would work.

  3. @ Barry

    the average age of Triple J listener is 34 years old – hardly a youth niche as you suggest. Is Triple M mainstream with its focus on bogans? Is Mix mainstream with its focus on middle aged women? Is Nova mainstream for its focus on youth? Triple J in my opinion is a music lifestyle choice and not all about the youth but the youth do tend to give it a go.

    I do not plan on changing my listening habits as I age. I don’t envisage waking up one morning and giving up on the live music scene but I guess time will tell. I also think the audience percentages you listed for Triple J are solid numbers and it has an important role in supporting Australian talent. I’m stoked that this continues to be recognised within the music industry. Obviously there is much more to Australian music than Triple J but I think its success deserves recognition. Have you tuned into ‘The Hack’? or are you a Today Tonight fan?!

    Powerderfinger unearthed by Triple J; and
    Missy Higgins; and
    Killing Heidi
    Grinspoon

    I’m not really a fan of any of those acts but I would think they are all mainstream and all have won ARIAS and all unearthed by Triple J

  6. The mix just didn’t work. The presentation of the awards were like try-hard MTV awards. If you’re going to make it like this you need try-hard MTV music like Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy and Brian McFadden – not Slightly alternative music that is played on Triple J.

    It was basically targeting folk who listed to the Austereo network but then dishing them up something they’ve never heard of. They tried to have it both ways by getting audience from the J’s and the commercials but it just doesnt work.

  7. @ Stan, thank you,

    @ Barry “Radio is not a tool to promote Australian music”, yes that’s the problem that’s why there is so much crap out there in commercial radio land, and so many fantastic bands that never ever get recognised, and i am not only talking about only those that won ARIA’s.

    If commercial radio keeps that up there isn’t going to be much of an Aussie music scene soon, and it will continue to go further underground.

    JJJ is also not the be all and end all of new Aust music, they do a pretty good job but the live band scene is a whole lot better, so much music that never gets played on Radio at all.

    I also never said the Aria charts were an indication of popularity, we all know they are a joke.

    I think you have me confused with someone who thought the ARIA’s were good, they need a lot of work but i don’t think they should be purely about what is popular and played on commercial radio or else how is anyone ever going to be introduced to anything new because commercial radio certainly don’t care.

  8. @Adam. Triple j is not and never has been a “mainstream” broadcaster. It is not allowed to be. It is part of the ABC and is government funded. Its charter is to be an “alternative” youth broadcaster. Commercial station’s do not pay millions of dollars to the government for broadcast licenses and then allow a government department such as the ABC to encroach on their market. It’s called restraint of trade. This also includes promotional activity by Triple J. True it is a national broadcaster, but here are its actual ratings figures:
    Sydney 4.8%
    Melbourne 3.1%
    Brisbane 6.8%
    Adelaide 5.8%
    Perth 7.9%
    Canberra 9.3% (mainly because Canberra’s only 2 commercial FMs are so bad)
    Newcastle 7.2%
    Gold Coast 4.1%
    It hardly sets the world on fire in each of those markets but when combined nationally it has reasonable audience numbers, but hardly “significant”.

  9. If it wasn’t for events like the ARIA Awards on commercial television, then acts like Washington, Dan Sultan, Birds of Tokyo & Sia who ‘de-butted’ on Triple J would never get any commercial radio airtime. If the ARIAs don’t get screened on either TEN, Nine or Seven next year, then this task becomes even more difficult. We should think of the ARIAs as a promotional tool rather than an awards show.

    I’m sure people like Guy Sebastian can cry into their bags of money if the ARIAs continue to snub them.

  10. @v. Talk about putting the cart before the horse! Commercial radio is not there as a tool to promote Australian music. That’s the Australian Recording Industry’s job! Commercial radio is there to cater for its chosen audience and play the music they want to hear. They have a mandatory amount of Aus content and that’s it. That is why 25.9% of listeners in Sydney listen to 2Day, Nova, Mix and Triple M and 4.8% listen to JJJ(Nielsen Sydney Radio – Survey #7 2010). While the commercials play Vanessa Amorosi, Jet, The Temper Trap and Powderfinger’s new material, JJJ plays stuff hardly anyone has heard of. While the J’s source and unearth unknown talent, just who are Washington, Sia, Dan Sultan, Birds of Tokyo and the Stone siblings? They are not household names. As for the ARIA charts, they are not an indication of popularity. They indicate record order numbers not sales numbers. When Angus & Julia Stone’s album was released it was the number of albums ordered that made it number 1. You never hear about the number not sold and then shipped back. That’s ARIA! The Record Companies collude amongst themselves to decide who will win what and use their awards as a marketing and promotion tool for their lesser known artists to boost sales. Which is why the ARIAs have very little credibility to anyone outside of the recording industry.

  11. ok points to make

    Triple J plays more Oz artists then the commerical stations
    Triple J is a mainstream national broadcaster and so it does have a signifcant audience share
    Triple J is heavily involved in music gigs and festivals
    Triple J is especially focused on Oz acts with great platforms like “unearthed”

    I agree that Guy Sebastian is an incredible singer but he is part of a marketing machine and therefore would never have the same credibility as Angus and Julia Stone or other artists that break into the Triple J playlist, gain fans, sell out gigs, get launched onto commercial radio and deservedly receive recognition at the ARIA’s…

  12. It’s interesting that this argument parallels that of film and TV, ie. art versus commerce. There’ll always be those who lean towards highly commercial programming/music/films and enjoy listening to or watching stuff that doesn’t necessarily have a greater meaning or depth. That doesn’t mean commercial stuff is lame or talentless, or that indie stuff is w##ky or elitist, just diffrn’t strokes for diffrn’t folks. I worked for a record company at the time the ARIAs began and back then all nominations were put forward by record companies, then were voted on by a cross-section of the music community: retailers, live music workers, record companies, producers, etcc. There were only a handful of awards given to music based on sales only. The vast majority were considered from a songwriting/recording/performing point of view.

  13. @toriwannabe

    That is a most valid point, and maybe it should be judged by criteria, such as songwriting. There should be a set criteria that is applicable.

    Having said that , a lot of mainstream music has just as good production and songwriting values as indie and vice versa.

  15. I really think the producers or whoever they are that created this mess need to come forward apologise and then give the contract to someone else to make sure next years ARIA’s is better.

    I thought some of the ARIA’s worked by record sales? Not sure on the other voting. I remember reading a few years back that Guy got snubbed at the ARIA’s.

    And if it is true that joke with Ricki-Lee and Eric was a scripted then that’s poor form.

  16. @v – Yes, it was an achievement to see Guy (plus Vanessa Amorosi, etc) get nominated at least! I guess in that sense it shows it wasn’t fully about Triple J acts.

    Although what Guy was nominated for was ‘Like It Like That’ (the album had the same name as the single), which was his work, whereas The Memphis Album was pretty much just a tribute album with some of the original musicians behind the songs.

  18. @V you’ve just verified everyones point – this event was nothing but a glorified Indie w*nkfest and no one except the 20 people who listen to JJJ and 3 people who listen to RRR would be interested in…

    Fail.

  19. Agree there is some level of snobbery against mainstream pop artists. Although I prefer to listen to triple J there should be an equal acknowledgement of all Aussie artists, I mean popular is popular whether they are considered “elite” or not. Guy sebastian may not be “cool” but there is no denying he can sing and alot of people do enjoy his music. Getting back to the main discussion the awards were truly a shambles and poorly executed. Seriously whatever they come up with next year can’t be worse… can it??

  20. @ Todd, i don’t agree with you.

    I don’t think they are a “Glorified JJJ awards”. If they were half of the people nominated wouldn’t have been (Guys Sebastian, Kylie, Crowded House, Jimmy Barnes…)

    The only time i have ever heard Dan Sultan on JJJ is today. He’s not one of the artists that gets played much on JJJ. How about the artists who were inducted into Hall of Fame don’t remember JJJ playing them much this year either.

    If the Aria’s is shunning commercially successful music, as you say, then why was Guy Sebastian performing or INXS. Guy Sebastian also got nominated in a few categories. Bottom line is they decided he wasn’t the best. Didn’t he only write one song on his Memphis Album anyway?? Don’t be a sore loser because the churned out crap on commercial radio didn’t win.

    Anyway in about 6 months time Washington and Angus and Julia Stone will probably be getting played on Nova. Like Empire of the Sun, played on JJJ about 6 months to a year before they made it to commercial radio.

  21. @Allie.. the awards were not done by Rove’s company. I had hoped it would be a return to them as they did do it rather well in previous years (though I still do recall it in the 90s even before them and thought it alright as well).

    Also.. c’mon.. Guy Sebastian ‘ordinary’ at best? You can’t honestly deny he is a great live performer.

    Apart from that, I do somewhat concur with some of comments I’ve seen elsewhere, in that they might as well just rename them the Triple J awards, because it seems if you don’t get played on Triple J it is very hard to get a look in.

  23. 3 Cheers for Ronnie. Spot on. TV Execs who allegedly know/care about TV continue to feel safe by handing a production to one of the bigggies as a ‘set and forget’ is partly the problem for sure. Its not that I don’t get that sometimes these companies are the best option, its that these highly paid execs don’t give the Independents a look in – actually, they wouldn’t even know who they were, and what expertise and care factor they can bring to a production.

  25. @ v: you could not be more wrong. The ARIAs are nothing more than a glorified “Triple J Awards.” The fact that ARIA shuns commerically successful Australian artists away is a joke. Plain and simple.

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