ARIA Music Awards

The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known as ARIA Music Awards or ARIA Awards) is an annual awards night celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA). The event has been held annually since 1987, when it was first conceived by Glen Mylne and Jim Keyes [http://www.abc.net.au/longway/artist_index/jimkeyes.htm] . It encompasses the general genre-specific and popular awards (these are what is usually being referred to as "the ARIA awards") as well as Fine Arts Awards, Artisan Awards and Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Winning or even being nominated for an ARIA award results in a lot of media attention on an artist, and usually increases recording sales several-fold (for example, in 2005, after Ben Lee won three ARIA awards his album "Awake Is the New Sleep" jumped from #31 to #5 in the ARIA Charts, its highest-yet position). However the awards are often viewed with skepticism by less mainstream artists, who view the awards an opportunity for a good party. (Tim Rogers of You Am I was once reported as keeping his awards in his outhouse toilet.ref|toilet)

Nomination process

For full criteria, please see #References.

To be eligible, a release must be commercially available within the specified period for a given year. Material must be previously unrecorded, thus ruling out most live albums. A recording can be nominated within multiple categories, but only one genre category (for example, an album could not be simultaneously nominated for Best Pop Release and Best Dance Release). Re-released recordings are not eligible and compilations are not eligible.

Artists must either be Australian citizens, or have applied for or attained permanent resident status and have resided in Australia for at least six months within the specified period. For bands, at least half the members of the group must meet this requirement. If a recording refers to both an individual and a band (for example, Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males), it must be nominated only the basis of the individual or the band, not mixed or both.

Some categories have further requirements as specified below:

* Album/Single of the Year: Recording must appear in the ARIA Top 100 Albums or Singles chart respectively during the specified period.
* Breakthrough Artist (Album/Single): Artist must not have previously reached the final five nominations in any ARIA awards category for any release, or have been in a group that has done so, or have a previous release in the Top 50 release charts.
* Best Rock Album: "Recording must be directed toward Contemporary Rock, Modern Rock and Active Rock formats."
* Best Adult Contemporary Album: "Recording must be directed toward Adult Contemporary formats."
* Best Pop Release: "Recording must be directed toward CHR/Top 40 formats."
* Best Independent Release: Recording must be released and funded by an ARIA member that is not a member of a multinational corporation.
* Best Music DVD: Compilations may enter this category. Content must be at least 60% original. The release must be eligible to appear on the ARIA Music DVD chart (this means most "bonus disc" releases are unlikely to be eligible).
* Best Comedy Release: Compilations are acceptable. Album, single and DVD releases are all eligible. Content must be 100% original.
* Best Children's Album: Compilations are acceptable (but content must be 100% original, having been recorded specifically for that album). Form and content must be aimed at a pre-teen audience.
* Best Dance Release: Compilations are acceptable. "Artists working primarily within the dance genre, eg: House, Techno, Trance, Hardcore, Garage, Breakbeat, Drum & Bass, Disco and Electronica are eligible. In the case of a remixed album or single, the production team(s) and the original recording artist(s) must both meet the artist eligibility criteria, and the release must qualify for inclusion in either the ARIA Album or Single chart."
* Best Urban Release: "Artists working primarily within the urban genre, eg: r’n’b, hip-hop, soul, funk, reggae and dancehall, are eligible. In the case of a remixed album or single, the production team(s) and the original recording artist(s) must both meet the artist eligibility criteria, and the release must qualify for inclusion in either the ARIA Album or Single chart. The ARIA member must also nominate whether the production team or the original recording artist would be the recipient of the award."
* Sales awards: A company may enter up to five recordings in a category. For these categories, the recording does not have to be first released during the specified period, so these categories are two of the few where recordings can be nominated more than once.

Judging process

Sales awards are judged by an independent audit. The Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement awards are awarded at the discretion of the ARIA Board. Genre categories are judged by "voting schools" that consist of 40-100 representatives from that genre. The remaining generalist categories are the "voting academy", which consists of 1000 representatives from across the music industry.

Members of the academy are kept secret. Membership is by invitation only. An individual record company may have up to eight members on the academy. The only artists eligible to vote are winners and nominees from the previous year's awards.

During the 2004 ARIA Awards voting former 3RRR DJ Cousin Creep mocked the process by publishing his user name and password for the voting on music site [http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/16/0759246&mode=thread&tid=7 Rocknerd] [http://rocknerd.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/18/0824227&mode=thread&tid=7 before being banned from the process]

Categories

History of broadcasts

Controversy

The 2007 awards were marred by controversy, after it was revealed by the ABC's "Media Watch" programme that Network Ten had used subliminal advertising during the course of the broadcast. [cite news | title=Flash Dance | publisher=ABC Television| url=http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2082405.htm] Under the Australian Media and Broadcasting rules, such an activity is illegal, as it is a form of mind control. TEN disputes the finding, however their basis for defence was also criticised by "Media Watch", as demonstrating an ignorance of the rules.

The trophy

The Aria award trophy is a pyramid shaped trophy except for the Channel V award which is "V" shaped, and silver.

ARIA Music Awards by year

To see the full article for a particular year, please click on the year link.

Most Awards/Nominations

*John Farnham is the award shows' biggest winning and nominated male to date.
*Kylie Minogue is the award shows' biggest winning and nominated female to date.
*Silverchair is the award shows' biggest winning and nominated group to date.
*Overall Silverchair are the biggest winning and nominated artist to date.

Wins

*Silverchair - 20 Awards [http://www.ariaawards.com.au/history-by-artist.php?letter=S&artist=Silverchair]
*John Farnham - 18 Awards
*Kylie Minogue - 16 Awards
*Powderfinger - 14 Awards
*Savage Garden - 14 Awards
*Crowded House - 11 Awards
*Midnight Oil - 10 Awards
*Delta Goodrem - 9 Awards
*Natalie Imbruglia - 8 Awards
*Yothu Yindi - 8 Awards
*You Am I - 8 Awards
*Kasey Chambers - 8 Awards (7 solo awards; 1 with Dead Ringer Band)
*Tina Arena - 5 Awards

Nominations

*Silverchair - 43 Nominations
*John Farnham - 39 Nominations
*Powderfinger - 37 Nominations
*Kylie Minogue - 37 Nominations
*You Am I - 28 Nominations
*Savage Garden - 26 Nominations
*Crowded House - 25 Nominations
*Paul Kelly - 21 Nominations
*Regurgitator - 21 Nominations
*Delta Goodrem - 19 Nominations
*Spiderbait - 19 Nominations

References

"Warm Hands, Heavy Heart", Simon Woolridge. p80, June 1998 Juice magazine.
* [http://www.ariaawards.com.au/content/downloads/awards.pdf 2005 award categories and definitions] (PDF)

External links

* [http://www.ariaawards.com.au/ Official website]