The Drive To Five: Oh Buggles it's Eustace

We finish up our look at #PlatVnyl3 with something new. The Video Awards made its debut this year, giving the Platinum Vinyl Awards Big Time Status, with Song, Album, and Video Awards, along with the General Field. As we said in the opening post, video killed the radio star according to the Buggles. We were about to see if that were true.

For the inaugural year the video awards were incorporated into the show by genre, so each genre went in order Song, Video and Album. Both the song and album awards had seven nominees, the video awards, five. Of course not all of the genres were represented. In addition to the General Field Video Awards (Video of The Year, Video by A Male Artist, Video by a Female Artist, Video by a New Artist), seven genres were represented: Alternative, Pop, Dance, Electronic, Rap, Metal and Rock. #PlatVnyl4 would add Adult Contemporary. While we would like to increase the genres to include them all, at the present the number of genre's may fluctuate from year to year.

Sometimes at Night Beat HQ we seem to have more ties than a dad on Father's Day. The inaugural video awards had one as well. Alternative Video of The Year resulted in a tie, and it all revolved around the meaning of Alternative. If you meant Alternative Music, then the award was given to For King and Country for the post-apocalyptic The Proof of Your Love.  However if you were looking for best Alternative Video, well look no further than Benjamin Dunn and The Animal Orchestra and My Name Is Eustace. You couldn't get much more alternative then people dressed as giant rabbits. Strangely for now, the video seems to have been pulled by Youtube. The link leads to dailymotion.

The electronic genres were represented by the Fringe/GRAC section of CCM. The Dance-Synthpop Video of The Year even went international, with Canadian Valerie Anne Poxleitner aka Lights kept everyone on their Toes. The Electronic-Industrial half went for Shock Value, with Industrial Music Missionaries White Collar Sideshow won with Black Heart Hearse.

The judges rewarded shock value in the inaugural award. Heavy Metal Video went to Close Your Eyes and their beyond the grave love story  Carry You. 

For video of the year, however, shock did not rule the day. Disney did. You could say that things are looking up.  Up as in Pixar's up. Satellites and Sirens did a cover video of Poison and Wine by The Civil Wars using a scene from the movie. It got the award, after the judges stopped crying.

That concludes our look back at #PlatVnyl3. We look back to last years award next. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The Drive To Five: Revenge of The Fallen

Welcome back to our look back at the Platinum Vinyl Awards first four years as we move on toward #PlatVnyl5 this Spring (yes, fellow Northeastern Chums, it will arrive). When last we were on this topic we had just begun our discussion of #PlatVnyl3, which had taken place in the Spring of 2013 for the 2011-12 year releases. Today we will be discussing the Comebacks as well as the artists that broke up during the eligibility year.

We grew each year in the Comeback of The Year award and this year was no exception. Third Year, Three Comebacks. But Boy oh Boy what comebacks they were. 

We would Kiss the lead singer of the first comeback, but she's already taken. That would be Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer. You may recall that their claim to fame was the single Kiss Me. Well it was a long time between kisses, as their album Lost In Transition came out an entire decade after Divine Discontent. A lot of reviewers panned it, and it wasn't really their best work, but it made the pool with a near perfect 4.75 Emeralds. It did not get an Alternative Album of The Year nomination, though.

Our second comeback artist was from the sub-genre known as Ska. No, it wasn't the Supertones, they would make their bid for comeback platinum in #PlatVnyl4. This was for Motor City Ska's The Insyderz.They always played second fiddle to the Supertones (no, there are no fiddles in ska bands, that's only for the Annie Moses Band). The Sinners Songbook also received a nomination for Best Rock Album.

The final nominee for the award was also the biggest by far. I mean, how many bands strike multiple platinum on their debut? How many redefine their genre and spawn their own sub-genre? How many get to watch the entire industry rush to copy your sound, while at the same time try to exclude you from it? And by industry, I mean CCM. The band of course, is Evanescence. I always found it funny that a band named after the rapture couldn't be accepted by the CCM industry, but such was the case. The self titled third studio album (there is a Live Album in the Mix) was Perfect Platinum, and boy did it shine. It took Comeback of the Year, The Night Beat DJ's Choice Award, Song of The Year and Album of The Year. It also was honorarily given the Night Beat Fallen Award, an award that they were personally responsible for creating, as the band getting Kicked Out of The Kingdom after the release of their debut album Fallen was the impetus for the award. It was nominated for a few more awards that it did not win. Since then, they are on hiatus. Touring takes a lot out of you. They have not broken up, however.

One band did break up after getting their award (the ingratitude!). That was Abel The Band. Their release Make It Right was nominated for Album of The Year, the Song Fire Walk with Me was nominated for Song of The Year. They were also nominated for Alternative Album and Alternative Song of The Year, which they won. I would say that they were the victims of "The Night Beat Curse", sort of like the SI Cover Jinx. Except I don't believe in curses. 

When next we return we shall discuss the Inaugural Video of The Year Awards. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The Drive To Five: The Class of 2012

We are back live here at the +The WENC Night Beat after the Storm of The Millennium, The Blizzard of 2015 or (gag) Blizzard Juno. No, No, I will not name a storm (Blizzard Joe Bob). You do that with Hurricanes because usually more than one will hit. Not so with Major Blizzards.

One thing the Class of 2012 had with Hurricane's and Blizzards. They are usually named after women. Don't ask me why, though that is changing. 2012 was the ladies year. Marlene Brehm, Rachel Chan, Moriah Peters, Holly Spears, and Lindsay McCaul dominated New Artist and were joined by tokens Jeremy Horn and Jordan Lara. Sorry guys, it wasn't your year. Three of the five are fairly active (Peters, McCaul and Holly Spears) and the rest are resting on their laurels. Hey, it has only been two years. I expect new works from all of them soon.

Of course there were other "new" artists, and I have already spoken of my creation of the Undiscovered Gem Awards. I am not really talking about that. Aaron Gillespie had his "debut" in 2012, yet it was a solo debut. Before that he was the drummer and clean vocalist for metal band Underoath, which broke up in 2011. Abel would have been an undiscovered gem, except that they took their award and broke up. A severe lack of Gratitude in CCM I tell ya.

When we return to our Drive to Five, we will touch on the Comebacks, one of which was very big, at least to me. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The Drive To Five: Video Killed The Radio Star

So said the Buggles in 1979 as MTV went on the air. Though a bunch of good liberals, they can blame Al Gore for their demise, or at least their marginalization. You remember Al, the world is melting, Gore. Well before he made millions by lying to people. (Perhaps not, he is a Democrat), he invented the Internet. The Internet (specifically YouTube) was responsible for making MTV irrelevant. Welcome to the Real World. RIP MTV.

This little interlude means little, except to say that in 2012, aka #PlatVnyl3, the Platinum Vinyl Awards exploded once again to 47 categories with the addition of the Video Awards. Now that the Platinum Vinyl Awards had reached the "Terrible Two"s" (3rd Awards, 2nd year since its inception), growth was evident everywhere Comeback Artist of the year went from 1 to 2 to 3 in the third year. An abundance of entrants in every genre pushed the finals in several categories to 8 instead of 7 entrants, just to be fair. Some even went higher. The final breakdown:

• Children's: 3
• Folk: 4
• AC/Insp: 8
• Modern Worship: 8 
• Gospel: 8 
• Alternative: 8
• Pop: 6
• Dance-Synthpop: 4
• Electronic-Industrial: 8
• Rap: 8
• Hard Rock: 7
• Rock: 10
• Album of The Year: 10
• Live Album: 8
• Compilation: 6

The low numbers for dance coincided with splitting the genre to spin off Industrial. Other that there would have been a combined total of 12 for that one.

Cracks started to show in this one man band in year 3. New Artist of the Year really exploded until it was discovered that a number of "new artists" were not new but I just hadn't heard of them (shocking, I know). The solution was to create a one-time "Undiscovered Gem Award". So far, so good.

The #PlatVnyl3 review is underway. I will return live after the storm. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply