The Taite Music Prize was introduced in 2010 to ‘recognise outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one album’ released over a twelve-month period. At a recent ceremony in Auckland, the 2011 prize was awarded to the artist Ladi6 for her album The Liberation Of…. This decision and how it has been made interests me for several reasons, and as an artist I feel it is important to explore issues surrounding it. In particular, I want to address: Does the Taite Music Prize allow for creativity to be assessed in an acceptable way? What does this decision mean for the future of the award? And; How do the attitudes of judging panels such as this one impact the creativity of emerging New Zealand artists?

I’d firstly like to pre-empt any inevitable interpretation of this response as one of upset in my being a finalist but not winner of the award. My motivations here grow both from an overall concern that I’ll go on to describe, as well as a result of receiving significant feedback from others – both in and out of the music industry – who are also interested in discussing the judges’ decision, specifically in relation to the award criteria. Also compelling is my observation that when something of an imbalance occurs within our music community, very few people seem prepared to make their concerns public. I suspect artists fear being blacklisted from future chances of recognition within the circles in question, while others in media positions have business and personal relationships that they are afraid of bruising. These anxieties do not personally concern me, especially in comparison to the responsibility I feel in contributing positively to the dialogue of what in New Zealand music we consider to be creatively successful work.

‘The Taite’

According to its publicity, the Taite Music Prize is the first of its kind in New Zealand, designed to be an equivalent of The UK’s Mercury Prize and Canada’s Polaris Music Prize. Touted as honouring ‘originality, creativity and musicianship’ and offering a $10,000 cash prize, it was set up by the Taite family in memory of the late music journalist Dylan Taite, and is principally sponsored by Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ) and PPNZ Music Licensing (PPNZ), whom I will refer to as ‘the facilitators’ of the award.

The judging process is two-staged. The first stage is an online vote by IMNZ members (made up largely of record labels and artists) and a twenty-person non-IMNZ group of music industry and media people. All entered albums – this year there were 73 – are made available to listen to via a digital stream, should the voter wish. The voter selects ten albums that they believe best fit the criteria, ranking them from 1-10. Combining all votes, an undefined number of finalists are selected (5 in 2010, 8 in 2011).

In the second and final stage, eleven judges decide the winner from the finalists. These judges have already cast their top ten votes in the first round, so according to Renee Jones of IMNZ, this involves a ‘hearty debate’ from which the winning album emerges.

Many felt that the introduction of the Taite marked the long overdue arrival of an award that acknowledges creatively ambitious and original work, arguably unique to Aotearoa. Though I’m dubious of competition in general, I was absolutely one of these people, relieved and excited about the potential energy that the award could bring in encouraging the vital use of imagination in making New Zealand music, as well as the expanded audience that further exposure of nominated albums could open up.

The Ceremony (& My Own Naïvety)

I attended this year’s Taite Music Prize ceremony. I’d never been to an industry event of this kind before so didn’t know entirely what to expect, however given the emphasis on creativity and artistic merit in the rhetoric of the award’s publicity, I was very happy to be there. I’d once been to the Sale St bar (wheeler-dealer types/meat-market Saturday nights) to see a friend perform, and from that brief experience I thought it an unusual choice of venue.

The ceremony itself was relegated to a tight-ish corner of the bar, everyone lit in an overbearing, almost Lynchian red. The soundtrack for the evening was the far-too-loud generic nothingness of bar beats – odd considering the occasion – remaining at overkill level even during the speeches, which probably a good half of the 120 or so people attending couldn’t hear. The speakers were John Taite, Ben Howe of IMNZ, Kristen Bowman of PPNZ, and MC Russell Brown. From what could be made out, they all talked a lot about creativity and how important it is. A short video was shown with thirty-second clips of music videos or graphics from the nominated albums. Bowman then announced Ladi6 as the winner. MC Brown followed with something very close to: ‘Wow, I’ve worked with Ladi6 and she’s great, but I didn’t think she’d win!’ A gracious pre-recorded acceptance speech from Ladi6 and her collaborator Parks was shown, Lawrence Arabia performed, and things wrapped up as suddenly as they’d begun.

In my naïvety I assumed there would be a level of decorum and sense of occasion to the night, and as a nominated artist, was disappointed. Perhaps the other nominees were more clued up; I’ve confirmed with Renee Jones that it was a relatively artist-free zone, with only myself and possibly Julia Deans in attendance (apparently most of the others were overseas or unavailable – no fault of the organisers of course). At the end of the day, you could argue that it’s not about the quality of the ceremony, but the prize itself. Surely though, considering both the kaupapa and gravity of the award, more thought – and needless to say, creativity – could have been put into the shape of the evening. Furthermore, if the production of the ceremony is any reflection of how the Taite Music Prize as a whole is managed, concerns regarding its integrity are warranted.

Taite Music Prize 2011 Nominees

Street Chant – Means

Dudley Benson – Forest: Songs By Hirini Melbourne

Die! Die! Die! – Form

The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo

The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You

Connan Mockasin – Please Turn Me Into The Snat

Julia Deans – Modern Fables

Ladi 6 – The Liberation Of…

A new music prize, named after Dylan Taite is aimed at awarding and acknowledging creativity, originality and musicianship. The Taite Music Prize aims to pick the best album of the year regardless of sales, genre or artist recognition and the prize is $10,000. The first winner will be announced on March 31 next year and the prize was named after Taite who was one of the best music journalists New Zealand has ever had (watch the video above for proof). Taite’s son John said, “Dylan and music went together like gunpowder and matches. He was always ahead of the bounce, a creative pioneer who took risks and believed in the long shots…the same qualities all great New Zealand music has at its core.” More info over here.