Ah, the awards ceremony. Do we all secretly fantasize of being at some slavish award ceremony, the spotlight hits us, the crowd errupting as we stroll through the crowd to thrust some sort of golden statue into the air? Wooohhooo!! And going on the pic above, posted originally in this news feed on Resident Advisor, the more retarded looking the statue, the better. It looks like a piece of kryptonite  too shit looking to be used as a prop in Superman Returns (yeah, the really shit Superman). According to this small article,  RA were “proud” to win an award at the (dun dun dduuuuuun) 11th Annual Dj Awards. A ceremony that for some ungodly reason has specific “Ibiza” awards, the home of the complete commercialisation and bastardisation of dance music. They actually celebrate the lowest ebb of the dance community. They also award the most tired and unoriginal big names possible. If I put those catagories in front of my Dad, he would pick those names - and this is someone who it took at least 3 years to realise that, no, I wouldn’t be talking over the records when I’m djing - but I bet before he’d pick any names he’d have a couple of questions; “whats the difference between the minimal, tech house, prog and techno nominees” and “what the fuck is electro-house?”.

The obvious complaint about all this is just how predictable it is. And this goes back to the age old problem, that we here at ISM - and in a few other places - are trying to fight against, the same old fucking names cropping up. Adam Beyer and Dubfire are awarded for dropping their old sounds in place of one that will continue to get them gigs, how about giving some recognition to people who genuinely work at their music, developing and creating a sound that is a true, original progression, one that is not controlled by commercial prospects or by ego. If tomorrow Mnml was to shrink to nothing would Beyer continue to ply at it? Hmmmm. As we have seen so much in the past, and something many have a bee in their bonet over, it is the media’s continued pushing of these staid and predictable acts that means original and exciting music gets sidelined in favour of some cunt with eyeshadow and a wifebeater. So how are RA proud to be celebrated by an awards ceremony that awards the predictable and staid in the scene - and don’t go on about Hawtin and technology, this is music, not electrical engineering 101 - an awards ceremony that reflects the type of acts the lazy and commercially driven mainstream media endorse. While I amen’t bothered with some of what appears in RA, I would have viewed them as being above the likes of Mixmag and the other similar  shite that used to appear on the shelves. Yet these Awards seems far more in keeping with what that ilk publish

And I know the argument that will be thrown back at me; “it’s voted by the public”. Well - and this should come as no surprise to a lot of people - that many clubbers look for a quick fix, they like to get a little bit (or a lot) fucked up and get down on the floor. I’m not being snobbish about this, I’m not some chinstroker at the side of the dancefloor, but the visceral big room thrill of a club going off is a massive appeal to many, they want to see the big names in the big rooms. Sadly, the types who end up in these big rooms are the ones who play best friends with the media, and who don’t always deserve it. It is probably not going to happen any time soon, but maybe someday in the future the likes of RA will discontinue the endorsement of people like Adam Beyer and others who simply aren’t at the height of their game. Them winning an award at such a roll call of shiteness as the DJ Awards shows them to me to be THE media representative of bad dance music that has made it big for the wrong reasons. This is surely a sign that they need to pull their pants up a bit and get stuck in properly to the underground. At times they show that they can, and with the size it has grown to it is now time to push it further, and not sit on their arses sucking champagne out of David Guetta’s asshole.