MIDI Awards 2011 Nominations announced: The New Guard is IN
most of the blogosphere has given MIDI a lot of shit over the past 2 years for their awards and the incestuous nature of the nominees/winners. Fact is a lot of progress was made from the first edition to the second edition last year. This year, the jump is even bigger! The nomination process notice was given months ago and it looks like people have answered!
http://www.midischool.cn/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=54374&extra=page%3D1
This one is probably the most diverse I’ve seen so far and I like it. Seeing fresh faces on there like Long Shen Dao is cool. Omnipotent Youth Society ciments their status as one of the better bands in China whereas Namo doesn’t really come through despite a busy year touring. Steely Heart, soon to release an album, makes an appearance as nominee for best new band which is a bit surprising in my book.
Missing is also Xiao He with his latest release in the folk side but Su Yang makes a well deserved appearance. No Maybe Mars or Modern Sky artists, including MIDI favorite, Xie Tian Xiao who hasn’t done much this year.
Here is the roughly translated list of nominees
1、“最佳年度摇滚专辑”提名 “Best Rock Album Year” ：
龙神道《拥抱》- Long Shen Dao “Hug”
马木尔与IZ乐队《影子》 – Mamer & IZ “shadow”
苏阳《像草一样》- Su Yang “Like Grass”
左小祖咒《庙会之旅II》 Zuoxiao Zuzhou “Temple Journey II”
2、“最佳年度摇滚歌曲”提名 Best Rock Song of the Year：
川子《郑钱花》 Chuan Zi “zhèng qián huā”
GALA《追梦赤子心》 GALA “The Purest Heart”
咖啡因《时光》 Caffeine “time”
龙神道《慢慢飞》 Long Shen Dao “slowly fly”
万能青年旅店《杀死那个石家庄人》 Omnipotent Youth Society “Kill that Shijiazhuang Ren”
周云山《拯救》 Zhou Yun Shan “save”
左小祖咒《我的儿子叫钱云会》Zuoxiao Zuzhou “wǒ de érzi jiào qián yún huì”
3、“最佳年度摇滚乐队”提名 Rock Band of The Year：
二手玫瑰 – Second Hand Rose
GALA – Gala
杭盖 – Hanggai
龙神道 – Long Shen Dao
万能青年旅店 – Omnipotent Youth Society
夜叉 – Yaksa
4、“最佳年度摇滚男歌手”提名 Male Vocalist of the Year：
郝云 – Hao Yun
李难（零壹乐队）- Li Na ( Voodoo Kungfu)
梁龙（二手玫瑰）- Liang Long (Second Hand Rose)
马条 – Ma Tiao
周云山 – Zhou Yun Shan
左小祖咒 Zuoxiao Zuzhou
5、“最佳年度摇滚女歌手”提名 Female Vocalist of the Year：
冯海宁（自游） – Helen Feng (Ziyo)
姜昕 – Jiāng xīn
抗猫（SUBS）- Kang Mao
SAYU（咖啡因）- Sayu Caffeine
樱子（秋天的虫子） Yīng zi (FAll In Sex)
6、“最佳年度硬摇滚乐队”提名 Hard Rock Band of the Year：
巨蟹座 – ORDNANCE
扭曲机器 – Twisted Machine
丝绒公路 – Velvet Highway
痛仰 – Miserable Faith
夜叉 – Yaksa
7、“最佳年度金属乐队”提名 Metal Band of The Year：
巨蟹座 – ORDNANCE
零壹 – Voodoo Kungfu
夜叉 – Yaksa
窒息 – Suffocated
8、“最佳年度摇滚乐器演奏”提名 Best “instrumental”? performance：
董亚千（万能青年旅店乐队吉他手/主唱）- Dǒng Yà Qiān ( OYS – guitar)
韩天（夜叉乐队贝斯手） Hán tiān ( Yaksa – Bass)
纪元（空中狂欢节乐队吉他手）Jìyuán ( Air Carnival Guitar)
寇征宇（窒息、春秋乐队吉他手） Kòuzhēngyǔ (Suffocated Bass)
李延亮 – Liyánliàng
9、“最佳年度摇滚现场”提名 Best Live Performance：
反光镜 – REflector
杭盖 – Hanggai
零壹 – Voodoo Kungfu
痛仰 – Miserable Faith
10、“最佳年度摇滚新人奖”提名 Best New Band：
龙神道 – Long Shen Dao
霾晦乐队 – Dark Haze
爽子与瓷乐队 – Shuan Zi
Steely Heart
11、“最佳民谣音乐奖”提名 Folk Musician of the Year：
川子 – Chuanzi
郝云 – Hao Yun
马条 – Ma Tiao
苏阳 – Su Yang
12、“最佳专辑设计奖”提名 Best Design Award：
宠物同谋《宠物同谋》 – Pet Conspiracy (Pet Conspiracy)
Dead J 《亭台楼阁》
南无《南无》- Namo (namo)
左小祖咒《庙会之旅II》 – Zuoxiao Zuzhou “Temple Journey II”
What’s your thought? I like the diversity on this one! we’re far far away from Having Miserable Faith nominated for every freaking thing… If that’s not progress, i don’t know what is.
What once started as my personal ramblings has morphed into the number one collective resource about underground live music in Beijing and China. All bands, all music, all Rock n Roll, all the time with a little side of eclectic topics.. best of all, it's still as BIASED as ever
Agreed, fully agreed! Plus, don’t forget there is also the category “Contribution to Chinese Rock” (as there was in the last years)
uhm.. I forgot about that one!
Seems they keep the nominees private until it’s time to actually give the award out.
last year was a good one for MF (Bloom EP for one), but I dont think this was a year for them to be nominated for anything, least of all Hard Rock Band of the Year – Was it because of the Weibo spat about Midi getting dumped in Zhenjiang? Ive seen them play a half dozen times in 2011, and they’ve all been similarly anticlimactic. Am I alone on this?
Ruby with agree with you jtdj..
I still think they put on a great show at MIDI and Strawberry this year and they’re one of the few bands that can get away with the hard rock label. No problem with them on this one… at least, they’re not nominated on 70% of the awards.
I’m not sure I would have Voodoo Kungfu get so many nominations though because the performances they’ve put on this year were not up to par or up to their potential.
Where are the foreign bands and performers ? I think it’s high time foreign artists get a category on their own. I’m starting to think there’s some dicrimination going on here….
Discrimination, with an “s”, sorry for the mistake in my comment…
Anyway, you get the point…
uhm.. that’s an interesting consideration.
Maybe something MIDI can consider for next year. That said, in the long term, having a “foreigner musician/band” award would be in my opinion a form of discrimination.
The big problem i think is that most foreign musicians tend to be based in the bigger cities and have a problem breaking into the local scene in big enough numbers where they can get name recognition.
that said, Helen Feng (American Chinese) is nominated for best vocals and Pet Conspiracy with 2 foreigners is nominated in the Design category. Voodoo Kungfu has an Italian Bass player so there are a few foreigners in there per say…
It will take time though..
I don’t think it’s a problem about being based in big cities, most Chinese bands are located in the big cities (mainly Beijing and Shanghai)
You’re right, having a category for foreigners would be discriminatory as well.
In my experience here, you have to be Chinese to really have a chance to grow, bands with foreigners as leaders are just not part of the scene, they are foreign.
I don’t know about a separate category, but if a band of foreigners is created in a city like Beijing and they are contributing original and significant material to the scene as a whole, then there should be recognition of that. They are not a Chinese band, but they *are* a Beijing band or a Shanghai band or whatever city they’re in. Depends on the mission statement of the awards program I guess. Are they meant to recognize Chinese musicians? Or music in China. That’s what should determine foreign representation in these awards. If it’s the former, then no foreigners makes sense. If it’s the latter, foreign musicians and bands shouln’t be persona non grata in the categories.
Well Said Jackson… As long as a band/entertainer is based in a city/country, they deserve consideration for whatever type of accolades/awards in said city/country. That’s at least how i see things.
That said, unfortunately, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.. Seeing some ethnic groups like Hanggai and Mamer included is a big step in the right direction.
Including everyone in the awards without using the idea of nationality would be the best thing to promote Chinese underground music outside of China.
The discussion when a band is considered to be a foreigner band or when not is old and has never found a conclusion.
However Caffe-In is included with a Japanese lead singer (Sayu), so would you call them foreigner or local?
Plus I do not believe it is not true that foreigner-based bands cannot break through in China. Look at Proximity Butterfly, one band that has played nearly all festivals, toured several times through China (small cities included) and is not from one of the two big cities (BJ/SH). My point of view is that bands considering themselves as foreigner bands often lack the necessary attention and dedication to the scene to gain a larger ground, either because they are not interested (if they around only for two years) or because they are comfortable with the reach in their “community” they have built up. But then, the second argument is true for most Chinese bands as well.
Hi Max, are you responsible for “Rock in China” ? well done ! it’s pretty cool.
Hi Zhang Si’an, yes, together with Yu Yang I have started that project and since 2004 it has collected and archived a lot of information, thanks to numerous helpers who joined the project!
Well that’s cool Max, if you need any infos you’re welcome to ask.
To come back to what you were saying about the China music scene, i don’t know if you have a band here but living inside the music system has made me pessimistic in many ways, i’m not sure things can get better… but that’s only my own experience.