Why Isn't There a Music Version of the Indy Spirit Awards

[paulisded]

I always love the Independant Spirit Awards, but am generally bored to tears with the Oscars. Tonight is no exception. The Grammy Awards are also an ordeal to sit through, and the winners are never satisfying. So why not have an awards show for those of us who don't care about Lady Ga Ga, Rhianna, John Mayer, Coldplay, etc.?

[Kublakhan61]

The PLUG Awards are what you're looking for, my friend. I didn't discover them until a couple of years back when Stephen Malkmus hosted. Last year Patton Oswalt hosted and Arcade Fire beat out bands like Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, The National, Battles, for the Album of the Year Award.

Have a look:
http://www.plugawards.com/about.php

[realmenhatelife]

Is the concept of 'indie music' too subjective? What would the criteria be? I know the Spirit awards have a budget cap. An indie band/label is such a smaller operation than an indie movie, I dont know how you could populate a respectable and accurate list of nominees.

[instrument]

Seems to be pretty sample task to me, especially when the arcade fire are a part of the selection.

[Kublakhan61]

I think that the way PLUG does it is based on label affiliation. By definition an Independent label is one which receives no funding from a Major label. In a way I didn't agree with "In Rainbows" being nominated for a PLUG award but it wasn't released on a Major, so ... (and thankfully they didn't win it).

Here's the 2008 (Released in 2007) Indie Album of The Year nominations:

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (Domino) Winner
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge)
Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin (Sub Pop)
Battles - Mirrored (Warp)
Deerhunter - Cryptograms (Kranky)
Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends (Frenchkiss)
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (Polyvinyl)
Okkervil River - The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar)
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover (Jagjaguar)
The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet)
The New Pornographers - Challengers (Matador)