Clem Bastow, eh. Hey, Holly Throsby should marry Bill Cosby. Quick - before he dies, like Bing Crosby!

when did Holly Throsby's A Loud Call lp come out? was it early this year? i think i dig that more than Blasko's latest.

Why didn't Bernard Zuel just give his spot on the panel to a woman?
Talk - action = zero, as the kids used to say.

warm jer- eeets

Why didn't Bernard Zuel just give his spot on the panel to a woman?

Because what would a music award be without a guy whose name sounds like that of an evil supervillain?

He's Wolfmother's arch nemesis. Someone make a comic or animated .gif (untold/animals?)

does this imply that male musicians are biased towards voting for male musicians?

i doubt that's the case. all the previous winners were worthy of the prize (although i'm not a fan of the mess hall).

and

Hip hop, a smaller proportion of the Australian market than in the US or Britain but nonetheless a thriving segment, has had only two albums in the shortlist, while acts you could call pop - their emphasis on melodies, catchy hooks and wider instrumentation - could muster only six appearances in the shortlist.>

that's coz australian hip-hop and pop (generally) is...well...bogan crap. an artist like dizzee rascal can win the mercury prize because his album 'boy in da corner' was a major (mainstream) step forward for grime/hip hop (and it was brilliant). look at previous winners such as badly drawn boy, franz ferdinand and antony & the johnsons. although not to everyones liking their winning albums were unique, consistent and well written. 'the nosebleed section' can hardly compete.

does this mean the panel now has a totally different bias to the ratio of men v women in Australian music itself?

Why isn't someone from M+N on the judging panel? (I mean aside from Dom Alessio, but he's representing JJJ?)

mattphoenixx said he was busy.

DON'T FUCK IT UP, DOM.

Why isn't someone from M+N on the judging panel? (I mean aside from Dom Alessio, but he's representing JJJ?)

because we'd prefer to be able to report on it objectively. our media sponsorship does not preclude this.

It's articles like this that lead to further sexism.

A.H - I'm bringing it down from the inside.

Good.

because we'd prefer to be able to report on it objectively. our media sponsorship does not preclude this.

I'm not sure if my involvement on the judging panel precludes me from posting on this thread.

outed!

Obviously hasn't precluded it yet.

There is no Dana, only Zuel

DON'T FUCK IT UP, DOMBRO

fixed it

Money and gender.

Nasty.

There is no Dana, only Zuel>

haha. nice.

Meanwhile, Bernard Zuel does his bit to redress the gender imbalance by only ever interviewing female artists he wants to frot with. Seriously - do the mathematics on the sheer number of attractive female vocalists/songwriters Zuel profiles in a year.

Meanwhile, Bernard Zuel does his bit to redress the gender imbalance by only ever interviewing female artists he wants to frot with.

Exactly. His reviews of certain artists really do write themselves, these days.

Meanwhile, Bernard Zuel does his bit to redress the gender imbalance by only ever interviewing female artists he wants to frot with.

This is bullshit. How can you possibly prove this?

Meanwhile, Bernard Zuel does his bit to redress the gender imbalance by only ever interviewing female artists he wants to frot with.

This claim has been made in the past, and I've wondered about how this can be proven. So:

Let's tabulate all of the attractive and unattractive female musicians by a criteria that's agreed on by consensus (eg: dress sense, weight, personal hygiene, promiscuity, height, complexion, marital status etc). So one column is ''attractive'' and the other ''not attractive''. Then we can compare the list with each artist's media profile (including Zuel reviews). We could probably attribute general success levels to this table. That will make everyone feel awesome, and answer a lot of questions because god knows that this is still a very relevant issue for ''women in rock''.

The first step is defining ''attractive''. Who wants to start?

This claim has been made in the past

not necessarily by slant6, mind.

Clare Bowditch - Attractive

Good to see Dan Luscombe isn't on the judging panel this year. His inclusion was a slight CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Dan Luscombe - Attractive

Ash-showoff - Attractive

Clare Bowditch. Jenny Queen. Lucie Thorne. Corrina Steel. Just to name four women that I know of that he's interviewed and written glowing features about this year. Weight it against the number of similar male Australian artists which he's done this for (you'll find that he favours only the big international names - Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy) while it's more likely to be one of the other Herald music writers that will interview Australian artists who happen to not be female, and you'll see that he definitely has a preference for 'attractive' women artists. And goalattack, you can sure as shit bet that I will not even begin to define my version of 'attractive' for you. If you're wondering what any of the above mentioned artists look like, DAFSFFS. Just like one of Zuel's music reviews (which occasionally I agree with, such as his recent slagging of Wolfmother), I'm just stating an opinion that I have. You have to draw your own conclusions about this, which is what I have done by provoking the debate. That's all I'm saying.

so is there like a Bernard Zuel blog/myspace/wordpress site, or do i have to go digging thru the smh website for his work?

i like him. i find our tastes can be quite similar. but i don't get the newspaper daily anymore.

personally, i only trust the music of ugly hermaphrodites.

Antony?

LAdy gaga?

tism?

madonna?

RIDICULOUS.

The AMP panel is simply judging MUSIC. It's not an employment tribunal. It's not a jury in a sensitive criminal case involving a sexual offense.

The judges listen to the music objectively. It is ridiculous that this panel is expected to conform to a near 50 /50 make-up between men and women.

This is political correctness gone insane. Why is it assumed that men will unfairly favour women musicians? The prize for the AMP is for the best album, regardless of gender.

The High Court of Australia and the US Supreme Court do not have a 50/50 gender split, and they decide issues of national importance. So why does the AMP panel need to be split 50/50 between women and men?

I would make the same point if the panel were mostly women, and there was a push to get more men on the panel.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS GOING INSANE.

This is political correctness gone insane.

No, it's just an effort to address criticism that's been levelled at them. Are there mandatory percentages of prizes to be handed out to women? Or any other form of special treatment involved?

Nope.

Ergo, not political correctness gone insane.

Mentally ill is the preferred term. You shouldn't use the term insane.

This is a judging panel for indie music. As long as there is some gender diversity, the gender split of the judges should not be a controversial issue.

Just give the prize to Rowland S. Howard, instead of a boring female singer-songwriter.

He deserves the prize. The menstrual minstrals do not.

He deserves the prize. The menstrual minstrals do not.

Do you write for the Telegraph, perchance?

Besides, these are the menstrual minstrels and they're not in the running for the AMP, so you're off base with that one.

No, I hate the Herald-Sun and the Daily Telegraph. Questioning the plague of political correctness does not make you right-wing.

is this maybe a bit of a beat up? so last year females made up 33% of the panel, this year it is 44%. does this really constitutes a 'marked change'? it is a smallish numbers of judges, that sort of male/female proportion shift doesn't feel unreasonable to me if you are selecting the most appropriate people year to year.

Questioning the plague of political correctness does not make you right-wing.

No, but your tone fits right in. If it quacks like a duck, etc.

Just give the prize to Rowland S. Howard, instead of a boring female singer-songwriter.

He deserves the prize. The menstrual minstrals do not.

You sure you don't hate women??? You really really really sure?

Just for your records, Dan Luscombe wasn't on the AMP judging panel last year. In fact, he never has been. So please adjust opinions/outrage accordingly.

Just give the prize to Rowland S. Howard, instead of a boring female singer-songwriter.

I wonder why they thought it might be nice to have a female perspective on the panel?

Mind you, RS Howard looks like an old lesbian these days, so it would probably work.

is this maybe a bit of a beat up? so last year females made up 33% of the panel, this year it is 44%. does this really constitutes a 'marked change'? it is a smallish numbers of judges, that sort of male/female proportion shift doesn't feel unreasonable to me if you are selecting the most appropriate people year to year.