Amy Winehouse in mobo awards

[David H]

I am struggling to work out how she won the award this year being in no possible way black and mainly writing her own material. Is sounding a little black all they now need to qualify, which seems to make a nonsense of the whole thing.

[Cheeris]

Ever since they were founded they have have been upfront that the awards are for music of black ORIGIN, hence the name!

A bit vague I know, but it's their award after all so they can define it how they like. And given that 'Back to Black' is massively influenced by the sound of the black girl groups of the 60s it fits into the scope of the MOBOs rather nicely I think.

[David H]

That's fair enough, I hope there weren't any actual musicians of black origin who felt they were cheated out of a prize by letting the rules be so liberally interpreted. I hope to god Eminem never got in...

[Cheeris]

No. The point is that they are NOT awards for black musicians or even musicians of black origin. They are awards for people who make music of black origin! Its a genre award and not an award for a particular demographic. It's like complaining that a rock group have won a Kerrang award when the members of the group are black.

They aren't 'liberally interpreting' the rules when they give an award to somebody like Amy Winehouse, they are following them exactly!

Also, it's not the first time they have given an award to a white person. Tim Westwood has won a MOBO, Justin Timberblake has won a MOBO, Norah Jones has won a MOBO etc. Even Jamie Cullum has won a MOBO!!!

[littleoldme]

Aren't most genres of popular music from black origins? Even a genre as white-dominated as country has roots in the blues and gospel (among others).

[Cheeris]

That's the genius of it!

No, but really, while it can be easily argued that most forms of popular music have their roots in traditional types of black music, it doesn't make it of 'black origin' as defined by the MOBOs.

The spirit of the awards (I think anyway) is to promote genres of music which are directly associated with or come from black communities, i.e. hip-hop, soul etc. So while, say rock music, undoubtedly came directly from Blues music it was and was developed in its early days by black musicians it exists in its current form almost entirely due to musicians coming from a white heritage. So a rock act doesn't qualify for a MOBO award, regardless of the colour of the artist(s) skin. Similarly with Country music.

Conversely, something like hip-hop or 60s-style girl groups exist directly because of black talent, and so a hip-hop act would qualify for a MOBO even if they were white (or Asian, or Polynesian etc).

[David H]

Well I've certainly learnt something. The fact what seems like a targeted area is in fact covering most of jazz, rock and roll (Elvis was the first white singer of it to succeed), soul, disco, blues and many others.

I do wonder what the point is though now I know...

[Quinlad]

The point is to recognise a genre of music.

The NME awards favour rock music.
The Mixmag awards favour dance and electro music.

People don't complain about them though.

Maybe it's the use of the word 'black'? I seem to remember that they toyed with the term 'urban music' a few years ago, but that isn't really the same thing.