Welcome to Just Plain Notes!
Just Plain Notes: November 2002 Bulletin
Written by Brian Austin Whitney
Visit the Website:
www.jpfolks.com Mail CD's @ 1315 N. Butler Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46219
Copyright ©2002 Just Plain Folks Productions.
***************************************************
Hi Folks,
Well, the day has FINALLY come! We are officially announcing the nominees for the 2002 Just Plain Folks Music Awards. This has been a 13 month long process of elimination when we started with 102,000 songs and at final count over 7800 albums and we've narrowed the field down to nominees for best album and song in a wide range of genres and categories. To put it into perspective, we received more music from our members for this awards program than all the major labels COMBINED released last year. How's that for a statement on the health, vitality and size of the Grassroots Music Community!
A few quick facts about this years nominees: We have roughly 700 Songs and 325 Albums nominated in over 40 genres. They include:
Alternative, Americana, Blues, Cabaret, Celtic, Children's, Classical**, College Rock, Compilation**, Contemporary, Contemporary Christian, Country, Cover* (A New Category for us for cool cover versions of famous songs), Dance, Electronica (New Category), Ethnic/World, Female Singer-Songwriter, Gospel, Hard Rock, Holiday, Industrial, Instrumental, Jazz Instrumental (New Category), Jazz Vocal (New Category), Live**, Lyrics, Male Singer-Songwriter, Metal, Modern Rock, New Folk, Novelty, Opera/Theater**, Pop, R&B, Rap, Reggae (New Category), Rock, Roots (New Category), Solo Instrumental, Spoken Word (New Category), Traditional Folk, Tribute* (New Category).
* Song only
** Album only
We have nominees this year from 48 US States and Australia, Bahamas, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Northern Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK. (And probably several others we aren't yet aware of since it isn't always clear where both the artists and writers are actually from.)
This has been an amazing experience and challenge and we want to thank all the folks who helped us get to this stage. Please keep in mind that we only had space to recognize a fraction of 1% of the songs submitted and only about 4% of the albums entered. We'll be adding 4 times as many songs to our RFV channel, starting with all the current nominees and expanding to the finalists and about 2000 other great songs we found during the process. Thanks for everyone's patience during this monumental task!
Remember, we don't claim this music is the definitive "Best" music of the year. No awards process can or should EVER make that claim. Music and the enjoyment of it is all in the ear of the listener (and judges in this case), and our goal is to bring positive attention and recognition to as much great music as we can using the most fair and honest system we can to screen it. There were hundreds of songs clearly worthy of nominations that just couldn't fit into even our expanded slots. (We added 4-6 songs per genre this year and 30% more categories.) Our ONLY criteria for songs during screening was "Does it move you?" This allows judges, whether they are industry veterans or just plain music fans, to vote for what they ACTUALLY like rather than what they think they are SUPPOSED to like. All music was blind screened so that there would be as little bias (good or bad) in the process as possible. Within these nominations you'll see hit artists and hit songwriters and complete unknowns. Everyone involved, whether nominated or not, should be very proud of what our community has created and celebrate the fact that a lot of worthy music is getting some of the attention it deserves and by doing so, it will open even more doors for ALL our members going forward.
We'll have a lot of follow up for press inquiries, showcases, the awards show (tentatively slated for early February in Los Angeles), and final voting.
Please stay tuned for the answers to your questions OR if you are so inclined, post your questions on the new Music Awards Message Board I just set up today for this purpose. Please, keep comments positive and constructive!
We have a couple other issues to discuss (including how to become one of our Member Judges for the final round of the awards) posted below. So please check that out before you rush off to view the nominees.
Here's where you will find the Nominees Linked:
http://www.jpfolks.com/home.html Thanks again for proving "We're All in This Together!"
Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
www.jpfolks.com *************************************************************************
Just Plain Folks Music Awards Member Voting: How to sign up!
Each year we use a unique combination to determine the final winners of our Music Awards program. It is composed of the following group of voters:
1. Industry Professionals from various areas (Publishing, Labels, Producers etc..)
2. Just Plain Folks Mentor Staff
3. Just Plain Folks Staff (including Chapter Coordinators)
4. General Just Plain Folks Members
5. Music Fans who have no other connection to the music industry.
We do the voting this way because we vote on 1 important criteria:
Does the music move you?
It can make you laugh, cry, get angry or motivated, as long as it moves you. We ask our judges to listen to all the nominees in a given genre, and then vote for their top 5 songs, in order from First through Fifth. This year, we are expanding the judging a great deal so we wanted to offer our members a chance to request to be part of the judging.
Requirements: Open Mind, no ulterior motives, confidentiality (you can't share what genre you voted on or who you voted for), a passion for music. AND.. you MUST be able to listen, judge and vote in a short time frame. (i.e., by the end of 2002, though the final deadlines will be determined later and emailed to each judge.)
If you would like be considered for one of the General Member Voting spots (for the song portion only, we only use Industry judges for the Albums), please email us the following information:
1. Name
2. Complete Mailing Address
3. Phone Number
4. Email Address
5. Website (if you have one)
6. If you entered the 2002 Music Awards and if so, what the Artist and Title on your CD so we can avoid conflicts of interest.
7. The top 5 Genres of music (from the list above) of music you enjoy. We can't promise you'll get those, but we'll try to get you at least 1 genre from your list if possible. We'll also avoid giving you genres that aren't similar to those listed.
Example:
1. Joe Fitzwaldo
2. 1315 N. Butler Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46219
3. (317)555-5555
4. joe@fitzwaldo.com
5.
www.fitzwaldo.com 6. Entered: Joes Greatest Hits by Joe and the Fitwaldo's.
7. I am interested in: Pop, Contemporary, Ethnic, Rap and Metal
Depending on the interest level, we may send volunteer member judges from 1 to 4 genres to judge. Please do NOT ask for genres that include friends/associates of you. If we learn of conflicts of interest we may have to disqualify those involved. Lets play FAIR!
If you are chosen, you will receive the CD with the nominees on it, a voting and instruction sheet and info on how to email your votes back.
Disclaimer To Nominees: DO NOT ask your friends to join Just Plain Folks and become a judge. If you do, your song/album will be disqualified!!!! We will not accept ANYONE as a General Member Judge who joins after this announcement on November 8th, 2002. In general, any attempts to manipulate voting in some way would REALLY make you look bad when we find out and erase anything positive that you gained by being nominated. Don't Do It. We don't do this for money.. we do it so everyone has a fair and honest shot at well deserved recognition. Don't corrupt the system!
Email your information to: (and ONLY to)
votes@jpfolks.com
We will notify all those selected to judge within a week or two. Please be patient, we have no idea how high the interest level will be! If it is overwhelmingly large, we won't be able to pick everyone and we will go to a random drawing. In general, we are looking for app. 5-10 General Member Judges per genre to go with the other judges in each genre.
Email questions about this process to Linda Berger at Linda@jpfolks.com
*************************************************************************
2002 Southwest and Mid South Roadtrip Slots Still Open!
And finally, now that the nominees are notified, we are hoping that folks will sign up for some of our upcoming shows. Remember, we screen for Best Live Artist of the Year at every show that occurs before the Music Awards, so even if you didn't get nominated today, you can still win the Best Live Artist Award and perform at the Music Awards!
The Entire trip lineup and sign up guidelines are linked on our jpfolks.com/home.html home page. Check it out to join us. Here are the remaining dates and cities:
Sunday, Nov 10: Santa Monica Pier Rusty's Surf Ranch Showcase
Tuesday, Nov 12: Berkley, CA Starry Plough Showcase
Wednesday, Nov 13: San Francisco Voodoo Lounge Showcase
Friday, Nov 15: San Jose (Mt. View) Red Rock Showcase
Tuesday, Nov 19: Tempe, AZ The Muse Coffee House Showcase
Thursday, Nov 21: San Diego (Encinito) Miracle Cafe Showcase
Friday, Nov 22: Tecate (Center of Culture), Mexico Showcase
Saturday, Nov 23: Orange County Ugly Mug Showcase
Sunday, Nov 24: Altadena Coffee Gallery Backstage Showcase
Monday, Nov 25: Los Angeles Johnny Foxx's Pub Showcase
Saturday, Nov 30: Memphis TBA Showcase
Tuesday, Dec 03: New Orleans O'Flaherty's Showcase
Thursday, Dec 05: Houston Stags Head Pub Showcase
Saturday, Dec 07: San Antonio County Line BBQ Showcase
Tuesday, Dec 10: Austin Showcase TBA
Thursday, Dec 12: Dallas Poor David's Pub Showcase
To sign up, visit this page:
http://www.justplainfolks.org/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001243.html See you all on the Road!
*************************************************************************
Copyright ©2002 Just Plain Folks Productions.
