The annual Polaris Music Prize has a history of upsets, with lesser-known and sometimes difficult artists often beating out much bigger names. That tradition continued this year in one sense.
The upset this time was that Arcade Fire (the obvious critical and commercial favourite) took home the prize Monday night, September 19, instead of one of the underdogs. Read a full rundown and see a slide show of the night here.
A colleague at another publication told me they’d prepared two Polaris pieces about Arcade Fire- one if they won, another if they lost – because no matter what happened, they were going to be the story. Ever since the Montreal indie rock superstars won album of the year back in February at the Grammy Awards for their Suburbs (and then continued to clean up at the Junos and Brit Awards), it’s been agreed that the 2011 Polaris would essentially be a critics’ referendum on the band.
You almost felt sorry for the 11 members of the grand jury who had to make the final call. If they snubbed The Suburbs, they’d be playing into the “out-of-touch music snobs” myth, and if they gave Arcade Fire the prize, they’d be seen as predictable and conservative. By choosing the band, though, it feels like they’ve put one more nail in the coffin of what was once known as alternative music.
Not that we’ll be mourning the death of that record label marketing strategy any time soon. That simplistic underground-vs-mainstream narrative seems increasingly dated these days, and for good reason. Check out the average music fan’s collection and you’ll see obscure indie acts right next to commercially successful ones. As Arcade Fire’s Win Butler said to the audience earlier in the evening, “It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard of a band before – it can still be the best thing in the world. And also, if you have heard of a band before, it doesn’t mean it sucks.”
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com
