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How European are MTV European Music Awards?

This year (on November the 5th) the MTV European Music Awards (EMA) were awarded for the tenth time. What's so European about this music prize? Besides the fact that the show is given on European soil (scene of the action was this time Berlin) the choice in the various categories is dominated by Anglo-American artists. Neatly divided into genres. The European artists may console themselves with the category "Best European Act" which criss-cross through the music genres together. The public may choose between a disco diva Greek, Croatian camp, French rap, German and a Turkish alternative rock group or the Dutch Esmee Denters. And only five of them make it to the finals. It is comparing apples to oranges. The live show is hosted by the U.S. singer Kate Perry, while the musical interludes consist merely of American artists, occasionally supplemented by a British act. Within the music industry, the discussion if this music award should be reconsidered critical has arisen many times. Without much result.

The EMA are at first a commercial event. The whole idea behind the award show is to sell more CDs. To point out a culprit the small independent record companies (Independents) are quick to blame the four 'majors' (Sony / BMG / Universal / Warner / EMI) which they accuse of unfair competition. But this criticism is perhaps too quickly placed. Three of the majors themselves have a considerable amount of local European artists under contract or in distribution and it is not directly in their interest to disqualify them from possible promotion to a broader audience. Record companies could  benefit from the opportunity for their local star to feature in a pan-European event. Especially since local European product (the smaller market) is much more expensive to produce than the big international catalogue. Any opportunity for market expansion is welcome. And often the indies benefit indirectly because of the market across the border is opened. However it is not inconceivable that the contribution to the EMA's is determined by the U.S. or UK headquarters of the majors. The local offices are too small to oppose it. If there is unfair competition it goes beyond the struggle between small and large record companies.

Additional complication is that Europe is much more complex organized than America in terms of legal rights and distribution. Many local signed contracts are limited to the borders which makes (digital) sales abroad difficult. Local European product is simply rare in other European countries in the shop. Especially when the conscious artist sing in their own language. What should be noted that in each individual European country, local product enjoys great popularity. It would be a worthwhile study to find out how local product tempered the decline of the music market. An argument could also be that consumers do not benefit from a typical European award show because he's eventually can’t buy the CD. However, with the advent of the Internet and the convenience of ordering foreign CDs this argument can be almost swept aside. Almost, because the interaction between the European retail can be improved. Who wants to buy local product must first have some knowledge of the major retailers in specific countries (Fnac in France, Germany JPC, Empik in Poland, etc.) and secondly also some sense of language. The websites of the stores are rarely multilingual. And an umbrella website where these parties work together is not really there. Or you should turn to international operating digital stores like Amazon and Itunes. But they all operate from England and are more likely to promote Anglo-American artists.

But what if this problem is overcome? Then still remains the commercial ignorance of everything non-Anglo American. It is not the consumer fault that he eventually is confined to what he knows. For where should the consumer get his information about local music from. Radio and television may play an important role in the promotion of European product but they generally do not. They reduce much of their air time to what they are pushed. With which we come to the role MTV could play itself. The local coleure the various local MTV channels still adorn is far away at the pan-European Music Awards. And this while 20 years ago MTV was much more daring to program clips outside the interests of the international market.

In that sense it is strange that the local government where the EMAs are organized did not insist in at least one homegrown live-act. During the show in Berlin, no German act will be musically present while Germany has plenty to offer. The European Union has also taken a painful silence. Clearly the free movement of goods means not directly a free exchange of (music) culture.

It is a bit of a catch as catch can. The consumer doesn’t know the local European artists, so they will not watch the show if it consists of these artists, making the event not commercially interesting, and so on. Because the sponsors of this event are also for the bigger half American and they’ll be damned to lose Europe as an export area. And thus the public gets an Anglo-American cigar from his own box where Europe itself is none the wiser. And untill one of the parties has the courage to break the cycle nothing will change that.

(If you want to respond to this article please do at info@europopmusic.eu)

The nominated acts in the final 'Best European act' are:
Manga (Turkey)
Doda (Poland)
Lost (Italy)
Deep Insight (Sweden)
Dima Bilan (Russia)

The MTV website: http://ema.mtv.de/