Shortlist Prize Honors Lower-Profile Talent

Refreshingly cutting against the grain of mainstream awards that slice music into ever more confining categories, the inaugural Virgin Megastore Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music featured brief performances by the winner, atmospheric Icelandic band Sigur Ros, and three other nominees during a ceremony Monday at the Knitting Factory Hollywood.

Somewhat modeled after England’s Mercury Music Prize, the Shortlist award, including $10,000 cash from the sponsor, stemmed from the founders’ notion that pop is always disposable and that great music, although everywhere, is getting ever harder to find. (Whatever.)

It’s debatable whether the nominees, mostly signed to and in many cases pushed hard by major labels, were really so obscure. But certainly they were a diverse, generally quality bunch, including rock acts PJ Harvey, Ryan Adams and the Dandy Warhols; French electronica duo Air, virtual hip-hoppers Gorillaz, R&B; artists Bilal and Nikka Costa; and rappers Talib Kweli and Jay Dee.

The Shortlist was determined by a panel of music writers, artists, producers and radio professionals, providing a broad opinion spectrum but also creating conflict-of-interest questions--panelist Dan the Automator, for instance, is in Gorillaz.

And this definition of great music had a built-in limitation. Album sales had to be fewer than 500,000 copies at nomination time, an anti-commercial bias as potentially limiting as those of the mercenary Grammys.

Or, as Dandy Warhols leader Courtney Taylor-Taylor jokingly put it during the band’s set, “There’s a prize for bands that don’t sell records? Oh, we’re contenders? Gee, thanks, guys.” The singer had a point, but the band’s disappointing acoustic performance telegraphed a cynicism that made you wonder why they bothered showing up. Other short sets included lively “conscious” rap by Kweli, uninspiring R&B; funk from Costa and Sigur Ros’ surprisingly engaging, spaced-out soundscapes.

In a music world where the cutest and sleekest get the most attention, the Shortlist’s tune-out-the-bad approach was noble enough. But who knows whether it will become an indicator of lasting talent? After all, the Grammys were created to honor “good” music, and not that horrible flash-in-the-pan known as rock ‘n’ roll.