2017 Taite Music Prize

2017 Taite Music Prize
Awarded forThe best NZ album released in 2016
Sponsored byRecorded Music NZ & Auckland Live
Date18 April, 2017
VenueWintergarden, Civic Theatre, Auckland
CountryNew Zealand
Presented byWallace Chapman & Geneva Alexander
Reward$10,000
WinnerHauora, by Street Chant
Highlights
IMNZ Classic RecordBoodle Boodle Boodle by The Clean
Best Independent DebutSwordfish by Merk
Websiteindies.co.nz

The eighth annual Taite Music Prize, along with two other New Zealand music industry awards, was presented on 18 April 2017 at a ceremony in Auckland, organised by Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ). The winner of the main award was Street Chant for their album Hauora. The inaugural Best Debut Record award went to Merk for Swordfish, and Dunedin Sound pioneers The Clean received the IMNZ Classic Record Award for Boodle Boodle Boodle.

Main Prize

The ceremony and its main award share the "Taite Music Prize" name. Sometimes called the Taite Main, this award recognises New Zealand's best album of the previous year (2016). The winner, was Hauora by Street Chant.[1]

Criteria for the award include artistic merit, creativity, innovation and excellence. A new requirement for 2017 added that artists needed to be able to attend the ceremony in person.[2] The winners received $10,000 from Recorded Music NZ, recording time at Red Bull Studios, and prizes described as a "year's supply" of both Red Bull products and Corona.[1][3]

Winner

Hauora was Street Chant's second album following Means, which was a finalist for the 2011 Taite Music Prize.[1] The prize was accepted by bassist Billie Rogers and drummer Chris Varnham, although the latter didn't actually play on the recording. Band leader Emily Edrosa (also known as Emily Littler) was in Los Angeles and learned about the win on Twitter.[4][5]

It feels really good. When we were recording it I would say that I wanted to win the Taite and the Silver Scroll. That’s really un-Kiwi of me, but I did. So it’s cool, but it’s also really surreal. I had to get up and go to work this morning and catch the bus to downtown LA and I got there and my boss told me off for being late.

Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a little bit too much of an insecure arsehole, but I have this thing about being an outsider to the New Zealand music industry. I think what I really wanted was to be accepted. There’s a want to be legitimised in a funny way. And even though we’re on the punkier side, or we were, I take the songwriting part really seriously and I want to be taken seriously even though I’m a weird bitch on Twitter. Also, fuck it! It doesn’t really matter. But those awards are there, so why not want to win them? Or be happy to win them? — Emily Edrosa, abridged from an interview by The Spinoff[5]

In a review for North & South written a year earlier when the album was released, Henry Oliver - who would become a member of the Taite Music Prize judging panel - said, "Hauora is a portrait of the lives of a certain breed of the twenty-something, creative middle/under-class; over-read and under-employed, drinking too much and earning too little, bussing from an existential crisis to a house party, walking from breakup to hangover."[1]

Nominations, finalists, and judging

While most years' Taite Music Prize nominations are open to any New Zealand musicians to have released an original album in the previous year, a rule change in 2017 eliminated artists who were unlikely to be able to attend the Auckland ceremony.[6] This rule was lifted again for the 2018 Taite Music Prize, when Aldous Harding accepted the award from London.[7]

A nomination period ran for two weeks from January 25, with self-nominations explicitly encouraged by IMNZ.[8] A total of 70 albums were entered.[6] This list went to a vote of all IMNZ members, which found eight finalists. The overall winner was selected by a panel of judges who were never officially named.[3] Journalist Henry Oliver was disclosed as a judge by RNZ.[1]

2017 Taite Music Prize finalists
ArtistAlbumLabelResult
AaradhnaBrown GirlUniversal Music NZNominated
Lawrence ArabiaAbsolute TruthFlying Nun RecordsNominated
Shayne P CarterOffsiderFlying Nun RecordsNominated
Hopetoun BrownLook So GoodMelita MusicNominated
LEISURELEISUREThe Leisure CollectiveNominated
LontaliusI’ll Forget 17LabelNominated
Pacific HeightsThe StillnessWarner MusicNominated
Street ChantHauoraArch Hill RecordingsWon

IMNZ Classic Record

This went to Boodle Boodle Boodle, a 5-track 12" EP by The Clean, first released on Flying Nun Records in November 1981. It was announced ahead of the award ceremony on 30 March 2017. There was no public nomination process or vote. The award was presented by Doug Hood, who was a recording engineer on the EP, assisting Chris Knox.[9]

Boodle Boodle Boodle was the third recording in Flying Nun Records's catalogue. It was made over two days with a total budget of $750. Despite receiving no commercial radio play, it spent 26 weeks in the national charts and was the highest-selling local single in 1982.[9][10]: 3 

In 2017 The Clean were also awarded the APRA Legacy Silver Scroll and inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. They had declined thee plaudits twice before, considering them to be awards from a mainstream music industry that had, in bassist Robert Scott's words, "shunned and dismissed" the band in the past. "Of course, with time they were proved wrong as our music has stood the test of time."[10]: 105 

Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award

The award for the best debut album of 2017 went to Merk (Mark Perkins), for Swordfish. It was presented by IMNZ chairperson Matthew Davis.[11] The award was new for 2018, with Auckland Live joining the Taites as a new sponsor. They funded a $2,000 cash prize and offered the winner a performance slot at the next Summer in the Square, held over 2017-2018.[3] There was an open call for nominations early in 2017 but unlike subsequent years, no other finalists were announced.[1][12]

Award ceremony

The Taite Music Prize ceremony was held on 18 April 2017 and livestreamed on 95bFM's YouTube channel.[11] For the first time the venue was the Civic Theatre's Wintergarden. A "new red carpet" was announced ahead of the ceremony.[12]

Performers on the night were drawn from record label Lil' Chief, forming a one-off group to play songs by Classic Record Award winners The Clean, as well as the 2016 Taite Music Prize winner Silicon (Kody Nielson). MCs were Wallace Chapman & Geneva Alexander[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Music 101 (22 April 2017). "Street Chant take out 2017 Taite Music Prize". RNZ. Retrieved 30 March 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ "Taite Music Prize Nominations Open, New Award Announced". NZ Musician. Retrieved 30 March 2026. ...the rules this year state that nominated artists have to be able to attend the Taite Music Prize event...
  3. 1 2 3 "TAITE MUSIC PRIZE 2017 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED". Music Managers' Forum Aotearoa. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  4. ↑ Hartung, Silke (April 2017). "Street Chant Win Taite Music Prize 2017". Retrieved 29 March 2026.
  5. 1 2 Oliver, Henry (20 April 2017). "Emily Edrosa on Street Chant's Taite win and what's next". The Spinoff. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  6. 1 2 Hartung, Silke. "Top Eight for Taite – 2017 Prize Fighters". NZ Musician. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  7. ↑ RNZ Music (17 April 2018). "Aldous Harding wins the 2018 Taite Music Prize". RNZ. Retrieved 29 March 2026.
  8. ↑ "Nominations Open For Taite Music Prize 2017". Under the Radar. 25 January 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  9. 1 2 "Taite Music Prize: Announcing The Winner Of The 'Independent Music NZ Classic Record' Award". Muzic.NZ. 30 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  10. 1 2 Stahl, Geoff (2025). Boodle Boodle Boodle. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 979-8-7651-0638-9.
  11. 1 2 95bFM (18 April 2017). "LIVE STREAM - The Taite Music Prize 2017". YouTube. Retrieved 30 March 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. 1 2 "The Taite Music Prize 2017 Announces A New Award, A New Venue, A New Red Carpet!". Muzic.NZ. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
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