The most prestigious award in any music ceremony, Album of the Year, has been omitted to make room for film music while Best Music Video Director also gets cut.
We’ve always known that the Lux Style Awards is first and foremost a ceremony that celebrates fashion and style the most, given the number of categories dedicated to it. And for a while it was fine. The film industry, for instance, had nothing new to offer. But with the post-revival, things have changed.
The LSAs ride on the coattails of stars. Over the years, we’ve seen several artists such as Atif Aslam or Ali Zafar getting segments that include hosting, tribute, dancing and everything else you can think of, more than once. Previous years have seen Ali Azmat take the stage as host, also twice.
So, it comes across as almost indignant that the Lux Style Awards, the country’s longest running contemporary award ceremony, has reduced music categories to such a degree that they may as well not have them. It is understandable for the Lux Style Awards office to bring changes, particularly since the hue-and-cry last year.
However, as films and TV become the most popular form of entertainment, music is getting lost.
Here’s how….
Just last year, the category of Best Original Sound Track fell under the television category and it should since those who watch television serials all year long are better equipped to pick out good songs, both famous and non-famous ones. And not necessarily based on YouTube hits. Numbers do not validate talent; it’s a popularity contest at best. But in Lux Style Awards 2019, the category of Best Original Sound Track has been shifted to music. Huh.
Our consolation prize, it seems, is the presence of Best Emerging Talent in Music that was and still is present.
Best Playback Singer (Male) and Best Playback Singer (Female), two categories that rightfully belonged to the Film section, have been condensed into one category called Best PlayBack Singer – Film and added to the music section.
The unforgivable blunder, however, made this year is the omission altogether of the category of Album of the Year. In a recent year, Jamal Rahman, music producer and founder of True Brew TV noted that original music is being made but that it is not being covered by the press the way it should and the perception needs to be changed. Clearly, he was on to something.
I’m looking at 30 by Strings, Transcendence by Adil Omar, Unravel by TMPST, and the upcoming (and confirmed at the writing of this piece) Chand Tara Orchestra album scheduled to release later this December. I’m also thinking of the five-track EP from Janoobi Khargosh called Cpt. Space, Island in the City by Keeray Makoray and Natasha Noorani’s Munaasib. Then there’s Mughal-e-Funk’s upcoming debut EP Sultanat, scheduled to appear this December. All these albums have no space to shine since the category has been deleted.
Then there’s the omission of Best Music Video Director. With music becoming more of a visual experience and artists such as Strings, Poor Rich Boy, Kashmir, Khumariyaan, Chand Tara Orchestra, Adil Omar, Jimmy Khan, Umair Jaswal and many others investing in music videos, this was and still is an important category. Therefore, the likes of Jami, Yasir Jaswal, Zeeshan Parwez, Waleed Ahmed, Tabish Habib, Anam Abbas, Ahsan Ali, Ashar Khalid and the many who directed smart music videos are not going to get recognized. The purpose of LSA has always been to be inclusive; what just happened here?
Song of the Year and Singer of the Year are just two categories that aim at rewarding two artists from a huge, diverse pool of music; that means a lot of deserving artists simply won’t make the nomination cut, much less an actual trophy.
