For all of you out there complaining about the Rock Awards, Jim Ayson explains in the pinoyrock group:

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I think if there are any serious questions about NU, maybe you should ask NU :-) Regarding the procedures, it is really simple.

a) The fans nominate the artists. Top scorers become the official nominees. Its mainly a popularity poll.

b) A board of judges is convened among NU outsiders (I was a judge in '98), they get to vote their picks from the nominees and have a certain percentage in the final score. They also get to keep all the CDs :-)

c) The staff of NU107 also gets to vote - now this might be the sticky part, but there is an internal process to inhibit in cases of conflicts of
interest.

Every year, people complain about the rock awards, "pare pareho ang nananalo", "luto" etc. hahaha
Every year I tell them - just dont take the awards too seriously and you'll be fine.

Because it's not a formal awards body. If it was it would be run by a
foundation, have auditors during the awards, etc.

Because as even NU will tell you, the Rock Awards is mainly a radio station promotion that got bigger and bigger.

Because at its heart, the Rock Awards is mainly an excuse to party at the end of the year - thats' why people come in outrageous fashions.

I also suspect Atom Henares loves the rock awards because its more excuses to mingle with movie star babes! :-)

I wrote a piece last year about this, see
http://www.philmusic.com/zine/news/2001/12/120601_nu107.
It touches a bit on your concerns. Bottom line is don't take the RA too seriously! Its really just a fabulous rock n roll party .

There are formal awards bodies that recognize rock in their categories, that include the Awit and Katha awards. Between the two, I think Katha is the more credible one because musicians are the ones who vote.

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Lionel aka acid42 narrates the electronicamanila event from his point of view.