2012 Scene Awards - Man of the Year

Psy

MAN OF THE YEAR NOMINEES:

Gotye

Some might say it can all be put down to that one little song and if you don’t know the one I mean you may have been asleep for the last twelve months. That song was and still is a very, very good song but what has to be remembered is that Gotye has been kicking around the Australian music scene for over ten years now; it’s just that it wasn’t until this year that he really made a large impact on both Australia’s musical landscape as well as a lot of the rest of the world, with a little help from the delightfully cute Kimbra. You don’t write a song like ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ accidentally, it takes some serious talent to write it, perform it and then be able to take it to audiences around the world. It takes some serious talent to turn your once slightly self-indulgent-arts-based-musician’s-musician-self into a pop star, a celebrity and most importantly an entertainer. It has been an absolute pleasure watching Gotye grow and develop as an artist this year, he’s taken his awesome third album ‘Making Mirrors’ places I’m sure he never dreamed of it going and he’s learnt a lot along the way about every aspect of being an artist. That one little song’s success gave him the confidence he needed to know how wonderful he actually is, something a lot of us knew already. If this is who Gotye has become after a little over a year of major mainstream commercial musical success, I look forward to seeing what he has in store for us in the future. Surely it can only be amazing, like he is.  (Jo Michelmore)

Jack White

If you’ve been reading anything I’ve written on this blog this year, you may know how this is going to start and how it’s going to end so let’s just take a moment and get the first one out of the way. Deep breath; oh Jack, oh sigh. Now, let’s talk about Jack White. We’ve always known he’s a bit weird, hugely talented, extremely guarded, incredibly intelligent, an astute businessman, an enormously gifted guitarist and I’m just going to say it, strangely a little bit hot; but it wasn’t until this year and the release of his solo album Blunderbuss that I fell totally and completely in love with the artist that is Jack White. From first listen, that album wrapped its blues-roots-rock-jazz-country self around me like a warm, incredibly strong hug and eight months later it hasn’t let go. His song writing is mind blowing, his guitar playing is breathtaking, his lyrics are heartbreaking. His live performance was one of my favourites of the year and the memory of seeing both his all boy and all girl bands while he caressed and abused his guitar in the most goose bump inducing way will stay with me for a long time. ‘Blunderbuss’ ends with a pleading lyric “take me anywhere you go…” and it’s a sentence I’m happy to hear from him over and over again, because it’s an album that has already seen me through so many different times, so many different places. This year, Jack White put himself right at the top of my favourite artists list and it’s a spot I suspect he won’t be leaving anytime soon, which means exactly what I said at the start….oh Jack, oh sigh. (Jo Michelmore) 

Frank Ocean

The Grammy Awards have made some pretty shady choices over the past couple of years, but with the 2013 nominations recently announced it looks like they're ready to get back on track. Exhibit A - Frank Ocean's leading six Grammy nominations, including nods for Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Album of the Year. You don't just come out of nowhere (get it? Sorry... bad joke) and land yourself a heap of Grammy nominations without having released something incredible. Channel Orange is the definition of incredible. Ocean's words and voice leave you breathless throughout and it's been lauded by many publications as the best album of the year. This is one buzz artist that's been able to live up to the hype with quality music. As for his big reveal in the lead-up to Channel Orange's release... good for him. Sure, it could have just been a big attention seeking move to get people talking about the album, but is that really such a bad thing? I say nay. Bring on the next album! (Matt Bond) 

Psy

My pick for man of the year is worthy because of his beautiful baby blue tuxedo, devilish grin and cowboy like moves. Oh yeah, and he had one of the biggest songs of 2012! PSY made his transition from Korean pop prince to international sensation thanks to “Gangnam Style”. For the most part, this song seems to annoy the shit out of people. This only makes me like it, and him, even more. Call me crazy, but I’d hazard a guess that ole PSY has just about used up his 15 minutes of fame, and that by March next year we’ll say “PSY? Who?”. But until then, let’s honour the man with the invisible horse. (Katie Langley)

Calvin Harris

I could go on about Calvin Harris' US break since the release of Rihanna's 'We Found Love' and his subsequent hit collaborations with Ellie Goulding, Kelis, Example and Florence Welch; the latter of which ended up in our top ten songs of the year. I could attempt to do some sort of review of his album 18 Months. Released towards the end of the year it housed all of the aforementioned collaborations... including 'We Found Love.' Um, ok. Anyway, I could try to do a lot of things here, but I won't. Instead, I'm just going to say in a slow year for solo male artists, we needed someone to fill the required fifth nomination slot and old mate was the least offensive contender. Congratulations? (Matt Bond)

2012 MAN OF THE YEAR:

Winner: Jack White

Runner-Up: Frank Ocean

2011 Winner: Gotye

Runner-Up: Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)

2010 Winner: Kanye West