by macrae11 » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:28 pm
I think it's just the nature of the awards. As far as the events, publicity, and locations, they are very good at spreading things around. But the bottom line is that I would guess half of the voting bloc lives in the Halifax Metro area. So unless you're a well known artist from another province, like David Myles, Hot Toddy, or Chris Colepaugh, (many of whom have moved to Halifax) you just aren't going to get the recognition.
No matter how deep you are into the music scene, you're never going to know all the nominees. I don't think I know all the nominees in any one category, except for the big ones. So if you don't know anybody, you're going to vote for friends, or at least a name you recognize.
It's no different than any other awards event. It's really more about getting nominated, because that means that somebody listened to the work, judged it against the other competitors and decided it's worthy to stand amongst it's peers. Not saying I wouldn't love to win one, just that it's far less of a big deal.