The new prize will be awarded for the first time on November 17th
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POLYTON is an award by music creators for music creators. The Academy for Popular Music award will be presented for the first time on November 17th in Berlin’s Atelier Gardens. The winners are selected by the 50 founding members – including Herbert Grönemeyer, RIN, Shirin David, Judith Holofernes and Schmyt – who themselves come from different genres of music. This means the performance is evaluated from a diverse and creative perspective.
The Academy for Popular Music is the first association of musicians of its kind and places particular emphasis on exchange and support within the pop culture world. “It brings together the creativity of musicians to give them more visibility and self-determination in a space outside and independent of the conventional structures of the music industry,” says the official POLYTON website.
The German pop singer Johannes Oerding, who is part of Spektrum Performing and is part of the academy’s speaker council, describes the institution as follows: “Who are the heroes of the musicians? With POLYTON, we as musicians want to build a network that brings the content of the actual works to the fore. Pop music is just as valuable here as indie rap because we look at the creation from different creative perspectives.”
To ensure that the award ceremony is as democratic and diverse as possible, the institution created a three-stage selection process. The academy members assign themselves to the five spectrums of creative work: playing, performing, producing, writing and supporting. After the academy has appointed so-called scouts who submit and collect various suggestions, selected experts determine the nominations for each category. In the final step, the academy, together with the experts, determines the prize winners.
But the exchange and networking doesn’t stop after the award. During the multi-day event series from November 15th to 18th, four think tanks, a round table and various readings will create an open forum for creative professionals. There will also be a multidisciplinary exhibition that will focus particularly on the musicians and appreciate their work.