What is the Mercury Prize? A short introduction to Britain’s most coveted music award
Each September in British music, the Mercury Prize rolls into town. The award is aptly named, as its singular list of nominees typically reflects the most mercurial talents of the moment across Great Britain and Ireland’s alternative music scene. It goes to the album released over the previous 12 months that are deemed by the award’s judging panel to have the greatest artistic value.
Think of it as the music industry’s version of cinema’s Palme d’Or if we equate the Grammys and the Brit Awards to the Oscars and the Baftas. In fact, the award’s own website calls it “the Booker Prize for literature and the Turner Prize for art.” Except that the Mercury Prize can only go to a British or Irish artist. Its entire ceremony constitutes the awarding of the prize itself, whose recipient is the sole winner of the evening, alongside performances from various nominees.
Originally, a maximum of ten nominees were shortlisted from submissions by artists’ record labels. In 1998, that number was expanded to 12, and it’s remained that way ever since. Winners receive a relatively small sum of £25,000 for their victory, which pales in comparison with the annual earnings of major-label acts. But what they get is far more important – industry kudos and the respect of their peers. As well as a profile boost that translates into a larger fan following and a jump in record and ticket sales.
At least, that’s how it should be. When the prize was founded in 1992 by Virgin Records executive Jon ‘Webbo’ Webster and producer Robert Chandler, it was supposed to act as an antidote to the pompous vapidity of the Brit Awards, giving much-needed exposure to independent and up-and-coming artists. And it makes a concerted effort to promote albums that look to the future of music, with its judging panel of “independent” music industry experts occasionally over-egging their preference for something different when picking a winner.
One-hit winners and unlucky losers
The Mercury Prize got off to a flier in its first year when it was actually still sponsored by the now-defunct telecom company Mercury Communications – from which it takes its name. The judges of the 1992 award named Primal Scream’s acid house classic Screamadelica, which is now universally considered one of the greatest albums of all time, as the winner of the first Mercury Prize.
Since then, the results have been a bit of a mixed bag. The award’s had its far share of big-name winners, from Suede and Pulp’s Different Class, to Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys’ debut record and PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake. Harvey is, incidentally, the only two-time Mercury Prize winner. And the Mercury judges have truly excelled themselves at times, plumping for a surprise name like Portishead for their masterwork Dummy, Ms Dynamite, Elbow for Seldom Seen Kid, The xx, Skepta, and this year’s winner English Teacher for their debut album This Could Be Texas.
On the other hand, far from representing the future of music, several who’ve taken home the prize have disappeared from view almost as soon as they’d collected their award and have scarcely been seen since. Most famously, Speech Debelle won in 2009 for her debut jazz-rap album Speech Therapy in lieu of Florence and the Machine’s Lungs and The Horrors’ Primary Colours, despite the record not being tipped for victory by anyone in the know. It failed to add significantly to the few thousand copies it had sold prior to the ceremony, and Debelle’s two follow-up albums made a next-to-no impact in any respect.
Back in the 1990s, there was indie band Gomez’s unexpected win ahead of The Verve’s Urban Hymns, and a decade later, the Klaxons were supposed to usher in the era of nu-rave with their debut Myths of the Near Future. Neither band has been able to back up their victory since, and neither of their albums stands up to the best of its fellow nominees in retrospect. Meanwhile, 2020’s winner, Michael Kiwanuka, hasn’t released any new music since his admittedly brilliant self-titled experimental rock album.
But then, should that matter? While stating that their award aims to “provide a snapshot of the year in music”, the people behind the Mercury Prize claim that it’s given out “solely on the quality of the music on the album”. It’s irrelevant if the record doesn’t sell or the artist has no further impact on music after the fact. That’s the whole point of having an anti-Brits.
Yet this justification still doesn’t explain how Music for the Jilted Generation, OK Computer, Arular, Back to Black, Blackstar and Wet Leg, to name just a few generation-defining albums, got snubbed. It also doesn’t help secure the award’s place in the music industry for the foreseeable future.
So what does the future hold?
BBC budget cuts have led to a revamped format for the 2024 Mercury Prize ceremony, in which live performances were shelved. The award’s objective of highlighting unsung British and Irish music talent is clearly going to be undermined by these changes and any others that seem likely to come about if new music moves further down the priority list for broadcasters.
In truth, the gradual erosion of live music coverage on television, the rise of streaming and artists’ ever-increasing reliance on extensive touring for their income make the future of the Mercury Prize uncertain. The album as an entity is certainly alive and kicking, but the gravitas of an album-based alternative music award isn’t what it was.
When bands like English Teacher are getting their just desserts, though, it’s a chance to recognise what the Mercury Prize has meant to independent music on these isles over the past three decades. If it’s presented in the right way, to the right artists, it can be as important as ever. And long may that continue!
