Articles — record awards

For most musicians, receiving a RIAA Gold or Platinum record is one of the ultimate career milestones. These framed awards symbolize hit albums, sold-out tours, and years of hard work in recording studios and on the road. But that has never stopped curious artists--and also collectors-- from wondering: “Does this thing actually play?” and "Is it my record or not?"   Over the years, musicians, producers, industry insiders, and collectors have shared stories about artists attempting to place their own Gold or Platinum awards onto turntables just to see what would happen. Sometimes the experiments worked, or worked briefly. Other times...

Winning a Gold or Platinum record is supposed to be a serious honor. After all, it means an artist sold enough albums or singles to earn a permanent place in music history. But behind many of those shiny framed awards are stories that are downright hilarious, bizarre, or completely unexpected. From awards getting dropped to rock stars abusing them in unusual ways, the music industry has produced countless funny tales connected to record awards over the decades. One story involves members of Led Zeppelin and their mountain of Gold and Platinum albums during the 1970s. The band sold so many...

Record awards in their earliest days were pretty plain, starting with simple dark-stained wood framed affairs with white matte boards in the 60s and early 70s. The period of 1975 thru the mid-80s brought silver and gold painted frames and charcoal-colored mattes. This was followed by a graduation to some pretty pedestrian black plastic-covered frame/black matte awards from the mid-80s through late 90s.   Just before the millennium, however, the RIAA loosened up its' previously strict design standards. This opened up the creative floodgates for award designers, who responded with an explosion of new designs. The companies that designed these new award...