THE first ARIA ceremony was held at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel in March 1987. Unlike previous popular music awards attended by thousands of screaming teenagers, this was a "serious" awards ceremony for industry types only.
It had been a long time coming.
Australia's recording industry had grown and changed over the decades. Yet even into the 1980s record executives complained that they were still not being taken seriously as an industry.
On June 13, 1878, Alexander Sutherland demonstrated the phonograph - an early form of record player - for the first time in Australia, at a meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria.
The machine, with its cylindrical records, remained a novelty for the wealthy for some years.
But eventually, as the technology improved and became cheaper, the market grew for record players and recordings. Up until the 1920s, Australia imported most of its phonographs and gramophones, and the cylinders and discs played on them, from Europe and the US.
But by the '20s, local manufacturers made record players and pressed records, and recording studios were set up in Australia.
Among the first was the Columbia Gramophone Company Studio at Homebush in 1926. It was a state-of-the-art studio where they recorded a range of music including classical, country and jazz.
In 1931, Columbia would become EMI (Electrical Musical Instruments).
In the '20s, radio stations gave recording companies a way to sell their records to a wider audience. The recording industry boomed in the late '20s, but declined during the Depression of the '30s.
After World War II the industry changed dramatically. Teenagers increasingly dominated music-buying trends.
Rock'n'roll music, with its emphasis on youth themes, directly appealed to this market in the '50s and the industry started to grow.
The advent of television in 1956 gave record producers a more powerful marketing tool. Australian programs such as Sing, Sing, Sing, hosted by local star Johnny O'Keefe, pushed the local product. But the number of Australians on the charts declined in the '60s and early '70s.
This was remedied by the introduction of music shows such as Countdown in 1974 and Sounds in 1975, using a combination of live performances and video clips.
By the 1980s, the local recording industry was booming, with several major record labels operating in Australia, as well as many smaller independent labels. The volatility of the music market was one reason why it was often not considered a serious business, but by the '80s it was worth millions of dollars.
Yet popular music in Australia was still often sneered at as second-rate. It didn't help that achievements of musicians were generally recognised only by trophies for record sales or in popularity polls conducted by teen-oriented magazines.
The King and Queen of Pop competition, which ran from 1967 to 1978, was more of a popularity contest than a recognition of excellence.
The Countdown Awards, which ran until 1987, were not much better. This provided some of the impetus for the formation of the Australian Recording Industry Association in 1986 and the implementation of the ARIA Awards in 1987.
The ARIAs were to be voted for by people in the industry, with the exception of awards such as highest-selling single and album.
There would also be recognition of other musical tastes such as classical and jazz. The first ceremony was hosted by Elton John sporting a new short-cropped blond-dyed hairdo. But there were many notable absentees.
At one stage the host quipped: Let's find an award for someone who's here to receive it. John Farnham dominated the night, taking out six awards. He commented that if people wanted to keep the awards fun they had better keep them off TV.
The absence of cameras or screaming fans caused some to wonder whether the awards, mostly for popular music, ignored the record buyers. But Michael Hutchence of INXS spoke for many when he remarked, as he looked at out the sedate crowd: Hmmm, it's grown-up night tonight.
Industry insiders and journalists heralded the awards as a success.
But not everyone was happy. Independents who were not ARIA members were overlooked and big names such as Farnham and INXS dominated the awards again in 1988.
In 1989, the awards were moved to the Darling Harbour Convention Centre.
Television inevitably intruded on the awards in 1992 when they were held at the World Congress Centre in Melbourne. TV revived interest in the awards, helping them fend off the rival, popular-voted Australian Music Awards.
The first televised ARIAs were hosted by Richard Wilkins, who quipped: If a bomb were to go off in this room, Kamahl would be the hippest person in the Australian music industry.
Since then the awards have had their good years and their bad years. At times accused of being too elitist, at others of being too populist.
There have been some memorable performances by Australian bands such as Silverchair's triumphant return in 2002 and Neil Finn's stirring tribute to Paul Hester in 2005.
But some of the performances have not gone to plan.
In 1994, an Olympic torch was brought into the auditorium to tie in with the announcement that Sydney had won the right to host the Games while Tommy Emmanuel played guitar on stage.
Unfortunately it set the curtains on fire.
* The ARIAs, Sunday, 7.30pm, Channel 10.
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