Remembering the Alternative Press Music Awards
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Sugar, we're going down to the APMAs. Photo: Daniel Boczarski/Redferns via Getty Image
A decade ago, Cleveland became the center of the alternative rock universe.
Why it matters: The Alternative Press Music Awards, held July 21, 2014, was a first-of-its-kind showcase for a music scene that came to prominence during the 21st century, and it was a precursor to standalone events like When We Were Young.
Flashback: Alternative Press — the magazine founded in Cleveland in 1985 by Mike Shea — announced the inaugural awards show in April 2014.
- The show was hosted by Blink-182's Mark Hoppus and featured the biggest names in pop-punk, post-hardcore and metalcore.
The intrigue: Alternative Press teamed up with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to hold the show at Voinovich Bicentennial Park behind the museum.
- Concert promoter Kevin Lyman rerouted that year's Warped Tour and Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival to coincide with the APMAs.
- That enabled the awards to land Fall Out Boy as its headliner, as well as performances by popular bands like All Time Low, Twenty One Pilots and A Day to Remember.
What they're saying: "Artists saw that their friends were going to be there," Shea tells Axios.
- "So, you had acts on individual tours changing their schedules so they could come and hang out at the show," he says.
State of play: Panic! At the Disco's Brendon Urie opened the festivities with a medley of Frank Sinatra covers.
- Other highlights included Twenty One Pilots' Tyler Joseph scaling the stage scaffolding, Joan Jett receiving a lifetime achievement award and All Time Low performing with Yellowcard and New Found Glory.
What happened next: Alternative Press hosted three more award shows from 2015-2017.
- Shea sold the magazine in 2020 to MDDN, a company owned by Good Charlotte's Benji and Joel Madden.
The bottom line: "Those shows rank at the top of things I was able to do with Alternative Press," Shea says.
- "Each event was great, but that first one was probably the most fun."