A FRAME in the National Museum of Scotland is hanging empty.

Soon it will display the winner of the Scottish Album of Year (SAY) Award 2018 set to be announced tonight at in Paisley Town Hall.

The winner will be given a spot among the country’s musical talent in Rip it Up: The Story of Scottish Pop.

The exhibition is the first of its kind dedicated to Scottish pop music, exploring the musical culture of the nation over more than half a century, from influential indie pioneers to global superstars.

Curator Stephen Allen is one of a panel of tastemakers from across the creative industries judging the entries for the seventh annual SAY Award.

An expert in all things Scottish pop, Allen has been impressed by the range of influences found in the shortlisted acts records.

“It’s a much wider and diverse spectrum that would be counted as pop music nowadays”, he explains,

“The longlist contains folk, contemporary urban, dance music, classic guitar pop influences

“A broader influence has been brought into the mainstream.

“The idea of pop music is much broader.”

Featured on the 2018 shortlist is BABE - Kiss & Tell; Best Girl Athlete - Best Girl Athlete; Franz Ferdinand - Always Ascending; Golden Teacher - No Luscious Life; Karine Polwart with Pippa Murphy - A Pocket of Wind Resistance; Kobi Onyame - Gold; Mogwai - Every Country’s Sun; Out Lines - Conflats; Siobhan Wilson - There Are No Saints

and Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar.

Allen adds: “It will be an interesting evening.

“It was a big enough debate trying to get the longlist down.

“Two or three of my favourites ended up not going on the shortlist but everyone will be the same.

“I’ve got four or five personal favourites that I will be happy with.”

The winner will be given a home in the contemporary music section of Rip It Up.

Previous winners like Young Fathers, Aiden Moffat and R M Hubbert also feature elsewhere in the exhibition which features archive footage and new interviews with artists and musicians.

Iconic costumes, memorabilia, instruments and props from musicians including The Proclaimers, Shirley Manson, Lulu, Midge Ure, Simple Minds, Annie Lennox, Gerry Rafferty, Alex Harvey and Texas.

The majority of the 300 objects on display are being lent to the exhibition by the artists themselves and in many cases have never before been on public display.

The curator explains: “It covers 60 years of Scottish pop music from Lonnie Donegan.

“We’ve got some fantastic objects lent to us by Alex Harvie’s family like his leather jacket and his striped jumper.

“We’ve got enormous almost three metre high kicking robots from Franz Ferdinand from their state set and bash symbols from Young Fathers.

“There has been a strong presence in pop music from Scottish bands and it’s always punched above its weight.

“Some of the biggest bands from the uk have been from Scotland like Annie Lennox, KT Tunstall, Simple Minds.

“Pop music is a really important cultural art from.

“It’s been around for half a century, many of us grew up listening to it and it was our first encounter with art and culture and it leads on to other things like an interest in fashion and photography.

“It’s quite often the first type of culture that people encounter.

“I like it all. I grew up listening to great stuff from the late 70s early 80s.

“The likes of Orange Juice, Altered Images, Aztec Camera - it was a golden era of Scottish music.

“My first favourite band was The Rezillos when I was 13 - I just loved them.”

The winner of the SAY Award will pick up a £20,000 prize provided by Creative Scotland with the nine runners-up each receiving £1,000.

Four Scottish artists will be performing on the night while masters of ceremony Nicola Meighan and Vic Galloway will celebrate each of the ten albums.

The winner of the Scottish Album of the Year will be announced tonight.

Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop

22 June to 25 November 2018

National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh