Everything indicates that this Sunday, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Beyonce will be the protagonist of the sixty-fifth edition of the Grammy Awards. The former Destiny’s Child is up for nine awards, followed by the rapper Kendrick Lamar, present in eight categories. Although, in practice, the final verdict is secondary: year after year, the discredit of this appointment has only increased due to its conservatism, the dubious transparency of its nomination process, and the lack of racial and gender diversity. among its winners.
1. The scourge of machismo
Neil Portnow, who was the president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States between 2002 and 2019, the entity in charge of organizing the Grammys, gave some unfortunate statements just at the end of the 2018 broadcast. ‘Variety’ about why women only represented 9% of the 899 nominees that year, he replied that they should “take a step forward” to have more presence in future editions.
His words led to the viralization on Twitter hashtag #GrammysSoMale and, of course, a wave of outrage. P!nk, without going any further, shared a handwritten note with their fans: “We women who work in the music industry do not need to ‘take a step forward’ because that is something we have been doing since the beginning of time & rdquor ;.
— P!nk (@Pink) January 29, 2018
Sheryl Crow, For his part, he wanted the gala to once again separate the female categories from the male ones, which was abolished in 2012. And added: “Who will inspire young women to pick up a guitar and rock when almost all categories are full of men? & rdquor ;.
I wish the #grammys would return to female/male categories. Who will young girls be inspired by to pick up a guitar and rock when most every category is filled with men? I’m not sure it is about women needing to “step up”, (as said by the male in charge). #GrammysSoMale https://t.co/v1rvbT3pCC
—Sheryl Crow (@SherylCrow) January 29, 2018
2.White privilege
Throughout its 65-year history, so only eleven African-American artists have won the Grammy for Album of the Year: Stevie Wonder (in 1974, 1975 and 1977), Michael Jackson (1984), Lionel Richie (1985), Quincy Jones (1991), Natalie Cole (1992), Whitney Houston (1994), Lauryn Hill (1999), OutKast 2004 ), Ray Charles (2005), Herbie Hancock (2008) and Jon Batiste (2022). Beyoncé could join this list in a matter of hours—she has 28 in all; most of the R&B genre-, but looking back it is undeniable that the Academy has ignored, and relegated to lesser categories, artists of color.
Tyler, The creator, minutes after winning Best Rap Album in 2020 for igor, verbalized with much insight behind the scenes: “It sucks that every time we, and I mean the ones that look like me, do something that breaks genres or whatever, they always put it in the category of rap or urban & rdquor;.
3.Television circus
Like it or not TikTok is the MTV of Generation Z. Proof of this can be seen in the Best New Artist category, where this year artists as popular on the Chinese social network as Latto, Muni Long or Omar Apollo. However, before mobile screens set the trends, for four decades executive producer Ken Ehrlich orchestrated impossible collaborations on stage like that of Eminem and Elton John (2001)or that of Jay-Z with Paul McCartney and Linkin Park (2006), with the sole objective of breaking the audimeters.
In 2020 he hung up the habit, but the truth is that before doing so he earned the antipathy of several stars. Days before the 2019 gala, for example, she asserted that Ariana Grande he would not perform live because “he felt it was too late for him to do anything & rdquor;. The singer, apart from not going to the appointment, defended herself on social networks: “I have kept my mouth shut, but now you lie about me. I can put on a show overnight and you know it, Ken.”
Frank Ocean He doesn’t have good memories of him either: after declaring to ‘The New York Times’ that the award and nomination system “is outdated & rdquor; -in fact, he gave up his album ‘Blonde’ being considered for the Grammys and refused to attend the ceremony in 2017-, a resentful Ehrlich called his interpretation of ‘Forrest Gump’ a “failed” and “not good television” in the 2013 edition.
Controversies aside, there is something undeniable: since the producer is not in charge of the ceremony, the audience data leaves much to be desired. Although in 2020, his last year at the helm of the broadcast, 19.9 million viewers tuned in to CBS, the number plummeted to 8.8 million in 2021 and only rose slightly to the 9.6 million last year. It remains to be seen what will happen this Sunday.
4. Meritocracy is conspicuous by its absence
In a revealing article published in 2014, Rob Kenner, a journalist and member of the Academy, revealed some ins and outs of the voting system: “Voting members review the lists of all eligible recordings in each category. They are supposed to vote only in their fields of expertise, and in a maximum of 9 of the 31 fields on the ballot. However, everyone can vote for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.[…] In summary: the vast majority of nominations are chosen by people who have little real experience in a given field. I refrained from voting on heavy metal and classical because I know very little about those genres. But he could have done it if he wanted to, and that seems like a problem to me.” Likewise, he added: “Celebrities tend to receive more votes from clueless members of the Academy, regardless of the quality of their work & rdquor ;.
5. Supine injustices
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Legends like Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Queen, The Who, Tupac Shakur, Björk, Depeche Mode or Patti Smith, to name a few, have never won a Grammy. Now, in hindsight, many other committee elections are even more striking for how iniquitous they were.
How is it possible that in 1970 the self-titled album by the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears prevailed over the Abbey Road of The Beatles? That Christopher Cross’s debut feature beat the classic in 1981? The Wall Pink Floyd? That in 2001 the return of Steely Dan, Two Against Naturereceived the most important gramophone instead of Kid Aby Radiohead, or the bestseller The Marshall Mathers LP, from Eminem? Or, for that matter,that The Weeknd did not receive a measly nomination in 2011 for his hit single Blinding Lights? Milli Vanilli were dispossessed of the Best New Artist award months after receiving it in 1990, but today they continue to be more remembered than some mentioned here.