This past weekend I watched the 2021 Grammy music awards as lots of others did. I watch the Grammys every year and look forward to it, but I’ve come to realize many flaws in the award system. Many artists are deserving of these awards and I wouldn’t say otherwise, but that doesn’t make it right that many artists get no recognition when it's deserved. To start, the way the awards are supposed to be run is by the board receiving a multitude of artists, albums, and songs that get filtered down into a list of 20 applicants for each award. From there, they (supposedly) use stats of how influential the options are to then narrow it down to a total of approximately 5 nominees per category. This, however, is not how the awards are run. After some research, I discovered that the board of directors operating the Grammys, aren’t as knowledgeable, diverse, or non-biased as you may think. They don’t even have to listen to all the songs nominated. This means that when it comes down to the final nominees, most of the people giving their input and votes are people from the same background and living environments. Most of them are also rich, white, old, males. This can heavily impact the outcome of the Grammy winner. Not only is this an issue, but the process of voting is to simply click who they like the most, and submit it. There are also “secret committees”. This creates discussion as to whether or not they have the ability to accept money for voting for a specific artist and how the people voting can choose their favorites even if statistically, they aren’t qualified to beat another nominee. According to Rolling Stone, they interviewed people who previously worked for the Grammys. They were fired because they spoke up about the corruption around the awards, and how one of them even “engaged in financial lobbying for votes during the nomination process”. While all this may be true, it doesn’t mean that all of the people behind the Grammys partake in these actions and many take their jobs very seriously. Whether or not there are major flaws in the voting system, doesn’t mean this is an excuse to blatantly state that the winners of any award are undeserving. Artists work hard for what they do and to receive such a major award is a big deal. My points just open up the discussion that other artists should be given the spotlight too. Some artists who have spoken up about this are the Weeknd who boycotted the awards due to his chart-topping album being snubbed by the Grammys, Zayn Malik who tweeted about the show, Nicki Minaj who spoke up about the lack of recognition she received for her music, and Teyana Taylor who spoke up about the sexism within the R&B category. (NBC News) Eminem has also on several occasions over the years spoken up about being snubbed at the awards. This year, I saw more POC recognized during the show, and could see a degree of effort was made but there is still much work to be done. One major example is BTS. This world-renowned Korean group was nominated for best pop group performance at the 2021 Grammys but lost to Rain on Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. Good for them for their win but there are some speculations I had while researching this award. Seeing as it goes to the best ‘performance’ specifically; BTS gave an entertaining show several times for their hit single Dynamite, topping charts and beating records while Rain on Me gave a total of one live performance. Gaga and Ari are undoubtedly talented women in music and I have no intention of taking their achievements away from them but for this specific award, my personal opinion is that BTS could have at least been recognized. Originally, BTS requested one of their Korean tracks, Black Swan, to be up for the award but it was immediately turned down due to it not being in English. They created Dynamite to be played in the states by purposefully creating an upbeat sound with English lyrics the Western industry would allow to be played on the radio. The issue is that they had to create something for Western culture in English which isn’t their first language, to cater to the Grammys before even being considered. This is a major disadvantage to any international artist shooting their shot at a Grammy. Many other Kpop groups are just as influential but don’t have the opportunity to be in the limelight due to this. My personal favourites are NCT, EXO, and SuperM. Some other popular groups not acknowledged are Black Pink and Shinee. These are the members of SuperM: International music is minimally represented at the awards other than some honorable mentions such as Bad Bunny; a Puerto Rican rapper who won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. Eventually, it would be interesting to see more diverse genres of music represented at the awards such as Kpop, and Bollywood. With the rise in popularity of K-pop, the degree they are brushed under the rug is astounding to me. Many people have internalized racism towards Kpop and Bollywood music. This doesn’t mean that if you don’t like the genre that you automatically are racist, but if you don’t like it because they’re international genres; that’s a different story. Some of the many heavily influential albums/ songs that haven’t won Grammy’s over the years are; Michael Jackson’s Purple Rain, Beat it, & Billy Jean, No Doubt’s Don’t Speak, The backstreet boys I want it that way, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, and Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.
The overall meaning behind my words is that even if your favorite artist isn’t nominated for a Grammy, it doesn’t mean they’re any less popular or talented. Brianna S Sources: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/grammy-awards-secret-committees-945532/ https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/musicians-call-out-grammys-weeknd-boycotts-awards-ceremony-n1260918 https://www.vulture.com/article/the-greatest-grammys-snubs-of-all-time.html
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