The Grammys announced the list of nominees for 2022’s awards on November 23, sparking another year of angry artists and fans.
With ratings falling faster than ever, it’s become clear that the Grammys need to appease lest they be forgotten.
Grammys ratings fell by 53 percent from last year’s 8.8 million viewers during the March 14 award show, according to a March 15 NBC article.
In the last two years, artists have been singing a different tune about the music industry’s ”biggest night.”
In response to the “great snubs” of 2021’s Grammys, Canadian singer-songwriter “The Weeknd” announced his boycott of the awards show in a Nov. 24 2020 tweet, although he had one of the most popular albums of 2020.
A snub refers to a work or person being denied an award they seem to deserve, often leading viewers to be disgruntled.
For example, one might say the actor Leonardo Dicaprio has been snubbed of an Oscar for the past 20 years.
“The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…,” The Weeknd said in a Twitter post.
The singer was referring to the nominations review committees, which many fans and artists also call the “secret committees” because member identities are kept a secret from the public. The committee is responsible for creating a shortlist of nominees per category and then a winner is selected by the Recording Academy’s 12,000 eligible voters.
However, many have accused the committees of corruption in recent years.
Deborah Dugan, former CEO of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammys award, filed a 45-page complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) six days before last year’s Grammys, according to a Feb. 2020 Rolling Stones article.
Dougan alleged that the committees attempted to “bypass a democratic voting structure and that she was fired, in part, for attempting to raise these issues with the organization’s board,” according to the same article.
Dugan wrote in her EEOC complaint that, “members of the board [of trustees] and the secret committees chose artists with whom they have personal or business relationships,” furthering public suspicion of corruption and bias in the awards show.
As if the Recording Academy couldn’t dig its grave any deeper there has also been a history of sexual harassment and misogyny in the music industry.
According to a Jun. 3 Statista.com study, an online statistics platform, 2018’s Grammy nominations were 92% male and 8% female.
In a Jan. 2018 Variety article, then-Record Academy CEO Neil Portnow was asked by Variety about the gender imbalance of 2018’s winners in the midst of the #MeToo movement.
In response to the concerns regarding gender representation, Portnow said,“[Women need] to step up,” according to the same Variety article.
The Grammys’ history is clearly dark.
But many remain hopeful as the Recording Academy's new CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., promised change.
After the 2021 Grammys, the nominations-review committee was abolished.
Mason said the committee was no longer needed because people wanted “a pure, ‘general voting population’ vote,”according to an Oct. 1 Rolling Stones article.
Although the “secret committee” has been removed, concerns remain.
The Grammys faced even more scandals after American singer Marilyn Manson and American comedian Louis C.K. received nominations despite longstanding accusations of sexual harassment and sexual assault that have stained both men for years.
Clearly, there is still something wrong if Louis C.K.'s name is listed for best comedy album and not Bo Burnham for his defining contribution to contemporary culture with “Inside.”
“We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules,” Mason said in a Nov. 23 The Wrap article.
For over 60 years the Grammys was intended to recognize and honor achievement in the music industry.
Progress has been made through a change of leadership, increased transparency of nomination review, updated rules and the diversification of the academy’s members, but the Academy cannot please everyone.
Achievement and prestige is not measured by a six-pound golden gramophone.
The best way to celebrate the music industry’s work is to continue to support artists despite the fading merit of the awards show.
