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SCRIPT
HOST INTRO: In the last year award shows have managed to switch to the new online way of living mainly with prerecorded material. The Grammys are one of the shows to have been performed live and has a longstanding reputation of recognizing achievements in the music industry.
TRACK: I am on call with Schneider Galeano a journalism student and avid music fan. One with a critical eye on the music industry and how it operates. Schneider has what some would call a controversial opinion of the Grammys and its effect on the music industry as a whole.
ACT: I think people can argue that the Grammys are supposed to be a marker for artistic excellence when it comes to music, but I believe taking the academy’s history of being very non-diverse when it comes to its voters, that perception can be skewed. I think artists still hold a lot of importance in being nominated and winning because the awards have always been touted as the most prestigious achievement you can get being a musician, and it’s natural for people to want to be recognized for their work, especially if they work hard on it. Saying that though, I do believe more and more people are waking up to the fact that the Grammys usually don’t get it completely right when it comes to who is being recognized and public perception of the awards are starting to slowly dwindle.
TRACK: More people are seeming to take notice of how the Grammys do not reflect what is actually happening in the music scene. For example, given the Weeknd’s snub this year, there have been questions about the committee behind the Grammys and how the nomination process operates.
ACT: The Weeknd’s snub is in my opinion, a caveat for the bigger problem the Grammys have. The Weeknd had the biggest selling album of 2020, with numbers not seen in a while because of the current streaming era we are in, and his lead single “Blinding Lights” breaking the record for a single being in the top 5 of the billboard hot 100 chart for the most weeks ever. Were talking about a song that since its release in late 2019, has been in the top 5 even up to early this year. Now I can say all of these statistics but the Grammys do say that they don’t judge music on commercial or chart success, but there comes a point where it is obvious that there is a reason why an album is succeeding monumentally. Is there not anything excellent about the Weeknd breaking records and having one of the most successful album cycles in recent years? I haven’t even gotten into the whole Super Bowl debacle, where supposedly the Grammy’s purposefully didn’t nominate or recognize the Weeknd because he couldn’t perform in the show, considering he was too busy preparing to perform at the Super Bowl. There is no clear-cut answer if this is true, but I really wouldn’t put it past the Grammys considering their past with background politics. There have been many artists that have come forward to talk about how the Grammys have blackballed them because they have done something that the academy did not like. These are the things people are starting to wake up to, and it is only time until the Grammys will lose their respect if they don’t change in that front.
TRACK: Many are saying this year’s Grammys was the “women’s night to rule”. Schneider has much to say about the Grammys and their treatment of female artist over the years.
ACT: The Grammys have a very murky history with women musicians up to the corporate level. Back in 2018’s Grammy Awards, men were exponentially more nominated as opposed to women and only one woman won a televised award that whole evening. After there was some backlash about it. The then President of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow said, “women need to step up” which sparked even more outrage and led to his departure as President. Deborah Dugan was announced the new President of the Recording Academy and people were more hopeful that with a woman president, female musicians would be recognized more. Unfortunately, Dugan was asked to step down after she complained to human resources about sexual harassment and pay disparity. With taking this into consideration, I think the Grammys have a lot of cleaning up to do if they want to save face when it comes to the treatment of women in their academy, to both artists and workers. I do believe in the more recent years, more women have been getting nominated and winning more though so hopefully they are aware of how they look to the rest of the world and start doing some deep reflection.
TRACK: With this new emerging view of the Grammys there may be a day where the Grammys no longer holds the spot for the night of musical achievements and recognizing deserving artists.