By MICHELE CALICCHIO
The Grammys made a big buzz this year after many viewers felt that the award show was geared more toward popular music and album sales over actually artistry.
The 57th annual Grammys featured a new range of winners and performances that included a newcomer British pop singer and surprise award to a little-known rock artist. But some fans say that the awards didn’t acknowledge other popular music styles.
This year Sam Smith (pop artist) took home three out of four leaving “Album of The Year” to little known rock artist Beck. But for some fans, the issues was more the lack of representation of other genres such as rock, reggae, and alternative.
“The Grammy’s don’t give proper recognition to all genres, absolutely not. There’s one metal award,” said Billy Butka, a music major at RCNJ. “Last year Lorde won best rock artist, she is the farthest thing from rock. There are so many good bands out there like Periphery that go unrecognized because it’s all about pop music.”
Forbes announced the nominees for all 83 awards on its website on December 5, 2014.
The majority of categories were based off genres like pop, R&B, rap, and country. Nominations for alternative, new age, gospel, latin, reggae, world music, dance/electronica, and spoken word also received recognition.
The more popular genres like pop, rock, country, rap, gospel, jazz, americana, and R&B, have five or more awards, while less popular genres like dance/electronica, reggae, alternative, and world music just receive one or two.
However there are four categories that maintain the most coveted of all, “Record of the Year, “Album of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, and “Best New Artists” because any genre can technically be nominated and win.
The Artery which is an online news source describes the award show as an “opportunity for the music industry to tout its artistic legitimacy while promoting only its most commercially successful products in order to garner higher television ratings.”
Who exactly chooses the Grammy Winners?
Considerations for an award are voted upon by the Recording Academy (voting members) that includes musicians, producers, vocalists, and songwriters. Any member is required to have six creative or technical credits minimum.
Not anyone can be a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which makes the award highly coveted. A Grammy is considered one of the most highly esteemed awards given in the recording arts industry because the winner is determined by high ranking colleagues in the industry.
Widely known artists like Beyonce, Sam Smith, and Pharrell Williams top the leader board with six nominations each, just ahead of artists like Jay-Z and Taylor Swift. Other big nominees included Sia, Ed Sheeran, and Iggy Azalea.
The performers for the night also seem to hail mostly from the pop genre, however they seem to be singing all but pop music. Beyonce sang gospel music, as well as John Legend, Common, and Katy Perry.
Other solo performers included Pharrell Williams, Sam Smith, Madonna and Miranda Lambert.
But it wouldn’t really be The Grammys if artists from different genres of the music industry didn’t collaborate on the stage. Perhaps the most random of all being Paul McCartney, Kanye West, and Rihanna to “FourFiveSeconds”. Another strange mashup being Ed Sheeran, Herbie Hancock, John Mayer, and Questlove.
Duets from the same genres also took place such as Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, and Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani.
Still with all the glam and glitter that comes with the Grammys, fans say there are glaring omissions of talent.
“The performances are a prime example on how they don’t represent all genres fairly. They focus the majority of the show on pop music,” said Caitlin Foley, a music business major at Belmont University, “There may be awards for a lot of other genres, but they don’t broadcast much else during the show.”
Quotes were spot on, the one from Billy really backed up the lead. I didn’t watch all of the Grammys, so now I know what took place, who performed and what people thought of it overall. I find it very interesting to read that the Grammys isn’t all that it’s made out to be, in the sense that it doesn’t focus on actual artistry. I found it beneficial to find out who chooses the winners and how artists even get a shot at winning one. Anyone who enjoys entertainment would really like this article. Well written!
Another angle would be from the public eye- is the Grammys only to produce album sales, leading back to the concept of money. Maybe a look back on past Grammys and how they compare with this years.