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If there’s anything we’ve learned, we can’t really do much to change the structure of certain awards organizations, especially the likes of the Recording Academy.
I would like to know how you feel the perfect music honor would work. Share your thoughts on how the perfect music honor should work. Be as brief or as detailed as you want, I’ll be reading it all.
From nominations structure to eligibility to categories, feel free to discuss it all. You’ve probably dreamt about it or wished a particular organization would reflect that change.
Let it all out!
ReplyThere is no perfect music honour system and there can’t be, because people have different ideas about what music they believe should win. Some people think the biggest songs should win and other believe the winners should be the most acclaimed, or songs that make some sort of social statement or some other criteria.
There are others who will ignore the actual music and say the award should go to artists who are “overdue” or dead, or some other criteria that determines why one artist is more or less deserving.
For a long time the Grammys have used a committee to try and keep everyone happy and provide a balance of choice between the biggest songs and albums (sales/streams) and best (acclaim).
But more recently this has has made everyone unhappy. In the 2021 awards there was no “Fetch The Bolt Cutters” (acclaimed) in AOTY and no “Blinding Lights” (sales) in ROTY and other award categories.
In many respects, the Billboard Awards are closer to being “perfect” at what they try to do. For the most part it’s about sales/streams and no one is confused about what the results mean.
We just need a separate Critics Choice award show for acclaimed music.
But this is not going to be supported by the record labels and the big name artists. What they want is an awards system that tells them that the biggest selling songs/albums and the big name artists are also the best.
That is what the Grammys are for. They reward the biggest stars and the major labels, but sometimes a smaller artist can win to make things interesting. They are not perfect for musicians or music fans, but they serve the needs of the industry.
ReplyCopy URLThe importance of acclaim, to me, has always been for the legacy of that body of work. There are at least one thousand LPs released each year, how can we reflect on the best the year had to offer?
This might not seem like a big issue to some of us now because we’re in the age of things where we can easily research certain info for ourselves due to streaming services. But how exactly do we know where to look?
Imagine there’s never been some review system, or some body of critics that have reviewed work from the past either during the past or in recent times. How would we know about albums like Blue that didn’t win a single Grammy nor was even nominated? Sure Joni would morph into a big name in music, but how would know that her earlier stuff was so impressive?
In retrospect, how would future generations know about the likes of Fiona Apple, St. Vincent and smaller artists who weren’t able to become household names but undoubtedly put out some of the best work of their time. Thankfully, some albums match the sales and acclaim like To Pimp a Butterfly. But good music must be remembered regardless of celebrity status or sales.
Now, when I said “perfect,” I didn’t mean perfect in terms of pleasing everyone. Nothing is able to please everyone, really. But we can have a system where it’s an average of respectable opinions that can produce results that truly represent the best a year had to offer and not throwing in 7 into Album of the Year.
ReplyCopy URLThe Grammys are about the most serious music award there is, and even they are complete jokes at times. Some of their appalling decisions include:
1. Literally giving MTV Unplugged by Tony Bennett Album of the Year. Sure, he’d just seen a resurgence in popularity at the time, but the fact they collectively made that decision is rather scary.
2. Nominating 7 in Album of the Year. Length aside, 7 is by no means what you’d call an Album of the Year worthy release. It simply was done into needlessly inflate his nomination count.
3. The Genius Loves Company sweep. The Grammys have proven time and time again that death is your sure ticket to a win. Unless you’re someone like the Cranberries frontwoman (RIP).
But as we know, it’s not all bad where they are. They do get it right on a few occasions.
1. In the past, we’ve had Rumours, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Songs in the Key of Life among other deserving AOTY winners take home the gold.
2. More recently, we’ve had The Suburbs, Golden Hour and Folklore receive AOTY recognition.
3. They’ve also done us some good by cutting down what was a whopping 120+ categories into a current total of 86 somewhat relevant categories.
The big issue with the Recording Academy is they’re fundamentally out of touch. Like I said, they get it right a few times. But nominating 7 in your biggest category shows you really don’t know what you’re doing for an established music honors body.
Then there’s the “industry.” They are way to obsessed with the industry because, no surprise, the Recording Academy comprises solely of music industry members. But what do I mean here? Their obsession reflects in decisions like The Genius Loves Company sweep, picking Robert Plant over Radiohead, and, as was debated earlier, the excess love for H.E.R.
To talk about H.E.R. briefly, she’s a good artist. Exceptional at sometimes. But let’s be real, H.E.R. is nine times out ten never about to cross your mind for work that stood out definitively during their respective years of release. H.E.R., more than any other R&B artist in recent history, has received a solid two consecutive AOTY nominations for EP compilations that made no news commercially or critically. She’s also had tracks like “Hard Place” be nominated for both Record and Song of the Year. And while she finally got something deserving to some extent this year with her SOTY win for “I Can’t Breathe,” her other GF nominations, truly, haven’t been all that deserving.
My third big issue with the Grammys is the way they allow the audience to influence their essential decisions. BTS got a nomination this year frankly because of the numerous death-threat-like tweets they received all through last year. More notably, they’ve literally changed their own rules to appease artists like The Weeknd that have large followings.
This is no doubt done because they are trying their ultimate best to keep the ever declining ratings abreast. But that’s the thing, when your honest choices of what was the best music in a year are constantly being influenced by how much ratings you’re getting, you’re bound to make more than a few bad decisions.
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