On January 28, 2018, The Recording Academy held its 60th Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden. This ceremony is a time for artists’ peers to present awards honoring “artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry.” On Sunday night, English comedian and television host, James Corden, opened us up to what I would consider quite the award show when it comes to predictability and controversy.
This year, the awards for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year were presented to one Pop Artist known as, Bruno Mars. Quite honestly, I wasn’t too surprised, considering a good majority of these awards’ previous winners were also Pop artists.
Pop artists like Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor and Sam Smith taking home some of the biggest awards in previous years was something that did not come of shock to me. When the Recording Academy’s website claimed that the awards presented are “...without regard to album sales or chart position”, I found it hard to believe, especially when the most streamed song in history, Despacito by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee, was nominated. I personally wouldn’t consider filthy lyrics such as, “Let me trespass your danger zones until I make you scream”, artistic excellence.
After some of the predictable artists were handed their awards, there was another wave of disappointment that many people witnessed that night.
Not only was there some letdown in regards to the artists featured in Sunday’s show, there was also a large response to the low number of female winners. In return to this criticism, The Recording Academy’s president, Neil Portnow, said that female artists need to “step up." This provoked a huge controversy during a night where members of the music and entertainment industry wore white roses to signify their support for the #MeToo and Times Up movements.
After his poorly crafted statement, Portnow was confronted with some pretty serious backlash. Pink, for instance, posted across multiple media platforms a handwritten note that said, “Women in music don’t need to ‘step up’ - Women have been stepping since the beginning of time.
Stepping up, and also stepping aside, women owned music this year. They’ve been KILLING IT. And, every year before this. When we celebrate and honor the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair.”
With all due respect, whether it’s pertaining to gender discrimination or what they consider artistic excellence, The Recording Academy is the one that should consider stepping up. It’s not up to just the artists themselves to gain acknowledgment.
Artists are producing, singing and creating music that some voters are incapable of recognizing. How is The Recording Academy celebrating the entire music industry when the show is generally centered around Pop artists? How are they honoring and supporting the entire music industry when there are still barriers remaining for female artists to overcome?
