The Grammy Awards is an award ceremony hosted by the Recording Academy that honors the best music in the past year. They are widely considered the most honored and respectable music award that one can receive. After this past week, however, I think that has gone down significantly.
The Grammys was the only music award show that I took seriously, as every award show seemed to honor artists’ sales and airplay over quality, like the Billboard Awards and the American Music Awards. However, as new music revolutions are being created and new subgenres are emerging, it seems the Academy doesn’t want to adjust. People have noted the odd placement of some songs/artists/albums in categories that they don’t belong in, and several awards from popular genres aren’t being presented during the ceremony itself.
Back in 2014, the albums “good kid, m.A.A.d city” by Kendrick Lamar and “The Heist” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were nominated for Best Rap Album during the 56th Grammy Awards. “The Heist” ended up winning, which left several people scratching their heads. I personally wasn’t as big of a Lamar fan as I am now, but I did find it odd that a very pop sounding album like “The Heist” won over an album that included amazing tracks like "Swimming Pools" and "Poetic Justice." I didn’t think that the Grammys got it totally wrong, however, as Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” won Album of the Year that year. I thought it was important that people were reminded that Daft Punk not only popularized techno as a genre, but that they also perfected it.
Fast-forward to 2016, and I am firmly on the Kendrick Lamar train. His new album “To Pimp a Butterfly” was a work of art, and in my opinion is one of the best, if not the best, hip-hop album to come out in the past decade. It was Kendrick at his absolute best. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album and Album of the Year. He won Best Rap Album, which was as expected, but then lost Album of the Year. To Taylor Swift’s “1989.” I’m not exaggerating when I said I threw whatever was in my hand (which at the time was a binder I was studying from) across the room. I COULD NOT believe that “To Pimp a Butterfly.” a musical masterpiece, lost to Taylor Swift. I didn’t even think that “1989” was a bad album; I thought it was good for what it was, a catchy pop album. But to win over Kendrick? Absolutely not. I had already been frustrated at the Grammy’s for their questionable choices in the past, and now I was done. It seems like I made the right decision following this year’s Grammys.
Beyoncé’s revolutionary visual album, “Lemonade,” lost Album of the Year to Adele’s “25” during the 89th Grammy Awards. No one in their right mind would say that Adele isn’t a talented artist, but even Adele HERSELF thought that this was a mistake. It’s really hard not to think about these snubs from a racial and social perspective, but it seems that if one has a strong political or social message in their music, the Grammys don’t like you. After the ceremony, fans and publications started to note that many of the Grammy snubs in the past have been black artists being snubbed by white artists. Isn’t it a little weird that Prince, Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Jay Z and Kanye West have never won Album of the Year, while Taylor Swift has won twice? (sips tea). Some people have made the argument that the Grammys has simply become an awards show that honors whatever is popular. But then how did “Morning Phase” by Beck, an album that sold less copies than any album nominated for Album of the Year that year, win over Beyonce's record-breaking self-titled album in 2015? (sips more tea). I’m glad that this is finally becoming an issue that people recognize, as several artists, including Kanye West, Drake, Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar have boycotted the Grammys. Frank Ocean, who didn’t even submit his critically acclaimed album “Blonde” for Grammy consideration out of protest, voiced on Tumblr that Taylor Swift winning over Kendrick Lamar in 2016 was one of the most “faulty TV moments” he’s ever seen. If the biggest awards show in music can’t get it right, then maybe awards really don’t matter.
