I am slightly late to the party on commenting on the Grammys, and my take is one in the sea of many. I am also losing credibility on this one because I didn't even watch the Grammys, despite being mildly impressed when the nominations came out because it wasn't just the same barrage of white males. However, the actual award show did nothing to step away from the norm.
Where do I even start? The fact that only one woman (Alessia Cara) won any of the major categories? The completely displaced rage against Bruno Mars? Before we get into the headline story, the Grammys' president claiming that women don't make music worthy of awards, let's talk about Ed Sheeran.
Despite winning awards for best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album, Ed Sheeran was a conspicuous no-show to the Grammys. Rumor has it he boycotted the award show because he was butthurt about not being nominated for the top awards in the general category. I can totally believe this, considering this is the same person who deleted his social media after getting flamed on Twitter for having a jarring cameo in Game of Thrones. Although, do you really need the awards? Your album is one of the bestselling on 2017. People are clearly voting with their wallets (though there is clearly no accounting for taste). Why can't you just be happy to see others getting much deserved recognition? How about all the women who put out amazing work and didn't get nominated this year?
Maybe that's an entirely female attitude, to think there should be room for what everyone brings to the table. Ed Sheeran's music is so boring and other white dudes have been doing the exact same thing for years. I personally would rather hear something else.
The real insult and demonstration that awards shows aren't relevant anymore was Grammys' president Neil Portnow saying women need to "step up" in a speech, in response to the low number of women nominees and winners. Everyone was pretty quick to point out that the assertion was categorically wrong. It was especially insulting after Lorde, the sole female nominee in the album of the year group, was the only one not asked to do a solo performance at the show.
The notion that female musicians aren't making quality music already is incredibly insulting. Lorde's record was one of my favorite of 2017, and she deserved the nod. The older I get, the more my tastes skew toward female artists. I am not going to list all the women in the music industry I admire because it's extremely reductive, but the backlash against those comments is completely justified.
It really begs the question, how can someone so out of touch with the reality of music today be the president of the Recording Academy? But it's probably not surprising. Despite the progress we have made in the past year, there is still a long way to go. In the mean time I say, ladies, forget the Grammys. This backwards mindset just shows that the award is hardly relevant anymore.
