The Grammys have always had this certain attraction to artists. It is considered an honor to win this award. According to the Recording Academy’s (Grammys) website, winning the award is an honor as it is not based on popularity or artist sales. It is awarded to artists and technological professionals for artistic or technological achievement. It seems very unbiased as the awards are given to the best artist based on their body of work. However the Grammys are not as fair as everyone believes them to be.
Recently suspended chief executive of the Grammys Deborah Dugan stated in an interview with ABC News that some artists are being placed on shortlists for Grammy categories over more deserving artists. She states that she has seen an unnamed artist sit with their representative on the voting committee putting them on the shortlist ahead of more deserving artists. Dugan even went so far as to say that, “it’s mostly white males that are in those rooms that make these decisions, and there’s a conflict of interest.”
This is a very important issue as the Grammys are on their way to losing credibility and value. The Grammys are no longer as important as they used to be. The way music categories are split up are not fair to artists. Albums such as Tyler, the Creators IGOR, were not appropriately categorized this past year on the Grammys. IGOR is an album from an artist that is primarily known for rap, whoever the album itself was not a rap album. The sound of the project was a more pop sound. However, the Grammys did not keep this in mind when placing the critically acclaimed album on the category for Rap Album of the Year.
In the Grammy ceremony on Jan. 26, after winning Rap Album of the Year, Tyler would give his take on his achievement in a backstage interview by calling out the Grammys for it’s racist categorization. Tyler claimed he was half and half on how he felt about winning the award as he felt the “Urban” categorization was an insult, saying, “It’s just a politically correct way to say the n-word to me. Why can’t we just be in pop?”
Tyler had reason to call out the Grammys for the award and his categorization. Tyler did deserve an award for his album, however it should not have been Rap Album of the Year. It was unfair to artists who actually deserved it and had created full Rap albums. A more correct category for Tyler’s album could have been Album of the Year as that category includes Albums from many different genres. It is for reason like these that artists no longer accept invites to the awards. A prime example is Frank Ocean who declined to have his album “Blonde” be represented at the awards.
One thing that is apparent is that people are starting to take notice of the Grammys suspicious behavior and unfair categorizations. According to “Statista” the Grammys have been losing viewers ever since 2014. There has been a steady decline in viewings, with the exception being 2017 when the award show went from having 24.95 million viewers the previous year, to 26.05 in 2017. Since then the viewership has gone down to as few as 17.95 million viewers in 2019. It is clear that if the Grammys do not change something, their credibility will soon all be lost along with their value and overall meaning.