Proclaiming that the Grammy Awards aren’t the definitive measure of musical success isn’t exactly going out on a limb, but why is it that so many music fanatics approach this ceremony with either indifference or downright distain? The winners of the film industry’s Academy Awards might not always coincide with winners in public opinion, yet we continue to hold that ceremony in high esteem in the face of their occasional missteps.
But the Grammy Awards are different. Within the yearly discussion of its categories and nominees the question of its legitimacy always comes with it. There is the looming suspicion that the award represents little more than the music industry’s self-righteous celebration of its most profitable artists, as shown by a trend that loads major award categories—i.e. best album, best song, best new artist—with Top 40 pop stars year after year. While it’s true that the Grammys will have expanded their award categories in the past to recognize the best in alternative, country, electronic, and other genres, the artists within these new categories are usually mentioned with minimal pomp and circumstance compared to their pop-star peers.
What could salvage the respectability of the Grammy Awards is the Internet, where non-Top 40 bands such as Arcade Fire have dominated Internet music communities and frequently hold strong positions at the top of the iTunes album chart just as often as today’s more publicized entertainment sensations. And indeed, it seems like the music industry is listening to the web – Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs was awarded Album of the Year in 2011, beating out mainstream superstars Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Eminem. Seeing Win Butler’s wide-eyed bewilderment during his acceptance speech last year, I wonder if he was humbled by his band’s latest achievement or simply astounded that the Academy resisted the urge to award just another pop sensation.
It certainly wouldn’t make him the only artist to view the awards with skepticism. As Justin Vernon of Bon Iver said last December, “We should not be gathering in a big room and looking at each other and pretending that this is important.” Even Trent Reznor, who won two Grammys during his tenure with Nine Inch Nails, admitted that the process feels “rigged and cheap—like a popularity contest that the insiders club has decided.”
Fans and artists agree that the award holds little value in assessing the merit of the recording industry’s talent. And though the selection process has expanded its reach to new genres, it continues to entrench itself too heavily in pop music. Popular music is by no means an inherently talentless art form, but focusing attention on it because of its wide appeal remains the Grammy Awards’ biggest defect.
I think Morrissey, lead singer for The Smiths, summed up perfectly how Top 40 has plagued music awards: “It’s very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is … pop music seems now to be exclusively for children. If an artist is no good, why is it necessary to have that artist repeatedly rammed in our face?” It’s going to require honesty from fans, musicians, and the industry itself to bring legitimacy to the Grammy Awards, otherwise the line that separates critical acclaim from dresses made out of meat will continue to be blurred.
