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(3) The Grammy’s are cancelled.

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/grammys-2018-shocking-upsets-bruno-mars-news-068425793/First off, roll credits for using my blog handle in the title. Secondly, I personally canceled the Grammys back in 2014. Let me just review the trash fire that is that awards show.

2014: White artists Macklemore & Ryan Lewis win best rap album with their pop-based album “The Heist” over Kendrick Lamar's classic rap album “good kid, M.A.A.D city”

2015: Little known artist Beck wins album of the year with even lesser know album Morning Phase over Beyonce’s industry-changing self-titled album.

2016: Taylor Swift beats out Kendrick Lamar’s Too Pimp a Butterfly with 1985.

2017: Adele wins album of the year with 25 over Beyonce’s Lemonade and Drakes Views. Well to be fair Beyonce won “Best Urban Contemporary album” which, if we are being honest, basically means best black album. This year Adele even said that Lemonade was more impactful than her own album. 

2018: Bruno Mars, a Latino artist, beats out Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Winning album DAMN. with his funk album 24k Magic.

2019: The Recording Academy completely leaves rapper XXX Tentacion of their ‘In Momorium’ portion despite not only having a massive cultural impact especially after his death. And Jlo, a Latina artist, performs a tribute to the historical black record company Motown.

This list only goes back to 2014, there are a metric ton more of examples of the Grammys being racist and sexist. And it’s a shame that no matter how many times they get called out by fans and artists alike nothing seems to change.

Variety of Articles:

http://dailytrojan.com/2019/02/08/bop-or-flop-the-grammys-are-nothing-more-than-a-popularity-contest/

https://www.goldderby.com/article/2018/grammys-2018-shocking-upsets-bruno-mars-news-068425793/

https://www.eonline.com/news/1013829/twitter-is-upset-the-2019-grammys-left-out-xxxtentacion-during-the-in-memoriam

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-grammys-motown-jlo-reactions-20190210-story.html

https://www.billboard.com/photos/6458473/biggest-grammy-upsets-of-all-time

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(2)Surely they can’t be sexist... right?

Chile let me tell you something, the Grammys are not who you think they are. 

During the 60th Grammy’s, New Zealand star Lorde turned down an opportunity to perform at the show. Why you might be asking because they refused to give her a solo performance. She was expected to do a Tom Petty tribute, despite being nominated for album of the year. One of the biggest awards. And further despite every male nominee for the slot given a solo performance time. And that was last year, 2018! At the past handful of Grammys, only 9% of nominees were women. 9 women for every 100 men. Despite women making some of those years most important projects. In 2018, despite one of the years biggest artists, SZA who was nominated for 5 Grammys. Won. Not. One. To make matters worse, Neil Portnow, President of the Recording Academy attracted controversy by stating that female artists need to "step up" in order to win awards.

This year, the Grammys refused to allow Ariana Grande to choose which song she would perform after she was invited. But in true Grammys fashion, it didn’t end there. They said that she was unable to “pull something together” with so little time. Downplaying her abilities as an artist. Ariana called out the show’s producer so lying. During the 2018 Grammys, only 11 categories went to women, out of 84. In 2016, they refused to give Album of the Year to Beyonce’ for Lemonade despite being admittedly one of the Greatest albums of the decade.

This could simply be attributed to the fact that they are using the same group of voters year after year after year. Maybe. Maybe not.

Vogue Article: https://www.vogue.com/article/grammy-awards-2018-sexist-or-out-of-touch

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(1) The Recording Academy is well racist...

No this is not clickbait. No, I am not some disgruntled artist who feels wronged by The Recording Academy (the institution behind the Grammys). I’m merely a humble fan who is sick of watching the Grammys pass up or snub extraordinarily successful and talented artists for subpar acts.

When I discuss “success” in terms of the Grammys, I’m looking at specifically critical success. Albums, Artists, and Tracks that may not have sold well but were uniquely amazing bodies of work.

So when I say shocking statements like ‘the Grammys are racist’ I’m not saying that they failed to nominate one of 2018′s best selling albums, Drakes Scropin, for Best Rap Album. I’m saying that because of legendary rap and hip-hop artists, such as Snoop Dogg, J. Cole, MC Lyte, and Nicki Minaj, have yet to win a single Grammys despite each of them being defining artists and turned an entire genre of music on its head.

This idea started, according to the Daily Beast, in 1989 when the academy announced that the Best Rap Performance announcement would not be part of the telecast of the award show. 

This prompted the genres most prominent names to boycott the award show. The went as far as to hold an Anti-Grammy after-party, hosted by MTV. Remember this was the 80s and 90s MTV was still a big deal back then.

Remember when Outkast won Album of the Year? What about Ms. Lauryn Hill? Probably not because that was 15 and 20 years respectively. That was the last time a rap album won the award. Daily Beast compared it to “being at the kid's table of pop culture,” music most popular genre... at the kid's table...

Many thought that the 2018 Grammys, the most diverse Grammy’s in history, would mark a turning point with three rap/hip hop/soul albums nominated for the big award. Only for it to go to a Non-Black artist performing a black created genre. 

But that’s a discussion for another day. It’s clear that the Grammys are out of touch with the times in terms of black genres. But it’s also sexist, despite having a large number of female winners, or at least that’s what was shown on TV.

The Daily Beast article: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-grammy-awards-racist-aversion-to-hip-hop

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The Grammy’s are a Thing. But aren’t important?

The Grammy’s are an annual award show held in the late winter/early spring and are one of the three major music awards shows along with the American Music Awards held in the fall and the Billboard Music Awards held in the summer. There are four if you count the European Music Awards held in the fall as well. 

It’s also a part of the big four arts awards shows. The others being the Tonys for Theater acts, Emmys for Television and the Academy Awards for film. These four are specifically known to be the highest standards of talent for their disciplines. For an artist or producer to win a Grammy, it’s a statement of having one of the most significant bodies of work for the year.  Or is it? I’m going explore how the Grammys are believed to be racist, sexist, and place artists on pedestals that don’t give them any issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg-Ao8oU_6s

Disclosure: These posts are for Professors Dey Roy’s English 1102 MWF 9:30 Course.