"Why do we watch the Grammys? It’s a question that’s turned from wistful to bitter over the years." - sarah clemens, 11th grade
Why do we watch the Grammys? It’s a question that’s turned from wistful to bitter over the years. The answer is that it’s the superbowl for people who hate sports. A chance to root for your team. To champion someone and pray they win. Last year the Grammys had a laundry list of controversies. The year before that, too, and so on. The divide between the high standard the Grammys supposedly represent, and reality, seems immense.
There was outrage over The Weeknd, who’d had a blockbuster year, getting zero recognition. Further confusion at Justin Bieber’s universally panned “Yummy” getting a Best Pop Solo Performance nomination. Both artists responded on social media. The Weeknd, to call for “transparency.” Bieber, to complain about only getting nominations in the pop categories. It’s November again, and a new batch of nominations will be upon us. We will soon have new battles to wage, new trophies to argue over.
For many, the Grammys have no better ambassador than Taylor Swift. The mega-famous musician has won ten, which is a lot. Yet in the grand scheme of the ceremony, she’s hardly the most awarded. (That honor goes to classical composer Georg Solti, who has 31 grammys.) What matters is that Swift has always treated the Grammys as what they claim to be. An ultimate, unquestionable measure of talent. She famously cried when Red, her fourth studio album, didn’t win Album of the Year (AOTY). It didn’t matter that critics then and now consider it her best work, or that she’d won AOTY once before. Swift took it as a sign to switch genres and go full pop. “Maybe they’re right. Maybe I did not make the record of my career,” she would say. “Maybe I need to fix the problem, which was that I have not been making sonically cohesive albums.”
In her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, there’s another Grammy-centric scene. We see Swift in her pajamas, hearing her publicist tell her that Reputation, her sixth studio album, was nominated in zero major categories. At this point in her career, Swift had a wing of the Grammy museum devoted to her. She had nothing left to prove, to awards, charts, or critics. Yet in this scene she visibly deflates. “I just need to make a better record,” Swift says. Her publicist tells her Reputation is a “great record” and she just shakes her head. In the six years since Red, Taylor Swift’s attitude on the Grammys never changed. Later in the documentary, she’ll tell you she has a need to “be good” and that for many years, she lived “for the approval of others.” Part of what makes Miss Americana a tough watch, is you’re not sure she’s done living like that.
One month before Miss Americana was released, Swift would accept Billboard’s Artist of the Decade award. In it, she spoke of her love for fellow pop star Lana Del Rey. “I've watched as one of my favourite artists of this decade, Lana Del Rey, was ruthlessly criticised in her early career, and then slowly but surely, she turned into...the most influential artist in pop,” Swift gushed. “[T]his year, her incredible album is nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys because she just kept making art.” In Taylor Swift’s world, a Grammy is at the end of the redemption arc. Lana Del Rey would end up losing that grammy to Billie Eilish. A decision both critics, fans, and Billie herself, found odd. It wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it was a straw.
The final straw? Debatable. There’s an entire Wikipedia page devoted to the allegations of racism the Grammys have faced. To go just by statistics is depressing. Only ten black albums have ever won AOTY. From 2012 to 2020, black artists have accounted for only 26.7% of Grammy nominations. Lana Del Rey’s loss is, of course, small potatoes next to all the other contested victories the Grammys have wrought. I merely bring it up to highlight how little you have to look for a controversy involving the ceremony.
Adele talked about one of the more famous ones in a recent interview - her 2017 Grammy win with 25 over Beyonce’s Lemonade. Adele had a few corrections to make. She says she didn’t “mean to break the Grammy onstage”, it was a byproduct of some hand “wringing.” But she stuck by the thesis of her original acceptance speech: Beyonce deserved that award. Adele recounted how she spoke to Beyonce after the show, through tears. “I just said to her, like, the way that the Grammys works, and the people who control it at the very, very top—they don’t know what a visual album is. They don’t want to support the way that she’s moving things forward with her releases and the things that she’s talking about.”
Adele’s new album, 30, isn’t eligible for this year’s Grammy awards. It’s been met with the typical fanfare of an Adele release. Glowing reviews and absolute blockbuster sales - eight hundred thousand copies sold in the first week. A number one debut on the Billboard 200. People expected this not just because Adele is a popular artist, but because she’s a hitmaker. Like Taylor Swift, she cemented her popularity in the 2010s, and earned a reputation as an album artist with bigger singles. Both have been deemed Grammy darlings. Now, in 2021, the paths they’ve chosen can’t be more different.
Sure, there are surface level similarities. Both break records with sales, both arrive into the welcoming arms of Rolling Stone magazine. Yet while Adele is returning to stardom from a six year music drought, Swift has released four albums in the past two years. While Adele takes a cautious but defiant stance on the Grammys, Swift has campaigned heavily for one these past few years. At the point in their careers where they have nothing left to prove, Swift choses to stay with the institutions that have supported her. Adele doesn’t. Neither is a bad choice, necessarily - simply at odds.
How should young, more upcoming artists approach the Grammys then? There’s a variety of answers to that question too. Olivia Rodrigo, considered by many to be “Taylor Swift’s daughter” responded to her recent seven nominations with a heartfelt anecdote. When I was younger, my family lived a few blocks from the Staples Center, where the Grammys took place every year,” Rodrigo wrote. “I would always walk outside the arena and look at the plaques on the ground with all the winners' names in wide-eyed wonder.” Billie Eilish, who also received seven nominations this year, has yet to respond. She’s made headlines at every Grammys ceremony she’s attended, where she appears confused and annoyed by her wins. Eilish has rededicated her wins twice now. First to Ariana Grande, and then to Megan Thee Stallion.
Of course, it’s not a zero sum game. Kanye ‘Ye’ West filmed himself urinating on a Grammy the same year he submitted Jesus Is King for Best Contemporary Christian Album, and won. This year he has an Album Of The Year nomination. Drake called for the Grammys to be abolished, but he still submitted Certified Lover Boy this year, and was nominated. Many artists chose to walk this fine line as it affords a kind of plausible deniability. The future of the award show has been heavily debated. If the Grammys end tomorrow, it won’t make them look like they were championing a sinking ship. If the Grammys go on and on, then there’s no problem either.
Perhaps we still watch the Grammys for the glimmers. In 2017, longtime critic’s favorite Brandi Carlile released her sixth studio album. Carlile makes husky, warm odes to Americana. Her lyrics are pure, Wild West storytelling: “Somebody called you something sweet once / It was more than Fulton County Jane.” She’s also one of the few openly lesbian artists to gain traction in the Country scene. There she would’ve stayed, if not for the Grammys. The album received six nominations at the 61st Grammys, and won three. Carlile had a sudden breakthrough, and she’s performed at the Grammys twice since then. Each, easily a show highlight.
When you see Carlile strum softly on her guitar and sing a tale of devotion, it’s easy to let all the controversy fade away. For a few minutes, at least. It’s not enough. The time has come and gone for meaningful changes to the ceremony to be made. History marches on, and the voting committees simply haven’t marched fast enough. British singer and former One Direction member Zayn summed his thoughts up in a tweet. “[The Recording Academy] are moving in inches and we need to move in miles.” Even with an ‘inch’ as sublime as Carlile, one is inclined to agree.
There was outrage over The Weeknd, who’d had a blockbuster year, getting zero recognition. Further confusion at Justin Bieber’s universally panned “Yummy” getting a Best Pop Solo Performance nomination. Both artists responded on social media. The Weeknd, to call for “transparency.” Bieber, to complain about only getting nominations in the pop categories. It’s November again, and a new batch of nominations will be upon us. We will soon have new battles to wage, new trophies to argue over.
For many, the Grammys have no better ambassador than Taylor Swift. The mega-famous musician has won ten, which is a lot. Yet in the grand scheme of the ceremony, she’s hardly the most awarded. (That honor goes to classical composer Georg Solti, who has 31 grammys.) What matters is that Swift has always treated the Grammys as what they claim to be. An ultimate, unquestionable measure of talent. She famously cried when Red, her fourth studio album, didn’t win Album of the Year (AOTY). It didn’t matter that critics then and now consider it her best work, or that she’d won AOTY once before. Swift took it as a sign to switch genres and go full pop. “Maybe they’re right. Maybe I did not make the record of my career,” she would say. “Maybe I need to fix the problem, which was that I have not been making sonically cohesive albums.”
In her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, there’s another Grammy-centric scene. We see Swift in her pajamas, hearing her publicist tell her that Reputation, her sixth studio album, was nominated in zero major categories. At this point in her career, Swift had a wing of the Grammy museum devoted to her. She had nothing left to prove, to awards, charts, or critics. Yet in this scene she visibly deflates. “I just need to make a better record,” Swift says. Her publicist tells her Reputation is a “great record” and she just shakes her head. In the six years since Red, Taylor Swift’s attitude on the Grammys never changed. Later in the documentary, she’ll tell you she has a need to “be good” and that for many years, she lived “for the approval of others.” Part of what makes Miss Americana a tough watch, is you’re not sure she’s done living like that.
One month before Miss Americana was released, Swift would accept Billboard’s Artist of the Decade award. In it, she spoke of her love for fellow pop star Lana Del Rey. “I've watched as one of my favourite artists of this decade, Lana Del Rey, was ruthlessly criticised in her early career, and then slowly but surely, she turned into...the most influential artist in pop,” Swift gushed. “[T]his year, her incredible album is nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys because she just kept making art.” In Taylor Swift’s world, a Grammy is at the end of the redemption arc. Lana Del Rey would end up losing that grammy to Billie Eilish. A decision both critics, fans, and Billie herself, found odd. It wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it was a straw.
The final straw? Debatable. There’s an entire Wikipedia page devoted to the allegations of racism the Grammys have faced. To go just by statistics is depressing. Only ten black albums have ever won AOTY. From 2012 to 2020, black artists have accounted for only 26.7% of Grammy nominations. Lana Del Rey’s loss is, of course, small potatoes next to all the other contested victories the Grammys have wrought. I merely bring it up to highlight how little you have to look for a controversy involving the ceremony.
Adele talked about one of the more famous ones in a recent interview - her 2017 Grammy win with 25 over Beyonce’s Lemonade. Adele had a few corrections to make. She says she didn’t “mean to break the Grammy onstage”, it was a byproduct of some hand “wringing.” But she stuck by the thesis of her original acceptance speech: Beyonce deserved that award. Adele recounted how she spoke to Beyonce after the show, through tears. “I just said to her, like, the way that the Grammys works, and the people who control it at the very, very top—they don’t know what a visual album is. They don’t want to support the way that she’s moving things forward with her releases and the things that she’s talking about.”
Adele’s new album, 30, isn’t eligible for this year’s Grammy awards. It’s been met with the typical fanfare of an Adele release. Glowing reviews and absolute blockbuster sales - eight hundred thousand copies sold in the first week. A number one debut on the Billboard 200. People expected this not just because Adele is a popular artist, but because she’s a hitmaker. Like Taylor Swift, she cemented her popularity in the 2010s, and earned a reputation as an album artist with bigger singles. Both have been deemed Grammy darlings. Now, in 2021, the paths they’ve chosen can’t be more different.
Sure, there are surface level similarities. Both break records with sales, both arrive into the welcoming arms of Rolling Stone magazine. Yet while Adele is returning to stardom from a six year music drought, Swift has released four albums in the past two years. While Adele takes a cautious but defiant stance on the Grammys, Swift has campaigned heavily for one these past few years. At the point in their careers where they have nothing left to prove, Swift choses to stay with the institutions that have supported her. Adele doesn’t. Neither is a bad choice, necessarily - simply at odds.
How should young, more upcoming artists approach the Grammys then? There’s a variety of answers to that question too. Olivia Rodrigo, considered by many to be “Taylor Swift’s daughter” responded to her recent seven nominations with a heartfelt anecdote. When I was younger, my family lived a few blocks from the Staples Center, where the Grammys took place every year,” Rodrigo wrote. “I would always walk outside the arena and look at the plaques on the ground with all the winners' names in wide-eyed wonder.” Billie Eilish, who also received seven nominations this year, has yet to respond. She’s made headlines at every Grammys ceremony she’s attended, where she appears confused and annoyed by her wins. Eilish has rededicated her wins twice now. First to Ariana Grande, and then to Megan Thee Stallion.
Of course, it’s not a zero sum game. Kanye ‘Ye’ West filmed himself urinating on a Grammy the same year he submitted Jesus Is King for Best Contemporary Christian Album, and won. This year he has an Album Of The Year nomination. Drake called for the Grammys to be abolished, but he still submitted Certified Lover Boy this year, and was nominated. Many artists chose to walk this fine line as it affords a kind of plausible deniability. The future of the award show has been heavily debated. If the Grammys end tomorrow, it won’t make them look like they were championing a sinking ship. If the Grammys go on and on, then there’s no problem either.
Perhaps we still watch the Grammys for the glimmers. In 2017, longtime critic’s favorite Brandi Carlile released her sixth studio album. Carlile makes husky, warm odes to Americana. Her lyrics are pure, Wild West storytelling: “Somebody called you something sweet once / It was more than Fulton County Jane.” She’s also one of the few openly lesbian artists to gain traction in the Country scene. There she would’ve stayed, if not for the Grammys. The album received six nominations at the 61st Grammys, and won three. Carlile had a sudden breakthrough, and she’s performed at the Grammys twice since then. Each, easily a show highlight.
When you see Carlile strum softly on her guitar and sing a tale of devotion, it’s easy to let all the controversy fade away. For a few minutes, at least. It’s not enough. The time has come and gone for meaningful changes to the ceremony to be made. History marches on, and the voting committees simply haven’t marched fast enough. British singer and former One Direction member Zayn summed his thoughts up in a tweet. “[The Recording Academy] are moving in inches and we need to move in miles.” Even with an ‘inch’ as sublime as Carlile, one is inclined to agree.
