Grammys
Grammys Rename Best World Music Category Due to “Connotations of Colonialism”
In a continued push towards cultural sensitivity, the Grammys have changed the name of the Best World Music Album category to Best Global Music Album. The move comes a little under five months after the Recording Academy dropped “Urban” from what are now the Best Progressive R&B Album and Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album categories. (They still use the word in the Best Latin Pop or Urban Album category, for some reason.) It also echoes a change over at the Oscars, where Best Foreign Language Film is now known as Best International Feature Film. In a statement, the Recording Academy said the decision reflects a desire to “embrace a truly global mindset.” They continued (via Billboard), “Over the summer we held discussions with artists, ethnomusicologists, and linguists from around t...
MusiCares Launches ‘Wellness in Music’ Survey to Gauge Music Community’s Physical & Mental Health
The survey delves into a lot of personal areas, including the respondent’s alcohol, drug, tobacco and marijuana use. It also asks the respondents to reveal their age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, spiritual practice, income level, life satisfaction level, stress and anxiety level, health insurance status, how well they sleep and how often they exercise and meditate. Two areas it does not inquire about: the respondent’s sexual orientation or religious affiliation. One section of the survey uses the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 test — a standardized test that helps to screen for depression. MusiCares stresses that this is a voluntary survey and that all responses are strictly confidential. The survey is limited to those 18 and older and who have been working in ...
As Grammy Voters Rush to Meet First-Round Voting Deadline, Here Are 14 Questions This Year’s Awards Process Will Answer
The Academy added something new this year: For the first time in this first round of voting, voters can listen to recordings for which entrants provided links on select streaming services. Before, this service was only available in the final round of voting. Final-round voting, to determine the winners, will run from Dec. 7 through Jan. 4, 2021. The winners will be announced on Jan. 31. Here are 14 big questions that this year’s Grammy process will answer. Will Taylor Swift return to the album of the year finals after her last two albums were passed over in that category? Swift’s last two albums, Reputation and Lover, were passed over for album of the year nods, but the not-to-be-denied Swift just redoubled her efforts and came up with an album they can’t overlook. Folklore spent seven wee...
LL Cool J Has Something Else for Kanye West to Disrespect Instead of a Grammy
Add LL Cool J to the list of people who weren’t too happy about one of Kanye West‘s recent tweets. In an interview with Desus & Mero, the artist opened up about how he felt after seeing West’s Sept. 16 Twitter video in which the “Wash Us in the Blood” rapper appeared to urinate on a Grammy that had been placed in a toilet. When Desus asked LL what it was like to host the Grammys, the artist kicked off his opinion of the Yeezy designer’s actions. “I think, like — with all due respect — I think Kanye should maybe piss on a Yeezy or something,” he said. “I felt some kind of way about that s–t. I didn’t love that s–t because I hosted the Grammys for five years.” “Yeah, the Grammys didn’t g...
How Maria Schneider Is Using Her Jazz Orchestra to Take On Big Tech
The composer and bandleader — a Grammy favorite and a fierce advocate for artists’ rights — takes on the ‘Data Lords’ with her newest album. When Maria Schneider sits down to write music, it is seldom with a specific idea in her head. Lately, though, the celebrated orchestral jazz composer and bandleader — a five-time Grammy winner and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master — has had a lot on her mind. “Early on, I became very aware that big data companies were using musicians as carrots so that they could gather data from users,” says Schneider, 59. “And this has been a huge frustration for me. It has really destroyed the music industry for those that make the music, and now I feel that for our society at large it’s a catastrophic loss.” That frustration fueled the idea...
Life After Death: What Are the Posthumous Grammy Odds For Rap’s Lost Stars?
Hip-hop lost three of its brightest voices in the past year — but thanks to recent posthumous albums, their presence could still be felt on Grammy night. One of the most moving moments of February’s Grammy ceremony came during the pretelecast, when best rap performance was awarded to “Racks in the Middle,” led by the late Nipsey Hussle, who had been killed in a March 2019 shooting. The award was accepted by his family, including his grandmother Margaret Boutte. Wearing sunglasses, she thanked those in attendance for “showing all the love that I have felt for [Nipsey] all of his life.” Powerful moments like that could well take center stage on the main telecast at the next ceremony. Over the past few years, a number of hip-hop’s leading artists have died — many of whom still had recorded mu...
The GRAMMY Museum is Launching Its Own Streaming Service
The GRAMMY Museum is set to launch its own dedicated streaming service featuring artist interviews, performances, and livestreams. Titled COLLECTION:live, the service will host an estimated 1,000 programs upon launch with a mix of both new and notable archival content. The organization has foreseen a pivot to streaming in their future for quite some time in order to connect with a younger digital audience. According to the museum’s President Michael Sticka, those plans rose to top priority status in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Since March, the organization has accelerated its pace to record new virtual content including interviews with Billie Eilish and FINNEAS and a conversation with Hans Zimmer on the making of “No Time to Die,” which will be avai...
Taylor Swift Has Already Won Two Grammys for Album of the Year. Could She Win a Third? Should She?
If Swift wins album of the year for a third time, she would join a Grammy Mount Rushmore that consists of Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. Taylor Swift is a Grammy magnet. She has won 10 awards, including two for album of the year. She has lost album of the year just once (when she was a nominee). Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories took the 2013 award, beating Red. So the Nominations Review Committee, which determines the final nominations in the Big Four categories—album, record and song of the year plus best new artist—has to know that if Swift’s current album, Folklore, is nominated for album of the year, it may very well win. Swift has demonstrated broad voter appeal—to both pop and country fans, older and younger members. Swift would make history if she won. She’d be the j...
Lewis Capaldi, Passed Over for a Grammy Nod for Best New Artist, Lands His 2nd Top 10 Hit on the Billboard Hot 100
Capaldi was also bypassed for a performance slot on the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on Jan. 26. Lewis Capaldi is having the last laugh. Nearly nine months after the Scottish singer/songwriter was, surprisingly, passed over for a Grammy nod for best new artist, he lands his second top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Before You Go.” The song follows “Someone You Loved,” which led the chart for three nonconsecutive weeks last November—and received a Grammy nod for song of the year. (Capaldi co-wrote the ballad with Tom Barnes, Pete Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn and Sam Roman.) Nominations in the Big Four categories—album, record and song of the year plus best new artist—are determined by a nominations review committee which reviews the top 20 vote-getters of rank-and-file voting members. While ...
Will the Grammys Classify Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ as Pop or Alternative?
Last week, we asked whether Taylor Swift’s new album Folklore would put her back in the album of the year finals at the Grammys for the first time since she won for 1989. Most of you seem to think it will. Here’s a tougher follow-up question: Will the album compete for best pop vocal album, as Swift’s last three albums have, or best alternative music album? (Albums may compete in only one “genre album” category.) Unfortunately, we can’t just go by the charts: The album enters both the all-genre Billboard 200 and Alternative Albums at No. 1 this week. The album has strong alternative credentials. Aaron Dessner, who co-produced the album with Swift and her long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff, and who co-wrote nine songs on the album with Swift, won a Grammy in the alternative ca...
YG Details Guns Being Drawn On Him & His Family During Police Raid
Source: Rich Fury/Getty Images / Rich Fury/Getty Images YG is opening up about his frightening encounter with the police during his recent arrest in Los Angeles days before he was scheduled to perform at the Grammys in January. Earlier this week during his interview with online radio show, The Morning Hustle, YG touched on the incident, revealing that while he was being arrested the police not only had their guns drawn on him but the entire family that was with him at the time. “Around the Grammys, the police raided my house while I was there with my family and my kids,” YG recalled. “They came at like four in the morning when everyone was still sleep, they had the helicopter going around and everything so I hopped up to see what was going on. So I open the door and boom they draw down on ...
Grammy.com Readers Are Split About the Grammys’ New ‘Progressive R&B’ Category Name
Response was about evenly divided between the one positive response and the other two, which were negative or neutral. The Grammys announced on June 10 that they were changing the name of their best urban contemporary album category to best progressive R&B album. Most observers welcomed the change. “Urban” was the buzzword in R&B for a number of years, but many now see the term as dated and perhaps racially insensitive. On June 5, Republic Records announced that it was banning the term. The name change was fair-game for a quickie poll, including this one which turned up in an unexpected place—the Recording Academy’s own site, Grammy.com: “What do you think about the Best Progressive R&B Album category name change?” The tartly-phrased choices: It’s a step in the right...
