As a huge music fan, the Grammys are a huge occasion for me, and this year the most celebrated at the event were two of my favourite artists: Taylor Swift and Boygenius. But as I watched the excitement drain out of Lana Del Rey’s face as she realised she had been snubbed for an accolade yet again, I could not help but feel this process is rewarding the same artists over and over again.
Choosing one album over another must be extremely difficult, how can one compare the pop powerhouses that were the Midnights and GUTS albums, with the beautifully artistic notes of Did You know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd and the record? These awards seem to show a lack of coherence. Every single year, it is difficult to grasp how they come to these conclusions, are they purely looking at ratings, sales or choosing the song that they think is best written, produced and performed?
All of these factors make the more general awards of this ceremony nearly pointless. There are other categories which are potentially easier to make decisions on, such as ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’ which went to Midnights, as that is exactly what it was this year, it was a pop vocal album that broke records and created such a kaleidoscope of everything that pop music could be and showcased just how influential Taylor Swift was in 2023, and she was rightfully honoured. My difficulty lies with favouring a genre over a completely different one in the more general categories, leaving superstars like Lana Del Rey in the lurch.
The list of icons that never won a Grammy is extensive, from Bob Marley to Queen, Tupac to Abba, and in more recent times Nicki Minaj to Lana Del Rey. These artists are a soundtrack to generations of people and are not being credited for this by The Recording Academy, which is nothing short of a travesty. My suggestion for The Recording Academy would be to combine VMA-style voting systems, with the opinion of their Academy to create a much fairer solution, as well as increase the number of categories, to recognise some of these artists that are being left to fall through the cracks of the flawed recognition system that is the Grammys.
Edited by Anna Cao