User:Jcassone/Accusations of racial bias in Grammy Awards

Since the inception of the Grammys in 1957, only ten black artists have won the Album of the Year Award: Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, Outkast, Ray Charles, and Herbie Hancock. From 2012 to 2020, statistics showed that black artists received only 26.7% of nominations for the awards show, despite representing over 38% of all artists on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

Others have argued that non-white artists mostly win in smaller "racialized" categories. Beyoncé has 18 of her 22 within genre-specific categories, such as rap and R&B, categories that are primarily dominated by people of color. Ann Powers, an accredited writer for the National Public Radio, accused the 2017 Grammy Awards of systematic racism due to Chance the Rapper and Beyoncé being the only black artists who won televised awards. According to Powers, there is a general notion that music made with “real” instrumentation is superior to synth or sampled music, or that “stand-still” performances are superior to performances that incorporate dance.

The Grammys has also come under fire in the past for failing to nominate popular artists of color for well-deserved awards, the latest snub involving well-known singer The Weeknd. The Academy's failure to nominate The Weeknd's work came as a major surprise considering the widespread success of his album After Hours, released in March of 2020, and the album’s hit single, Blinding Lights. Blinding Lights set numerous records, including spending 40 weeks in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, 4 of which the song was number one, and for spending 28 weeks in the top 5. Despite the song setting such astounding records, and being virtually everywhere for all of 2020, it received no nominations from the Recording Academy. In a now-famous tweet, The Weeknd wrote, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”.

The voting process for the Grammy Awards has endured much criticism over the years. The voting committees are made up of hundreds of musical experts, including musicians, producers, engineers, and songwriters. Members of the Recording Academy will submit their picks for nomination, which will then be screened by 350 individuals to ensure that the nominee is placed in the correct category and eligible for a potential award. Members are then asked to vote in up to 15 genre categories and 4 general categories. The votes are sent to independent accounting firm Deloitte to be tallied, and a comprehensive list is sent back to the Recording Academy to be voted upon for a final time. These ballots are again counted by Deloitte and the winners are sealed until the night of the awards.

Controversy has been raised over the fact that members vote for works in categories outside of their expertise, and this occurs because they are required to vote on a certain number of categories to maintain membership. Rob Kenner, a Grammy screener, described an “unwritten rule” while conversing with committee members in which you must be cautious nominating an album by an already well-known artist if you do not want that album to eventually win an award because other voting members will mindlessly select a famous artist's album because they recognize the name, even if they have never heard any of that music before.

Another controversial aspect of the voting process focuses on the lack of transparency regarding the composition of voting committees. The nominations for a wide variety of categories are shaped by many committees, but little is known about who they are comprised of, how they are formed, or who puts them together. Looking on the official Grammy website provides no further clarity, thus obscuring the process further.