Grammy Award

On April 6, 2011, The Recording Academy announced a drastic overhaul of many Grammy Award categories for 2012.[15] The number of categories was cut from 109 to 78. The most important change was the elimination of the distinction between male and female soloists and between collaborations and duo/groups in various genre fields (pop, rock, R&B, country, and rap). Also, several categories for instrumental soloists were discontinued. Recordings in these categories now fall under the general categories for best solo performances.

In the rock field, the separate categories for hard rock and metal albums were combined and the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category was eliminated due to a waning number of entries.

In R&B, the distinction between best contemporary R&B album and other R&B albums has been eliminated. They now feature in one, general Best R&B Album category.[16]

In rap, the categories for best rap soloist and best rap duo or group have been merged into the new Best Rap Performance category.

The most eliminations occurred in the roots category. Up to and including 2011, there were separate categories for various regional American music forms, such as Hawaiian music, Native American music and Zydeco/Cajun music. Due to the consistently low number of entries for these categories, The Recording Academy decided to combine all these music variations into the new Best Regional Roots Music Album, including polka, which lost its own separate category in 2009.[17][18]

In the same genre field, the traditional and contemporary blues categories and the traditional and contemporary folk categories each were consolidated into one per genre, due to the number of entries and given the challenges in distinguishing between contemporary folk and Americana, and contemporary and traditional blues. In the world music genre field, the traditional and contemporary categories also merged.

In the classical genre field, its main category Best Classical Album was discontinued because most recipients in this category had also won in one of the other classical categories for the same album. Classical recordings are now eligible for the main Album of the Year category.

There were also a few minor name changes to better reflect the nature of the separate categories. It was determined by the Recording Academy that the word "gospel" in the gospel genre field tends to conjure up the images and sounds of traditional soul gospel and leaves out the current contemporary Christian music (CCM). Therefore, the genre field and some categories were renamed as Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music.[19]

Since 2012 there have been a small number of adjustments made to the list of categories and genre fields. The number of categories has gone up from 78 in 2012 to 84 since 2017.[20]

In 2020, during the George Floyd protests, several urban, rap, and Latin music categories were renamed.[21]

When Pearl Jam won a Grammy in the category Best Hard Rock Performance in 1996, the band's lead singer Eddie Vedder commented on stage: "I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything."[30] Glen Hansard, leader of the Irish rock group The Frames, stated in 2008 that the Grammys represent something outside of the real world of music "that's fully industry based". He said he wasn't that interested in attending that year's ceremony, even though he had been nominated for two awards.[31] Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of progressive rock band Tool, did not attend the Grammy Awards ceremony to receive one of their awards. He explained his reasons:[32]

I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself. That's basically what it's all about.

They have also been criticized for generally awarding or nominating more commercially successful albums rather than critically successful ones.[33][34] In 1991, Sinead O'Connor became the first musician to refuse a Grammy, boycotting the ceremony after being nominated for Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. O'Connor would go on to win the latter category.[35] She said that her reasoning came from the Grammys' extreme commercialism.[36]

The Grammys have been constantly criticized for snubbing awards and nominations from certain artists. At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, artist Mariah Carey was nominated for six awards for her album Daydream, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for her single "One Sweet Day". While critics believed Carey would be "cleaning up" that year, Carey ultimately lost all her nominations that night much to the shock of critics and Carey herself. [37] In 2011, Los Angeles Times journalist Randall Roberts criticised the exclusion of Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy from Album of the Year category nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards. He described West's album as "the most critically acclaimed album of the year, a career-defining record".[38] Roberts went on to criticize the Grammy Awards for being "mired in the past" and out of touch with "new media" and trends amongst music listeners such as music sharing, stating:[38]

The major nominations for the 54th annual awards clearly show that the recording academy has been working overtime to be all-inclusive, but more significantly, they also reveal a deep chasm between its goals and the listening habits of the general population... The focus is still on the old music industry model of cash-cow hits, major label investments and commercial radio...

In an article for Time, journalist Touré also responded to the snub and expressed his general displeasure with the awards, stating "I don't pretend to understand the Grammys. I have never been able to discern a consistent logic around who gets nominated or who gets statues. I comprehend the particular logic of the Oscars, but not the big awards for music. My normal state of confusion around what drives Grammy decisions was exponentialized this week when, to the shock of many, Kanye's masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was not nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year."[39] He went on to compare understanding the Grammy Awards to Kremlinology and commented on The Recording Academy's exclusion of more "mature" hip hop albums as Album of the Year nominees, noting that it occasionally opts to nominate "pop-friendly" hip hop albums instead.[39]

In a 2011 profile for The New York Times following the 53rd Grammy Awards, frontman Justin Vernon of indie band Bon Iver was asked his opinion of the Grammys and how he would react to a nomination for his group, to which he responded:[40]

You know I was thinking about that a couple of months ago, someone asked me that, and I was like "I would go and I would" – and I don't think the Bon Iver record is the kind of record that would get nominated for a Grammy – "I would get up there and be like, 'This is for my parents, because they supported me,' because I know they would think it would be stupid of me not to go up there. But I kinda felt like going up there and being like: "Everyone should go home, this is ridiculous. You should not be doing this. We should not be gathering in a big room and looking at each other and pretending that this is important." That's what I would say.

He reaffirmed this sentiment and commented about the Grammys, saying:[40]

[Ninety-eight] percent of the people in that room, their art is compromised by the fact that they're thinking that, and that they're hoping to get that award. And who is that award given by? It's like they think it's literally handed down by the musical-history gods. And I don't know who the voters are. Like, I have a friend who's a voter who was like, "I had to be a voter because I don't trust the other voters." And I was like, "Me either!" And it's just not important and people spend too much time thinking about it.

Bon Iver subsequently received four nominations in November for the 54th Grammy Awards.[40] After winning the award, Vernon said in his acceptance, "It's really hard to accept this award. There's so much talent out here [...] and there's a lot of talent that's not here tonight. It's also hard to accept because you know, when I started to make songs I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I'm a little bit uncomfortable up here."[41]

In his article "Everything Is Praised Again", Jon Caramanica of The New York Times criticized Grammy voters for being "conservative" and disregarding more "forward-looking" music, and wrote in response to the 54th Grammy Awards, "for the umpteenth time, the Grammys went with familiarity over risk, bestowing album of the year honors (and several more) on an album that reinforced the values of an older generation suspicious of change."[42] He cited the Grammy successes of Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Norah Jones' Come Away with Me (2003), and Adele's 21 (2011) as examples of "the Grammys dropp[ing] a boatload of awards on a young female singer-songwriter and her breakthrough album". Of Kanye West's absence from the ceremony, Caramanica stated, "He didn't even bother to show up for the broadcast, which was well enough, because hip-hop was almost completely marginalized."[42]

In an article for The Huffington Post, music executive and author Steve Stoute criticized the Recording Academy and the Grammy Awards for having "lost touch with contemporary popular culture" and noted "two key sources" for it: "(1) over-zealousness to produce a popular show that is at odds with its own system of voting and (2) fundamental disrespect of cultural shifts as being viable and artistic."[43] Stoute accused them of snubbing artists with more cultural impact, citing respective losses by the critical and commercial successes in Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and Kanye West's Graduation (2007) in the Album of the Year category, and stated:[43]

As an institution that celebrates artistic works of musicians, singers, songwriters, producers and technical specialists, we have come to expect that the Grammys upholds all of the values that reflect the very best in music that is born from our culture. Unfortunately, the awards show has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions, leaving me to question why any contemporary popular artist would even participate. [...] While there is no doubt in my mind of the artistic talents of Steely Dan or Herbie Hancock, we must acknowledge the massive cultural impact of Eminem and Kanye West and how their music is shaping, influencing and defining the voice of a generation. It is this same cultural impact that acknowledged the commercial and critical success of Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1984.

In 2020, Canadian artist Abel Tesfaye, known by his stage name The Weeknd, was completely shut out from the Grammys when his fourth studio album, After Hours, received zero nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. This came to a complete shock to critics, fans, and Tesfaye himself, who had a successful run in 2020 with the success of both his album and the single "Blinding Lights". Tesfaye responded via social media calling the Grammys "corrupt".[44] Speculation arose that the recent announcement of his upcoming Super Bowl performance, as well as the discrepancy of being nominated as pop music versus R&B, contributed to the snubs.[45] Harvey Mason Jr. responded by saying:

We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. I was surprised and can empathize with what he's feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone’s admiration. We were thrilled when we found out he would be performing at the upcoming Super Bowl and we would have loved to have him also perform on the Grammy stage the weekend before. Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists. But as the only peer-voted music award, we will continue to recognize and celebrate excellence in music while shining a light on the many amazing artists that make up our global community. To be clear, voting in all categories ended well before The Weeknd’s performance at the Super Bowl was announced, so in no way could it have affected the nomination process. All Grammy nominees are recognized by the voting body for their excellence, and we congratulate them all.[46]

The Grammys have recently also been accused of snubbing American singer-songwriter Katy Perry, who has earned 13 nominations to date, but has not won any. Perry famously liked an Instagram post by The Weeknd calling out the Grammys for an explanation in light of After Hours not garnering any nominations at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

The Grammys' eligibility period – which runs from October 1 to September 30 each year[47] – is also a perennial source of complaints and confusion. Because records that are released in the last quarter of a given year are not eligible for that year's awards (the submissions and first round ballots are underway at that time), fans often think a favorite artist has been snubbed (e.g., Adele, whose 25 was released in November 2015 and so was not nominated that year despite massive sales[48]). Conversely, the same issue means that the Grammys often recognize work that no longer feels current by the time it wins. Taylor Swift's 1989, for example, won Album of the Year in 2016, even though the album was released in October 2014. The same was the case with Adele's 25, released in November 2015 but received the award in 2017.[49]

The Grammys have also been accused of being unfavorable and racist to black recording artists. Canadian artist Drake accused the awards in a 2017 interview of seeing him only as a rapper and not as a pop-music artist due to his previous work and heritage. He criticized the snubbing of "One Dance" for the Record of the Year award and the nomination of "Hotline Bling" for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance, despite it not being a rap song.[50] The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber accused the Grammys of "sidelining a black visionary work in favor of a white traditionalist one".[51] Drake did not attend the 2017 Awards Ceremony where he was nominated. He had a performance in Manchester, England on February 12, 2017, the same night as the ceremony. Frank Ocean was vocal about boycotting the same Grammy Awards and did not submit his album Blonde for awards consideration as a protest.[52]

The Grammys were also criticized after the 59th Annual Grammy Awards when Adele's 25 won Album of the Year over Beyoncé's album Lemonade, which many music publications felt should have won the award. Steve Knopper of Rolling Stone magazine believed that she lost due to the Grammy voters being all white males and as well as for her pro-Black performance during the Super Bowl 50 halftime show.[53] USA Today also criticized Beyoncé's loss stating that "black artists have struggled to win album of the year". They also felt 25 won only due to the album's record-breaking sales rather than having a cultural significance and a large impact that Lemonade had in 2016.[54] Adele also expressed that Lemonade should have won over her for Album of the Year, stating in her acceptance speech:

I can't possibly accept this award. And I'm very humbled and I'm very grateful and gracious. But my artist of my life is Beyonce. And this album to me, the Lemonade album, is just so monumental. Beyonce, it's so monumental. And so well thought out, and so beautiful and soul-baring and we all got to see another side to you that you don't always let us see. And we appreciate that. And all us artists here adore you. You are our light.[55]

In 2019, for the first time, rap artists won major award nominations outside the rap categories when Childish Gambino won the first Song and Record of the Year awards ever for a rap song.[56]

The Grammys have also received criticism for their treatment of female artists. Notably at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, New Zealand singer Lorde made media headlines after turning down an offer to perform at the ceremony. She rumored that she was invited to perform alongside several other artists in a tribute to Tom Petty but was refused a solo slot, despite being nominated for the Album of the Year Award and stated that each of the male nominees were allowed solo performances. Lorde's mother also criticized the Grammys, pointing out an article which stated that only nine percent of nominees at the previous six Grammy Awards were women.[57] Following the 60th ceremony, many media outlets reported that the ceremony had failed women, specifically pointing to the most nominated female artist SZA who did not win in any of her five nominated categories and to the Best Pop Solo Performance category which was composed of four female nominees but won by Ed Sheeran.[58] In an interview, Neil Portnow, President of the Recording Academy attracted controversy by stating that female artists need to "step up" in order to win awards. Portnow's comments drew criticism from many female musicians including Pink, Katy Perry, Vanessa Carlton, Sheryl Crow, Iggy Azalea, Halsey and Charli XCX.[59] They also prompted the hashtag #GrammysSoMale on social media.[60]

Before the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, singer Ariana Grande decided to not perform and attend that years ceremony over a disagreement about the song choices for her performance. An anonymous source told Variety that Grande felt "insulted" when producers refused to allow the singer perform her latest single "7 Rings". They compromised by having her perform the song as part of a medley, but the condition that the producers choose the second song caused Grande to pull out of the show. The source said the same stipulations were not imposed on the other performers.[61] A few days later, Grande accused Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich for lying about why she dropped out of the show. Ehrlich had said that Grande "felt it was too late for her to pull something together". Grande responded:

I can pull together a performance over night and you know that, Ken, it was when my creativity & self expression was stifled by you, that I decided not to attend. I hope the show is exactly what you want it to be and more.[62]

Despite the controversy, Grande ended up winning Best Pop Vocal Album and in 2020 performed at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards when she was nominated for five awards, including Album of the Year but won none.[63]

Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan was placed on leave, after a complaint of bullying from a member of staff (according to an anonymous New York Times source), on January 16, 2020, ten days before the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.[64] Dugan had lodged a complaint internally alleging a broken system of voting that was subject to conflicts of interest, and spending that was unnecessary.[64] On the nominations for the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Dugan stated that the voting process was an "outrageous conflict of interest" with several nominated artists sitting on the voting boards of their prospective categories. She claimed that "one artist who initially ranked 18 out of 20 in the 2019 'Song of the Year' category ended up with a nomination". She also claimed that a few artists like Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande had the votes to be nominated for the category, but were ultimately omitted.[65]

in 2020, comedy star Tiffany Haddish turned down the invitation to host the 63rd Grammy pre-telecast premier ceremony when they said that she'd have to pay her own way through. In an exclusive interview with Variety, Haddish revealed that she was told to cover the cost of hair, makeup and wardrobe for the three-hour event further adding “I don’t know if this might mean I might not get nominated ever again, but I think it’s disrespectful.” When contacted, The Recording Academy explained that the Premiere Ceremony is not a CBS program and is hosted by the Academy — a not-for-profit organization meaning that artists, hosts and performers have to perform free every year. They also noted that the issue would have no impact in Haddish's future nomination.[66]