This is The Future Grammys Want
It’s that time of year again, when I scream into the void about Grammy nominations, once again breaking my own promise to delegitimize this silly institution by just ignoring them.
The Grammys are simply too big to fail, though they sure as hell seem to be trying. They’ve been the barometer for musical success for so long that it seems like no matter how outdated they prove to be, people will never be able to get rid of the heart eyes that magically appear when they see that golden gramophone.
When the academy releases a bonkers list of nominations like the one they just released for their 2021 awards, for a second I wonder if I’m the problem; maybe I’m the one who’s out of touch. After all, certainly the academy knows what they’re talking about, right? But social media definitely quelled those concerns. This list is stupid, and people are mad. If we want that anger to be actionable, the best way to do that would be to ignore the Grammys altogether, and not give them a second of our attention...
… So anyway, here are my detailed thoughts on the Grammys.
When answering the question “why do people hate the Grammys?”, it’s easy to zoom in and point out the obvious snubs and surprises. This year, the biggest one was that The Weeknd was denied a single nomination. After Hours, The Weeknd’s 4th studio album, was a critically-acclaimed opus that had thoughtful songwriting, engaging concepts, impressive vocal performances, and widespread popularity. The Weeknd’s been on a bender for the past few months to prove he is the leading creative force in pop music, with inventive late show appearances, stunning music videos, and must-see award show performances. That bender was clearly meant to culminate in the 2021 Grammys, where any thinker in the industry had him as a clear favorite. It’s then hard not to think of this omission as pointed.
What makes this snub even more notable are the acts and projects that did receive top nominations. When I made a whole podcast episode about how much people hate Coldplay, I didn’t think their recent project, Everyday Life would get a nod for Album of the Year. Other nominees in that category include Chilombo by Jhené Aiko, Djesse Vol. 3 by Jacob Collier, and Black Puma’s eponymous album. Are these the best albums of the year? I don’t know, because, like most people in this country, I haven’t listened to them. This is also the first time ever that a Beyoncé nomination was met with confusion. After all, she sure got a lot of nods for an artist that hasn’t released an album since 2016. Her song “Black Parade” was fine, but does anyone actually think it was the song of the year?
I’m not denying the quality of any of this music, but if we want to figure out why these works of music took The Weeknd’s place, we need to start zooming out.
This is not the first set of Grammy nominations that caused head-scratching. Famously, Prince’s “When Doves Cry” wasn’t nominated for record of the year in 1984. Let’s be real, there’s never going to be a perfect list; we’re never going to unanimously say “Whoo-hoo! The Grammys got it right this time!” If we’re being honest, the snubs aren’t really what bother us. What bothers us is that we can’t help but feel like these snubs are the Grammys way of telling us what they actually want from today’s artists.
This is especially true with Black music, a subset that the Grammys have been famously out of step with for some time. Take, for example, this year’s Best Rap Album nominees (please!). None of these albums produced a song that resonated with the general public. You don’t need to be in tune with hip-hop culture to know this; after all, not one of these albums has a song that was nominated for Best Rap Song or Performance. Instead the nominees for Best Rap Album are rappers like Nas and Jay Electronica, who are too past their prime to be influential (if you had told me before Tuesday that Royce Da 5’9” had released an album this year, I would have just had to take you at your word) or alternative lyrical-types like D Smoke (if you told me the winner of Netflix’s Rhythm & Flow released a good album, I, again, would have just had to take you at your word). Meanwhile, Roddy Rich received six Grammy nominations, yet somehow was undeserving of the top rap prize, despite how well-received and truly good Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial was.
The reason for all of this is that, when it comes to Black art, the Grammys has a “type”. You don’t have to look too hard to find who fits this mold, because they put them on a disproportionately high pedestal every year. How many Grammy moments ended with people furiously googling who Gary Clark Jr. was? How many people listened to a H.E.R. album for the first time after they all got nominated for Album of the Year? This year, artists like Jhené Aiko and The Black Puma’s seem to be the next to hold this baton. As far as the Grammy’s are concerned, if you’re Black and you can’t play an instrument or don’t have an aesthetic adopted from the 90’s or earlier, don’t expect to be showered with top prizes. Imagine how happy the academy was when people started freaking out about Awaken My Love!
Maybe this is why this year’s list feels more like a ransom note sent along with The Weeknd’s dismembered finger that reads “Give Us Childish Gambino.”
As for the Beyoncé nod, this almost feels like it was meant to placate us, like a cringy boomer hoping that saying “Surfboardt” will convince us they’re not racist.
Again, this is not a shot at any of the nominated music. It just seems like if you wanted to honor, say, alternative, lyrical rappers over the age of 40, why not nominate Run The Jewels, whose fourth album was both critically and commercially more successful than any of the rappers that actually had a good Tuesday?
Of course, I’m ignoring all of the things the Grammys got right. It’s wonderful, for example, seeing how much due credit women were given this year.
However, it seems insane to me that an institution that has been so wrong for so long continues to carry this much weight. If we want them to stop telling us what music was actually good, we need to either hold their feet to the fire, or just stop caring so damn much about this dumb, outdated, arbitrary list…
Anyway, see you here same time next year?
