Last night’s Grammy Awards celebrated the music industry, honoring artists, albums, songs and videos. Many, including Academy honoree Jay-Z, said that the award voting process doesn’t accurately reflect the fans. We asked students and experts how the Grammys can be improved. Kate Stuzin has the story.
Sophomore Music Industry major India Yeoh worked directly on the PR campaign for Victoria Monet, the 2024 Grammy winner for Best New Artist, through her summer internship with BIZ 3 Publicity.
India Yeoh: She’s a black woman who’s been around in the industry for a while but hasn’t really gotten a ton of recognition.
The other three winners in the Big Four — Record, Album and Song of the year— were white women. Yeoh says she hopes to see a more diverse array of winners in the future.
Yeoh: I know people who are part of the Recording Academy and who are able to vote for the Grammys and, you know, I love them and I trust them and everything. But I also just think that people need to remember that maybe the Grammys aren’t supposed to be representative of what their personal beliefs are.
Sophomore Business Administration major Varun Tamaskar didn’t watch the Grammys, but followed the awards through social media. He says the Grammy Awards could be improved by a greater emphasis on fans’ opinions.
Tamaskar: Well, I think they have to like take more fan input. Honestly, I think it’s more about like right now it’s more about like celebrities and all this like show business as more about like the entertainment aspect of it. I think if they actually took what the fans, had to say, it would be a lot more accurate and people would watch it.
A memorable moment at the ceremony was Jay-Z’s acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award which he used to call out the Recording Academy and its selection process.
Jay-Z: Some of you may get robbed. Some of you don’t belong in a category.
The rapper also referenced his wife Beyonce and how the Grammys have snubbed her time and time again. Beyoncé, has the most Grammy Awards of all time with 32 wins. Her recent album, Renaissance, did not receive a nomination in the Album of the Year category.
Jay-Z: I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album in a year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.
Legal Studies junior Caroline Holmes says she resonated with the rapper’s primetime speech.
Caroline Holmes: I feel like it’s just kind of a lot of people with opinions that ended up having a lot of power in the industry, not necessarily that they deserve it.
The solution for Holmes? More transparency when it comes to people who make up the Recording Academy and what impacts their decision-making.
Holmes: I would love to have a more transparent voting process, because I think that would kind of stop people from voting for bad voting, making the decisions I do based on probably biases that they have.
The conversation surrounding the voting practices of the Academy have persisted for decades and always circle back to a need for equity that has yet to be addressed. It is clear there is certainly room for improvement!