The Grammy Awards - Lesson 101

"Music's Biggest Night" is around the corner as the 54th Annual Grammy Awards come upon us this Sunday. Over the years I have enjoyed watching this award show to see all my favorite bands and musicians receive this covenant award. Then it dawned on me, I have no idea how these acts were nominated, let alone how they were chosen to win. Is it by album sales? Is it voted upon?  I guess it is time for a little Grammy 101.


The Nomination Process:  The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences or NARAS, is the committee that determines the nominees and the winners of the Gramophone. It consists of music industry professionals such as musicians, producers and recording engineers, who are knowledgeable in this trade. Each is responsible for the selection of the nominees and in turn, for the winners in each category. 


The record companies and other individuals are the ones that submit an album or artist for the original selection list.  The members of NARAS vote to nominate who fits into a specific category such as Album of the Year or Best New Artist and the top 5 with the most votes is nominated (with the exception of a tie).  Then a final vote is given to each category to choose the winner. Seems simple enough.
 

The strange part of this process, however, is that the members are not given a copy of the recording to listen to prior to judging. I am sure the NARAS members are knowledgeable about the musicians they are choosing, but what if there is a particular group or artist they are not familiar with? They just might choose to go with the most popular instead of taking the time to research each of them.  In a perfect world I suppose we can assume they all do their homework and take their positions seriously.


One thing to note is that voting is purely based on quality alone.  They are not allowed to research album sales, cannot permit outside influences from personal relationships and most importantly track how the nominees have performed on the charts.  A completely unbiased process which can be a difficult thing, let us hope they can keep these things separate.
 

I am aware that with all voting based award shows these questions are always raised.  How can you truly know if the sound quality and substance of an album alone can withstand popularity and favoritism in the industry? Well, I will leave this up to you to decide.

Information provided courtesy of www.wikipedia.org
Picture courtesy of www.Billboard.com