The Grammy voting procedure is a long and complicated one. In short, it is a tiered system that involves over 150 experts in different fields in the industry going through the submissions, and then voting in up to 20 categories, including the additional four general field categories (best new artist, record of the year, song of the year, album of the year).
It seems simple and fair enough, especially with the word “experts” thrown into the process. But the experts set artists and their songs up for failure, because of the way the voting process is set up. The experts are truly experts in their fields. They are ultimately musicians’ peers, whether they are lyricists, DJs, producers, album notes writers, music video artists, journalists, or even musicians themselves.
They have to meet steep criteria, involving having been credited with 12 physical or digital tracks released online that is currently available to sale, with at least one track in the last 5 years, or 6 credits on commercially released tracks currently available to be bought, with one track in the last 5 years. Winning a Grammy in the past or being endorsed by a current Grammy voter can make someone eligible to vote.
Although the experts seem to be knowledgeable in their area of music, when it comes to voting, they are forced to vote outside of their expertise. They vote in up to 20 different categories, which most of the time, is outside their area of music. There are pop experts voting in rap and hip hop areas, or rap and hip hop experts voting in heavy metal areas.
If they have no knowledge of this area they are most likely voting at random or vote for the big name artists. This initial voting process is completely un-regulated and leaves a bunch of artists being ignored or overlooked, simply because someone of a different area has never heard their music before.
After the voters seemingly randomly select their 20 votes, they vote once in the top 4 categories for Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the year, and Album of the Year. Because these are the most popular, people like you and me easily get upset at the winners and losers of these awards.
Therefore, in the 1990s, the Recording Academy quietly selected a committee of voters, whose membership is never publicly announced, to review these top four categories, as well as other smaller categories such as Jazz, Classical, and R&B. If anything seems “wrong” or “off” about the nominations, these voters will change or adjust the nominations, in order to keep the process moving.
There is no way you can tell me that this secret committee is a one-hundred-percent good idea. Sure, it is understandable that keeping the voters’ identities a secret is smart so that their votes cannot be swayed by others. But, who exactly is on this committee? There seems to be rumors that family members of important celebrities may be on this committee.
It has also been hinted that these voters manipulate the nominations for better TV ratings instead of fixing real nomination errors that there may be. The worst part about this secret committee is no only that it exists, but that the Recording Academy does not publically mention them. On the Grammy’s official website, the process for voting is explained, but this secret committee step is not included.
They truly exist, but the Recording Academy seems to try to avoid any confrontation about this committee. I have no faith that the Grammy voters are truly experts, or even truly care, about the artists and nominees. There needs to be some input from real voters like you and me, who listen to the music and care about the artists.
Though the iHeart Radio’s Music award show is much smaller than the Grammy’s, I believe they have somewhat of the right idea of including votes through social media from regular, everyday people. However, there is always unfair voting that occurs during voting through social media, but the concept of regular people voting is an important one.
There needs to be a balance of us being able to vote, and “experts” being able to vote. Besides, these “experts” care more about the one-day TV ratings, and we care more about the actual artists and their music.
Jill Augustine
Deputy Viewpoints Editor