Popular Music vs. Critical Acclaim
Every year, there is overlap between commercial music that hits the cultural zeitgeist and music that receives widespread critical acclaim. This year, the most obvious example of this is Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, a cohesive return to dance-pop bangers for the multi-talented artist. The unique combination of streaming success and unanimous praise meant that Mayhem was a shoo-in for this year’s Grammys. Unsurprisingly, Gaga earned seven nominations this year, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year (for “Abracadabra”), and Song of the Year (for the same track).
However, Gaga was not the only pop artist to show up on the list of nominees despite a relatively weak year from A-list musicians. Some critics felt that Sabrina Carpenter’s new album, Man’s Best Friend, felt too similar to her last effort. Furthermore, Justin Bieber’s divisive Swag currently holds a 67 on Metacritic, which is typically not the score for an album worthy of awards. Still, the power of name recognition clearly holds too much weight. As a result, Carpenter and Bieber seemed to snag their respective Album of the Year nominations with relative ease.
If the nominations for pop music artists in Album of the Year suggest anything, it’s that popularity is more important than quality. Ideally, you have both, but what about the artists who just have critical acclaim to their name? They seem to be relegated to the smaller, often untelevised categories, if at all. For instance, FKA Twigs earned a rare 9.1 rating on Pitchfork earlier this year with her new album Eusexua. Her only nomination was in the Dance/Electronic Album category.
Furthermore, one of the more critically acclaimed pop albums of the year was Lorde’s Virgin. Lorde was once a Grammy magnet in the days of “Royals” and her second album Melodrama. However, her subsequent artistic detours are not exactly radio or TikTok friendly, and despite releasing some of the more audacious and raw lyricism in pop music this year, the New Zealand-born artist was completely shut out of all categories.
This snub makes it hard not to feel like the Grammys are merely a popularity contest. For proof of this, look no further than in their top songwriting category. They passed over the lyrics “I made you God cause it was all that I knew how to do” (from Lorde’s “David”) in favor of the lyrics “kissy face, kissy face sent to your phone” (from Rosé and Bruno Mars’s “Apt”).
Of course, some critically acclaimed works were properly acknowledged in major categories, and some of those nominations came from well-known artists. Still, the fact that there are slots reserved for mainstream artists with subpar work speaks volumes here. Have the Grammys changed much in this respect? Nope!
An Evolving Approach to Genre
One of the more interesting aspects of this year’s Grammy nominations was the inclusion of a greater variety of genres. The diversification better reflects the landscape of contemporary music. However,some of the Recording Academy’s actions suggest a warm welcome to these changes while others indicate resistance.
On the positive side, prior to the announcement of this year’s nominations, the Recording Academy also unveiled a new measure to incorporate 3,900 Latin Grammy voters into the main Grammy voting body. This could increase the likelihood of Bad Bunny taking home Grammys outside of Latin music categories.
However, on the flip side, the Academy has also chosen to split the category of Best Country Album into two categories this year: Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album. This decision is a clear immediate reaction to Beyoncé becoming the first Black artist to win Best Country Album last year in an effort to appease legacy country artists whose views about the genre are wildly outdated. These views are also revisionist history, with many critics acknowledging that Black artists contributed to what we now know to be modern country music.
These measures exemplify the continued tension between change and legacy at the Grammy Awards. Grammy voters can be simultaneously forward-thinking and out-of-touch. Another example of this is illustrated in the lineup for Album of the Year. While it’s an incredible feat to see three hip-hop albums represented here, this list is simultaneously regressive in its gender makeup, with only two women nominated in a field of eight. When a similar result occurred at the Grammys in 2018, Neil Portnow, the former president of the Recording Academy, stated that women needed to “step up” their game if they wanted to be included. Sure, in a few recent years since, women have dominated in this category, but this year’s lineup indicates that the Academy's change is not long-lasting.
Every year, the relevance of the Grammy Awards is up for debate. The problem is that it’s hard to ignore the Grammys given its storied legacy. Fans of popular music, like myself, want this industry’s so-called “biggest night” to properly reflect the best of the year. However, in order for that to happen, the conflict between popularity and quality needs to be better addressed, as does the tension between tradition and growth. To paraphrase Jay-Z, we really just want them to get it right.
via @ThePopTingz