Once seen as the most prestigious awards show in the music industry, the Grammy Awards lost much of their prestige and is still spiraling. The 2019 Grammys were arguably one of the worst shows they’ve ever had. The show experienced another low viewing, as only 19.9 million people tuned in for the award show. Though that sounds like a lot of people were watching the Grammys, the data suggests otherwise. Just two years ago, the Grammys were pulling in 26.1 million viewers. This is a 24 percent drop in viewers, showing just how much people don’t really care about the once illustrious award show.
Obviously numbers don’t just drop because people magically stop caring, so one must question why the Grammys are receiving such pitiful numbers.
For starters, this year’s Grammy performances lacked any creativity. Most performances are just the artist singing their song – and some are just lip syncing – with no choreography and average vocals.
For example Alicia Keys, as talented as she is, put on a boring performance of a medley of songs this year. Another artist’s pathetic performance was Cardi B’s. Though stunning visually, the entertainer – I say because I believe she is not a rapper – rolled around on the floor and looked like a fool the entire performance. These performances depict just why the Grammys have started to lose their pizazz and their credibility.
Another reason would be their horrible choice in winners. If one were to look at the previous winners for “Album of the Year,” or most of the categories really, the results are extremely surprising.
Back in 2015, Beck won “Album of the Year,” beating out what should have been Beyoncé’s award after the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled album. This shocked the entire world and is, honestly, the start of the downward spiral of the importance of winning a Grammy. People began to see the Grammys as a joke because Beck’s album was good – obviously – but it wasn’t close to the creativity that Beyoncé brought for her album, or for the other major contender, Sam Smith. If not Beyoncé, Sam Smith – known as the male Adele – should’ve taken home this award for his simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking album.
The Grammys did not disappoint in showing the public that they’re still the worst at picking winners. When the nominations came out for all of the categories, the general public went into a frenzy over who was nominated and who was not. Most people tended to focus on the rap categories and the lack of actual rappers. The main categories that caught everyone’s attention were the “Best Rap Song” and the “Rap Album of the Year.”
The “Best Rap Song” category is honestly the biggest joke category at the Grammys in 2019.
Whoever’s idea it was to include the song “Win” is an absolute moron and needs to be kicked off the panel for deciding who should get a nomination. The song itself is utter garbage – there’s no lyrical content behind it and it’s repetitive and annoying. “King’s Dead,” though a great song, had little impact on the culture and died out pretty quick. “Lucky You” is a good song, yet, once again, had no impact on the culture. Why were these songs chosen? No one knows why. No one pushed these songs. No one expected these to end up on this list. In the end, Drake won the category with “God’s Plan”.
The “Best Rap Album” category is almost just as bad. First of all, who even is Nipsey Hussle and how was his album chosen to be in this category? Another average album on this list was “Daytona” by Pusha T. Only boosted by his beef with Drake, Pusha T was unknown for the most part to the general public – not to mention his music is subpar. The lyrics are good, but his flow and his beats are dull and boring. These two albums were place holders and prove that the true rappers aren’t getting the recognition they deserve. The winner of this category was Cardi B with “Invasion of Privacy.”
So if these categories had joke contestants, then who should’ve taken their places? Easy choice. The actual rappers – defined as someone who is a lyricist and writes their own raps. J. Cole, Eminem – who released two albums – and Nicki Minaj were all snubbed from the Grammys.
J. Cole is known for getting snubbed at award shows so it comes to no surprise that he wasn’t nominated, and Eminem has publicly spoken out about how the Grammys are rigged and anyone can win one nowadays, so his snubbing was no surprise either. How “Chun-Li” was not nominated for “Best Rap Song” and “Queen” not nominated for “Best Rap Album” is beyond anyone. The significant impact that both of these had is astounding. “Chun-Li” alone broke many records and was the highest peaking solo song by a female rapper in 2018, peaking at No. 10. “Queen” was the most anticipated album of 2018 and charted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200.
When it was announced that the “Queen of Rap” had received zero nominations, people began to seriously question the validity of the Grammys.
To sum it all up, the Grammys have just gone downhill. They have boring performers, joke nominations and undeserving winners. Their numbers continue to plummet and will keep on doing so if they don’t start awarding the correct artists for their hard work and dedication, as well as let the artists have control over what they want to perform and how they want to perform it, allowing their creativity to shine through.
If the Grammys want to do better in the future and want people to tune in to their award show, they will take into account all of these things in order to gain their accreditation back.
Photo Courtesy of asmac.org
I had watched the Grammys for over 53 years, seems like the good music is dying . Raps is just a repetition …is boring . Nothing is like the great music on the 80’s and 90’s . This was the last time I watched this program, each year is getting worse and worse. I was happy to see Steve Wonders and other great good artists from long time when was a pleasure to see great artists in music. I am really sad, I love music…