By: Amlak
When you mention the Grammy's, it immediately invokes the thoughts of prestige and stature, but if you dig a bit deeper then you would realize that the inner workings behind the scenes is not as glamorous, especially when it comes to choosing the nominees for the reggae category.
Upon close inspection by our detectives here at TheWickedestTime.com, we have come to a conclusion that the Grammy nominations for the reggae category is not so much bias as it is, how can I describe it, retro and outdated. It has come to our attention that the reggae nominees are the only reggae artistes that the decision makers know about!
I recently came across a video that explained precisely this concept - that the decision makers only nominate reggae artists they're familiar with. Unfortunately, since dancehall / reggae music is not heavily portrayed in mainstream media these same decision makers don't have much to choose from. This is not fair to other artiste who consistently put out great albums, for example, Spragga Benz's Shotta Culture, which I thought was a very good album.
I'm not saying that the recent winners were not deserving of their nominations, but it would be nice to see more variety, to see more of our dancehall artiste getting more recognition than what they are getting now, and it seems like the only way this is going to happen is if the public let their feelings be known in every way possible.
Here is the video I am referring to, tell me what you think about this.
2 Comments:
Greetings.
I read your piece on the Grammys. I also watched the video from Roger Steffens, who just retired as the Grammy Reggae director. As a former member & voter of the Reggae Grammy, I can offer a little more insight on this topic.
First of all, let's start by letting you know what makes you qualified to vote on the Grammys. You must first be a member and in order to be a member you have to have proof of some work done in the music business like produce, record or write a song are good examples. I have done all those so I qualified. I paid my annual membership fee, joining hoping I could make a difference in the Reggae Grammys. I remained a member for several years trying to make that difference.
Once you are a member, regardless of your background or expertise, you can vote in many different categories. For instance, if you are a Polka producer you can vote in the reggae category, as long as you have not gone over your limit of categories to vote. Basically, anyone thats a member, and there are tens of thousands of members, you can vote in any category. So what happens, members who may think it would be fun, interesting or trivial vote on reggae albums that they do not have a full understanding of and then it becomes a name recognition game. This is why you always see names that are either in the press alot like Buju or it's one of the few that always get press or mainstream visibility(the Marleys). It's not about the best reggae album as the category says. It's about the members, who vote and are unqualified in realistic terms, and who they recognize.
I got disgruntled like most and just didn't renew my membership. There are two steps that can be taken to help improve this method. The first, which is the most serious, is a major addition of reggae members. I am talking thousands because it's the only way it's going to have an impact. Then a real reggae voice can be heard and then after time I believe a policy change would need to occur. Lastly, this is the easy step, is make sure every good reggae album that is released is submitted to the Grammys so it can be considered.
Oh wow! Thanks for the detailed update, I can imagine that there just isn't enough members who really know reggae music.
We also need to make sure that all of the good albums are submitted, I didn't even realize that they need to be officially submitted to qualify.
I'm curious, how much are the membership fees?
Post a Comment