The Grammy Awards are one quarter of the top four awards ceremonies to occur on a yearly basis, with the other 3 being the Emmy’s for TV, the Academy Awards for movies, and the Tony Awards for theater. The Grammy’s concern music, and are award to the top musicians, songwriters, technicians and business people in that world.
The Grammys started in 1958 and got their name from the name of the first record player, which was called a gramophone. The way it works is that nominations are sent by anyone related to music, whether it be musicians, studios, or other interested parties. These bids are sent to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, who filter through all the submissions and determine the top 5 names in each category. Then those names are sent out to all the members of the Academy, who then are requested to vote for someone in the general categories and also concentrate on those who are in their own specialties or genre. The four general areas are: Album of the Year; Record of the Year; Song of the Year; and Best New Artist.
The Grammys are considered the pinnacle of the music awards, but they also generate the most controversy. Some have called the awards elitist or illogical because many songs or albums that are nominated didn’t sell well, and sometimes honor names that many people haven’t heard of. That works well for technical awards but not as well when these artists show up in popular categories. There’s also criticism that not enough attention is paid to some of those who are considered for the awards, and this was highlighted most specifically in 1990 when Milli Vanilli won the Grammy for Best New Artists before being exposed as not being the artists that performed on their record or in concert.
Another controversy is that, unlike other awards, not all music or artists are known by those who vote in these categories. Whereas the Emmys and Academy Awards send items to its voters for them to peruse, and voters for the Tony’s must have seen every show to vote, the Grammy’s don’t provide materials and rely on their voters to do all of this for themselves, which everyone knows they don’t do. Therefore, some choices might be based on an overall body of work for an artist rather than whether or not it was the best for that particular year.
Also, voters are supposed to only vote on quality and not quantity, which also courts controversy. Many rock bands have boycotted the Grammys, feeling their music doesn’t have a chance to compete against pop artists well known by the voters or that those who nominate artists aren’t as familiar with what they do, and thus they feel excluded. Even those that win sometimes decide to boycott the proceedings.
In general, though, the Grammys are still the pinnacle awards for musicians, and even if an artist never has the love and publicity again, winning a Grammy is about as good as it gets for anyone in the musical field.