From yet one more Beyoncé snub for Album of the 12 months to fan-roundtable segments that some viewers discovered cringe-inducing, this 12 months’s Grammys sparked much more controversy than common. Within the new episode of our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, responds to criticism (together with our personal, on final week’s episode).
“It is a new group,” says Mason, pointing to in depth efforts to diversify the voting base since he took over in 2020. “It is a new academy. There’s all the time gonna be some disappointments. We’re attending to a spot the place it’s enhancing and it’s persevering with to be increasingly related yearly… However I’ve to say, it’s a piece in progress.”
Extra highlights from the dialog comply with; to listen to the total interview, press play above, or discover it right here on the podcast supplier of your alternative. (Additionally on this episode: a debate over the deserves of Rihanna’s Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present efficiency.)
Mason defends the fan roundtables, however doesn’t essentially decide to their return subsequent 12 months. “It’s a science mission,” he says. “You’re looking for the fitting ratio of music to feel-good [content], to dialogue, to storytelling, to awards, and it’s all the time gonna be one thing that we tinker with. I believed the present, all in all, was unbelievable. We’re all the time gonna strive issues. We’re all the time gonna push the envelope, and see what’s subsequent. We don’t wanna have the identical present yearly. We wish to do issues which can be completely different. However greater than something, we wish to have coronary heart and we wish to come from a spot of affection. We wish to come from a spot of bringing folks collectively, unifying, celebrating, therapeutic. And to me the fan packages humanized the artists and gave an actual perception into people who recognize and love their work. So whether or not or not it was too lengthy, too brief, too many, too few, that’s one thing that, you all can debate.”
Bonnie Raitt’s upset win for Track of the 12 months for the ballad “Simply Like That” was a win for the Academy, Mason says. “I used to be stunned, actually,” he says. “It’s not one thing that I’d’ve predicted, however I used to be actually pleased with it. And it means our voters are actually doing the work. They actually listened — as a result of in case you take heed to that track one time and also you’re not crying by the top of it, you’re, you’re chilly inside. If you happen to have been in the home and also you noticed the artist group after they introduced that class, there was a lot respect and love for her.”
The Academy is worried that Drake and The Weeknd are refusing to submit their music for awards consideration, and is making an attempt to win again their belief. “It’s not nearly a pair artists,” says Mason. “It’s concerning the artist group. I need the artist group to belief the academy and really feel like we’re doing the fitting work for the fitting causes. We have to earn that belief and proceed to construct the belief with the artist group. And sure, we wish to have a TV present and we wish to rejoice and get together with these artists. However the actual function of the Academy is to serve the trade. We would miss an award. We would miss a nomination. Someone is perhaps pissed at us, however I promise you after they discover out the 30 million {dollars} we gave to music people who wanted assist throughout Covid, or the employees we now have in D.C. leaping up and right down to struggle for the rights of music folks in order that we will make a residing, and after they discover out about us being in faculties and placing devices in youngsters’ arms, I promise you they’ll have somewhat little bit of a unique perspective.”
The Academy is tough at work on a TV particular increasing on the ceremony’s celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop — filming will happen in August, and the present will air earlier than the top of the 12 months. “We’ve been engaged on that for about six months,” Mason says, “and it type of goes hand in hand with what you noticed on the Grammy stage. We thought the Grammy stage model of it, the 14 minutes, was an amazing appetizer, and just a bit perception into what the present’s gonna be like in August. In that present, we’ll spend somewhat bit extra time speaking concerning the historical past and the affect of hip-hop on every thing from politics to enterprise, to schooling, to sports activities, to trend. Most of the folks you noticed on the Grammy stage can be taking part in a bigger position going ahead on this present, after which in fact, you’ll see a variety of different folks. We didn’t have sufficient time to get to all of the unbelievable hip-hop artists that we needed to, however in August we are going to.”
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