The Grammy Awards is a presentation ceremony held by the Recording Academy that recognizes musical achievements. The first Grammy Awards was held in 1959, and twenty-eight awards were presented. In the past sixty-one years of the award ceremony, many changes have been made in terms of the actual ceremony, the number of awards presented, and the categories.
In light of the murder of George Floyd, the nationwide protests, and the recent increased prominence of the Black Lives Matters movement in the media, many people have been calling for companies to take actions in support of the movement. The Grammys have unfortunately previously come under fire before for snubbing black artists and not adapting to the current times.
Most notably, in 2017 Drake’s song “Hotline Bling” was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance even though it is not a rap song. In response to this and “One Dance” not being nominated for Record of the Year, Drake did not attend the awards ceremony. Additionally, in the same year, Adele’s 25 won Album of the Year over Beyoncé’s Lemonade. In her acceptance speech, Adele even mentioned how monumental Lemonade was, and said that Beyoncé’s album should have won over hers.
Well, in response to all of this, the Recording Academy released a press release on Wednesday, June 10 announcing changes that will “go into effect immediately” for the future Grammy Awards. These changes include the renaming of the Best Urban Contemporary Album award to Best Progressive R&B Album, the renaming of the Best Rap/Sung Performance category into Best Melodic Rap Performance, and more.
The emphasis of the changes was mainly on the usage of the word “urban,” which Tyler, The Creator has previously commented as being “just [a] politically correct way to say the N-word” and place all “the guys that look like me” into the same category while almost ignoring and simplifying his “genre-bending” work. Last week, Republic Records announced that it would stop using the term “urban” to “not adhere to the outdated structures of the past” and urged the rest of the music industry to follow suit.
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