The 62nd annual Grammy Awards were held on Jan. 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. For artists, this ceremony is a retrospective moment when artists are rewarded for their efforts in the music world that year. That being said, the Grammy season is always met with its fair share of controversy.
For example, in 2016, Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” — possibly the album of the decade — got beat out by Taylor Swift’s “1989.” To this day, one of the top Google searches associated with “To Pimp a Butterfly” is “To Pimp a Butterfly beat at Grammys.” It is evident that the Grammys consistently choose success, sales and fame over artistic value.
If you look back on the awards, you can see a pattern of the most successful artists winning out over artists who arguably deserve the awards. The subsequent days after Grammy night are filled with debate and sometimes anger about who took home the hardware.
With that said, every once in a while, the artists who deserve the awards get them. We were lucky to witness that this year with Billie Eilish. Eilish won Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album and the grand prize, Album of the Year. She was the first woman to sweep the big four and only the second person ever to do it.
Not only did she kill it this year in terms of sales, but her album and songs are also fantastic and deserve to hold the top spot in their respective categories. Eilish’s songs are a breath of fresh air in the pop genre. They feature whispery vocals over booming bass-filled beats, while featuring poetic lyrics often drawn from her nightmares. The whole album is a solid project front to back. As a music fan, it was nice to see the Grammys acknowledge real talent.
Some other categories I agreed with were Anderson.Paak with “Ventura” winning Best R&B album, Tanya Tucker with “While I’m Still Livin’” winning Best Country Album and Gary Clark Jr. winning Best Rock Performance with “This Land.”
However, there were some categories that I did not agree with at all. Probably my biggest complaint was Tyler, the Creator beating YBN Cordae for Best Rap Album. The Tyler album was good, but YBN Cordae gave us a rap album of a caliber we haven’t heard in years.
To me, it’s one of the best rap albums from the past ten years. The way Cordae pieces together his rhymes, while having extremely creative wordplay, is something he hasn’t had in rap consistently. His subject matter also ranges from the successes of his career, sadness over the state of his family, and even wondering if the girl he brought to Thanksgiving dinner is going to be his girl at Christmas too. His lyrics are deeply relatable and set him apart from a lot of mainstream rappers today.
Next, Dan + Shay winning for Best Country Duo/Group Performance was an embarrassing example of sales being chosen over artistic quality. There were amazing country albums released this year that got no radio play or recognition from the Grammys. New albums from Paul Cauthen, Benjamin Tod, Ian Noe and others were nowhere to be found on Grammy night while pop radio country albums dominated the category lists.
Finally, Thom Yorke should have made it out of the Staples Center with the award for Best Alternative Music Album instead of Vampire Weekend.
Overall, this was an up year for the Grammys, with the talented and deserving Eilish sweeping the major awards and other quality artists nominated and taking home gilded gramophones. I would love to see the Grammys start valuing real artistic quality and integrity over sales and popularity, but I fear that won’t be the case anytime soon.
