As a long-time fan of music, it’s truly heartening to witness the progressive changes being implemented by the Recording Academy. The shift towards a more diverse and representative voting body is not just a step forward for the Grammys, but for the entire music industry.
In 2019, the Recording Academy initiated a fresh, community-centric membership system aimed at enhancing diversity within its voting group. Currently, approximately two-thirds (66%) of this electorate consist of members who’ve enrolled in the past five years.
This transformation within the organization could lead to long-overdue victories in the main categories for artists like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, who have been overlooked at past shows. This change was evident at this year’s Grammy Awards in 2024, where all the televised winners were female artists such as Taylor Swift, SZA, Billie Eilish, and Miley Cyrus.
The recent news pertains to the academy’s 2024 Membership Report, which was published on Thursday. In 2019, when the organization chose to revamp its new member application process for the first time in six decades, stricter criteria were implemented that made it challenging for older voters without recent musical achievements to renew their membership. To qualify as a voting member, artists must now have 12 commercially released, verifiable credits within a single creative field, and at least half of these must be from the last five years. This change has significantly influenced who receives nominations and eventually wins a Grammy award.
According to Harvey Mason Jr., the CEO, it’s crucial that our membership mirrors the contemporary music scene. To achieve this, we have certain conditions for joining and renewing membership. Our goal is to maintain a group of individuals who are actively involved in the industry now. By being more aligned with the music industry, we can exert a more substantial influence on the community as a whole, as he explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
Currently, the Grammys boast over 13,000 voting members. Since 2019, around 8,700 artists have joined the ranks as voting members, leading to a significant 65% increase in the number of people of color among the academy’s voters. This growth has been particularly noticeable among Black voters, where there’s been a 90% increase, as well as among Latino and Asian voters, with a 43% and 100% surge respectively.
Not only did the academy exceed its target of gaining 2,500 female voting members by 2025, but it has actually surpassed that number, with over 3,000 additions as of now. Since 2019, the number of women voting members has increased by a substantial 27 percent.
Mason jr. states, “We haven’t reached our final stop yet, but the Recording Academy membership has never been as representative of the music community as it is right now. There are more women and people of color, and a wide variety of genres and roles are being represented. This diverse group of musicians is shaping the evolving musical landscape while influencing Grammy decisions and moving our culture forward. It’s the most inclusive, diverse Grammy voting body ever.
The academy’s voting body spans over 13 creative disciplines, including songwriters, composers, producers, engineers, vocalists, conductors and more. Songwriters and composers make up the largest voting body at 46 percent, followed by producers and instrumentals, each at 33 percent. Vocalists account for 32 percent, followed by engineers (19 percent) and arrangers (12 percent).
In the current poll, pop musicians make up about a quarter of the votes, with jazz coming in second at around one-fifth. This is closely followed by R&B, rock, American Roots, and alternative genres, all accounting for approximately 17 percent each. Classical music takes up around 12 percent, while rap, jazz, Latin music, and global music each have about 10 percent of the votes. Lastly, country and dance music account for about 9 percent each in the poll.
Voting for the first round of Grammy nominations starts this coming Friday and ends on October 15th. Nominees will be announced on November 8th, with final voting taking place between December 12th and January 3rd. The live event is set to air on February 2nd, broadcast from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Beyoncé, the artist with the most Grammys in history, is anticipated to receive a nomination for Album of the Year again with her album titled “Cowboy Carter“. Besides Beyoncé, other artists predicted to get multiple nominations include Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Chris Stapleton, Ariana Grande, and Charli XCX.
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2024-10-03 18:25