This year’s Grammy Awards, set to take place on March 4 at the ominously-named Crypto.com Arena, will be yet another occasion for the sidelining of some of music’s biggest and most exciting talents.
One exception proves the rule. Edgar Barrera, a Mexican songwriter and producer, has already made history as the first ever Latin act to be nominated for Songwriter of the Year.
He’s collaborated with Bad Bunny, Karol G and Don Omar – and he’s a huge force in the new, dizzyingly popular wave of Spanish-language pop music. It’s great to see his work celebrated on one of music’s most prestigious stages. Following the nomination, Barrera admitted that he already feels like a winner for breaking into the awards show’s biggest categories, adding “on top of that, I’m nominated for Spanish-language songs.” Less cheerfully, he’s also the only Latin act up for a general category that isn’t only geared towards Latin music.
That’s the problem. The Grammys still look as if they’re designed for an analogue, simple world rather than the joyful, digital chaotic complexity of music today.
Founded in 1959, the Grammys are the US music industry’s own equivalent to the Oscars. Winning one, particularly in the ‘big four’ categories, can very often be a career changer. But the awards have also been criticised in the past for failing to evolve with the industry it celebrates.
Ahead of 2021’s ceremony, the Recording Academy announced plans to finally retire the much-criticised “urban” labelling from many of the categories dedicated to music of black origin, following criticism from artists such as Tyler, The Creator. “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word,” he said. “To me, it’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word. Why can’t we just be in pop?”
Though the separate Latin Grammys have existed since 2000, they have also been criticised for failing to always acknowledge sub-genres such as reggaeton and dancehall, as well as shutting out artists who do not sing in Spanish or Portuguese. Adding to the confusion, there are also several categories for Latin music at the main Grammys ceremony.
It’s undeniably a great thing to spotlight as much music as possible from around the world. But is shunting off various global movements and genres into separate sister ceremonies or increasingly obscure categories â particularly when the popularity of English-language music actually dropped by over ten per cent last year â really the right call? Does it reflect the world we actually live in?
I want to see an artist like Peso Pluma â last year’s most streamed act on YouTube in US, with a total of 8.5 billion global views in 2023 â up for Best Album with Génesis; his wildly popular, present-day spin on the traditional Mexican folk movement corridos. Instead, he’s up for Best Música Mexicana Album.
It’s a similar story for other important genres powering and influencing music globally. With more than 15 billion streams worldwide, the West African genre of Afrobeats is hardly what you could call a niche offering. The Grammys’ introduction of a newly created Best African Music Performance may suggest otherwise. Tyla, Arya Starr, and Burna Boy are among the nominees, and of course it’s a decent start in making room for other emerging genres such as the South African offshoot amapiano, but let’s be honest: the gesture feels woefully overdue.
And as for K-Pop? The Grammys have snubbed it altogether at this year’s ceremony, despite the US representing the second largest market for the South Korean genre globally. BTS remain the only band from the genre to have been nominated.
Put bluntly, these glaring omissions show that the Recording Academy has lost touch with music in 2024. Fans are finding, consuming, and falling in love with music in a very different way now. It is emblematic of a wider problem at the Grammys, which is an ageing critical titan that is slow to adapt to a musical world that evolves relentlessly.
Things aren’t all rosy in the internet age â the rise of streaming has massively devalued musicians’ work, while discovery algorithms have arguably had an enormous impact on artistic creativity. Yet one big positive is the incredible ease with which you can delve into genres from across the world at the touch of a few buttons.
For listeners, the lines between genres are blurring like never before, and as music becomes increasingly amorphous and global, creating yet more increasingly niche genre categories is looking ever more like the wrong approach. While the hyper-specific approach works well in some places â it’s right that the unsung talents grafting away in the decidedly less glamorous arenas of ‘writing album notes’ or ‘recording ambient chant records’ get their dues â the biggest categories are in need of a dramatic shake-up. Don’t the Grammys want to stay relevant?
