shopgirl144 said:
Here's my 2 cents on the Grammy's....
Album of the Year nominations are based, for the most part, on commercial success of the CD or artist and/or how many top 40 hits came off the CD, therefore, Mariah and Gwen got nominated because of this. So, it does not matter that their CD's are crappy, because people bought them and their songs got played on the radio.
All awards shows are purely subjective. Who's to say what song/CD/artist is the best? I think the winners are determined based on a combination of hype, hit songs, and which artist made the most $$ for their record companies.
The Grammy awards have nothing to do with album sales. If that were the case, then 50 Cent and Eminem would be among the nominations.
The Grammy's nominations and wins are voted on by the 12,000 member academy. To be a member of the academy, you have to be involved with the production of music, whether your an artist, producer, engineer, session musician, song writer, etc.
U2, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Prince, are among several other stars and non-stars involved in the production of music who are members of the acadamy.
The top 5 voted albums, songs or artist in each catagory become the Grammy nominees for the awards show. There are only 3 catagories where some adjustments are sometimes done after the voting for nominees is complete, and that is in the Album, Song, and Record of the year awards. In these catagories, a "Blue Ribbon Panel", looks at the top 20 voted titles in each of the three catagories and makes adjustments for "quality" and possibly to insure that there is some diversity among the final 5 nominees. The rest of the over 100 catagories do NOT have this done and based strictly on the votes of the 12,000 member acadamy for the nominations.
Once the nomination process is complete, the 12,000 member academy then votes on the 5 nominees in each catagory and the album, song or artist receiving the most votes from the 12,000 member academy in each catagory wins.
So, its not a few suits sitting around a table deciding who does or does not get album of the year, based on some type of profit motive. I admit, the "Blue Ribbon Committee" that sometimes makes adjustments for the final nominations for the three big catagories seems a little like that, but for the most part, you have 12,000 people involved with the production of music voting for what they think was the best in music over the past year.
I certainly do not always agree with the nominations or the winners, but there is not another awards ceremony that has a better system for picking the best in music for the year. There is never going to be an awards ceremony or year end list that everyone is going to agree with. What one thinks is the best music of the year is a matter of opinion. But I find it interesting to see what the majority or at least the plurarlity of 12,000 people involved with the production of music, think is the best of the year in music.