The Recording Academy has announced a change in their voting regulations for the Grammys, as reported by Pitchfork. This year, and the year before, the Grammys have faced a backlash of criticism due to constantly shutting out popular artists in their secretive award nominations. The organizers plan to stop ‘elusive’ nominations by opening up the ‘Big Four’ categories – Best Album, Best New Artist, Best Record of the Year, and Best Song will now be open for members of the committee to vote on.
Although the organizers have stated that they plan to continue their undisclosed voting strategy on other categories such as Best Producer, Packaging, and Liner Notes. The organizers will now evaluate their 11,000 members to see who is still active in the music industry to make sure that the voting is seen as fair, and that members are voting on their own peers.
Last year, Canadian artist The Weeknd was shunned out of the Grammys despite having the popular album of the year. Many artists of color such as Halsey and Zayn Malik have come out to criticize the Grammys for feeling left out. The Grammys, like Hollywood with the Oscars, seems to be having an inclusion problem.
The Grammys have also included two new categories to their list: Global Music Performance and Musica Urbana Album.
Read the mxdwn exclusive 2021 Grammy recap. John Prine was given two posthumous Grammy awards this year.
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