Grammys Genre Classifications In Part To Blame For The Weeknd Snub

[Economy 33,668]

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5815215

 

Music and culture journalist Gary Suarez is criticizing that the system the Grammys have for genre categoried and classifications is too arbitrary and imprecise and is causing too many artists that don't fit into just one category to get snubbed

 

Naming what was arguably the biggest snub The Weeknd, he explains that an album like that could technically fit into Pop, R&B and Electronic simultaneously depending on ones perception and that causes votes to get split into different categories instead of being concentrated into one. When votes get split your chances of getting a nomination are greatly deminished even if your total votes are high

 

According to him the system needs to change to decide more definitely who belongs in to what category to prevent people who have more votes than someone else from getting snubbed and falling thru the cracks

 

This essentially ends up punishing artists who are experimental and therefore harder to classify in a genre while artists who play it safe and stay within clearly marked generic genre norms don't have the issue of splits. For example Justin Bieber's Yummy is clearly Pop, there's nothing to dispute there

Edited November 26, 2020 by Economy

[Lady Papa 2,861]

So basically, if your music is unique, fresh, and doesn't fit the mold, the Scammys will spit on you

[Reality 54,845]

Justin Bieber's Yummy is clearly pop, but it also doesn't deserve the nomination

After Hours may be a little more difficult to define, but Blinding Lights should've been a shoo-in for a pop category, right?

[IllusionLover 4,086]

Well, if votes split bc an album could be 3 different genres, why don't stick to the genre It's labeled as? That would make more sense or else Chromatica would be nominated on the Electronic/Dance music category.

[alsemanche 13,009]

It also didn't fit into any of the general categories? Like were they confused if it was a record or an album or a song? 

[ZiggyZiggs 28,241]

still doesnt explain the fact that he didnt get a single general field nomination. everyone votes for that.

[Damon 9,603]

i get this if we are talking about non-principal categories but cmon he still deserved song, record and album of the year for sure

[bionic 14,280]

The Recording Academy need to release full data of the shortlisting tallies

[Ivy 3,086]

Still should have been nominated for AOTY/SOTY so that really doesn't explain it 

[JRCF29 6,513]

Would Blinding Lights not have been eligible for Progressive R&B album? 

Also, if you want to talk about genre placements, look at the pop entries in the country categories: 

10,000 Hours (Dan + Shay, Justin Bieber) is an adult contemporary/pop song

The Bones (Maren Morris) is an adult contemporary song

 

 

[GagaXCollection 7,722]

Melodrama 2.0 

[KEVIN STEVE 12,751]

“Too arbitrary and imprecise” 

[Aarghya 44,737]

1 hour ago, alsemanche said:

It also didn't fit into any of the general categories? Like were they confused if it was a record or an album or a song? 

exactly this! 

Edited November 26, 2020 by Aarghya

[StrawberryBlond 10,696]

They should make everyone vote on what genre they think a song is before anything else. And clearly, certain songs get shoehorned into genres they don't really belong in for the sake of making sure they get nominated. Fiona Apple's Shameika got nominated in Best Rock Song even though it's clearly not that and her album was put under Best Alternative. But what other genre would you have put her work into? None of the other genres fit as they've been reduced so much. If they can do that for certain artists, they can do it for everyone.

[xoxo Craig 50,747]

1 hour ago, LadyGoo said:

So basically, if your music is unique, fresh, and doesn't fit the mold, the Scammys will spit on you

So thats why Gaga was also snubbed