Recording academy votes to end grammy nomination review committees

[BUtterfield 8 38,357]

The trustees of the Recording Academy voted Friday (April 30) to disband nominations review committees and let Grammy voters have the final say in all non-craft categories.

The trustees met over Zoom to discuss this and proposals that were passed by the awards and nominations committee. In other key moves, the trustees voted to reduce the number of categories in which voters may vote from 15 to 10, add two categories (best global music performance and best música urbana album) and add a month to the eligibility year this year. It will extend from Sept. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021.

These updates go into effect immediately for the 64th annual Grammy Awards taking place Jan. 31, 2022.

The biggest change is the elimination of nominations review committees in general and genre fields. (The general field is the Big Four categories – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist.) Nominations in these categories will now be determined by a majority, peer-to-peer vote of the Academy’s voting members.

To further support this amendment, the Academy has confirmed that more than 90 percent of its members will have gone through the requalification process by the end of this year, ensuring that the voting body is actively engaged in music creation.

Billboard reported March 2 that rank-and-file Grammy voters determine the final nominees in just 12 of 84 categories. In a whopping 59 categories, nominations review committees have the final say in determining the nominees. (The final nominations in the remaining 13 categories are determined by so-called “craft committees.” These committees will remain in place, even with these changes.)

The committee approach was adopted in the “Big Four” categories in 1995, after controversy erupted over some of the 1994 Grammy nominations. Some argued that album of the year nods for Tony Bennett and The Three Tenors -- and none that year for alternative or hip-hop artists -- showed that the Grammys were out of touch.

Many more genre fields shifted to committee review in the next two decades. The most recent fields to fall under the committee umbrella are rock, dance/electronic music, rap, new age and global music (formerly known as world music).

But some feel that the Academy’s aggressive efforts to expand and diversify its membership in recent years makes the need for nominations review committees less pressing than it was a quarter-century ago. The Trustees seem to have decided Friday that these committees have outlived their usefulness.

Here is a summary of other key changes:

Reduction in number of categories in which members may vote:

To ensure music creators are voting in the categories in which they are most knowledgeable and qualified, the number of specific genre field categories in which Grammy voters may vote has been reduced from 15 to 10. Additionally, those 10 categories must be within no more than three Fields. All voters are permitted to vote in the four General Field categories. Proposed by a special voting task force who brought forth the recommendation, this change serves as an additional safeguard against bloc voting and helps to uphold the Grammy Award as a celebration of excellence in music, with specific genre field categories being voted on by the most qualified peers.

New categories added:

Two new categories have been added, bringing the total number of GRAMMY Award categories to 86:
-Best global music performance (Global Music Field)
-Best Música Urbana album (Latin Music Field)

Craft category realignment:

To better reflect the overlapping peer groups within the voter membership body, six existing craft fields will be consolidated into two fields: Presentation Field and Production Field. In either newly consolidated field, voters would have the ability to choose how many categories they feel qualified to vote in, respecting category vote limits, without being excessively limited by the three-field restriction. This benefits the integrity of these awards by embracing and utilizing the specializations of the voters, without restricting their choice or contributions due to the field limits imposed by the recent reduction of the number of categories voters may vote in.

Field updates are as follows:
-Package Field, Notes Field and Historical Field renamed and consolidated to Presentation Field
-Production, Non-Classical Field; Production, Immersive Audio Field; and Production, Classical Field renamed and consolidated to Production Field

Source

[Rahrahbitchson 12,650]

Translation, im not reading all that

[BUtterfield 8 38,357]

1 minute ago, Rahrahbitchson said:

Translation, im not reading all that

Recording Academy members are Grammy voters. Thy vote to decide the nominees. But thy also had the nomination review committee which could modify the list to make sure it's not just the popular acts making it in. But i guess there were doubts that they might be misusing the power.

[nodandsmile 9,069]

they actually made some really good picks like Melodrama, Dirty Computer, Brandi Carlile, H.E.R. etc.  

[Luke78619 22,399]

Why did this immediately make me think that this is happening because of After Hours snub? 

[Anderson123 31,137]

They should really change it so the Producer of the Year non classical is announced live. Producers deserve this recognition as well.

[BUtterfield 8 38,357]

Why this thread flopped was it ap? 

[venuspop 807]

8 minutes ago, BUtterfield 8 said:

Why this thread flopped was it ap? 

 

[My Name Is Alice 222]

So the question everyone's thinking: would Chromatica had gotten an AOTY nod with these new changes?

[BUtterfield 8 38,357]

23 minutes ago, My Name Is Alice said:

So the question everyone's thinking: would Chromatica had gotten an AOTY nod with these new changes?

I’m gonna say no

[Galagala 4,443]

But actually the 8 AoTY nominees are pretty great. I can always find some unknown great works or artists through the nom list. Blinding Lights deserves RoTY, but After Hour is overrated as an album. Glad it didn't get nominated. 

Still feeling shocked that Gaga and Beyonce had no win in GF. Shallow deserves SoTY over This is America.

[IllusionLover 6,194]

1 hour ago, sickandtired said:

they actually made some really good picks like Melodrama, Dirty Computer, Brandi Carlile, H.E.R. etc.  

Melodrama didn't win the Grammy so it's still a fall from them. 

Or do I need to remind you that ed sheeran won that grammy... 

[Hyoha 1,412]

47 minutes ago, BUtterfield 8 said:

Why this thread flopped was it ap? 

Lack of a tl;dr, I'm not reading all that

[BUtterfield 8 38,357]

2 minutes ago, Hyoha said:

Lack of a tl;dr, I'm not reading all that

Get CULTURED

[ARTGOD 3,266]

28 minutes ago, My Name Is Alice said:

So the question everyone's thinking: would Chromatica had gotten an AOTY nod with these new changes?

Probably not. ASIB might have though.

It’s weird that she didn’t get a nom for Album Of The Year which seemed like a shoe in but she did get an unexpected nom for Song Of The Year for ARUTW.

It was a very common belief at the time that the committee probably removed ASIB from the category and gave her the Song Of The Year nom as a consolation price.