FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES ONLY — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Grammys and the immediate need for change

The Grammy’s categorizing tactics for genres become harmful for artist and expanding music
genres

Tyler, The Creator won his first ever Grammy, but was conflicted with his win based on the
category he was placed in.

The musician won the award for Best Rap Album for his record “IGOR” but criticized the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for persistently putting “guys that look like
me” in urban categories.

Backstage Tyler later said he was grateful for the award, but then said, “It sucks that whenever
we — and I mean guys that look like me — do anything that’s genre-bending or that’s anything
they always put it in a rap or urban category.”

If you have listened to Tyler’s work on “IGOR” you would understand how he would be
frustrated with the categorization. The album isn’t rap, but considerably an alternative pop genre.

Tyler, The Creator was not the first one to address the issue. Frank Ocean and Kanye West have
argued with the generalization of music genres based on artists’ race. Tyler increased awareness
of this issue since his acceptance speech and backstage interview.

This is similar to the issue of the lack of diversity in the cinematic award nominations. The
Academy Awards in 2015 and 2016 had no actors of color nominated for any acting awards, and
now only have one actress of color nominated for the 2020 awards.

Why can’t artist like Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean, and Kanye West can’t be in the pop genre?

Music institutions such as the Grammys don’t have black artists’ best interest at heart, and it’s
childish to allow them to judge their music if artists are always being categorized in one or two
genres.

This year the Recording Academy announced a new diversity initiative to ensure the music
business is representative of artists and their audience.

But there is only so much the initiative will do for artists. The artists may be represented, but in
what kind of category? If there are consistently African American artist being categorized in rap
and urban instead of categories like gospel, pop and R&B then there will be no positive change.

There needs to be less emphasis on the categorizing genre, making the awards to be more fluid.
Music has always been interpretive based on individual perceptions, so there should be no need
to meet specific qualifications while screening songs.
This could encourage a more diverse set of nominees and allow artist to feel less restricted to a
certain genre. Allowing artists to truly to explore genres and develop their own genre-bending
music promotes more creativity.

To do so, academies such as the Grammys have to be more lenient during the screening sessions
when determining what artist, song, or alum qualify for a certain category.

Another change to encourage diversity in award categories would be giving artists the chance to
explain their work to the academy when submitting a nomination. Hearing how the artists
interprets their works would benefit any academy panel be giving them insight to the artist’s
interpretation, instead of basing the categorization on restrictive rules.

There is ever-growing pressure for change in the music industry when it comes to holding
academies accountable for their responsibility of inclusion and proper representation.
Advocating for less restrictive qualifications in music categories and allowing artist to describe
why their work should be nominated for a certain genre would help alleviate this burden.

To help advocate category restructuring within the Grammys, visit

www.changeforthegrammys.com

Samantha Seymour is a student at Michigan State University with a passion for the entertainment
industry. Seymour is always keeping up with the latest news in music, film, TV and popular
culture news coverage and hopes to one day work within the entertainment industry.

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