General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What is Kanye Wests malfunction? [View all]GReedDiamond
(5,311 posts)The Craft field, that's the one where liner notes and album graphics/boxed set designs/packaging concepts are voted on.
After the initial submission of a Craft entry or entries is made, instead of being voted on by the general membership, the entries are reviewed by a committee, as it would be very difficult for all voting members to evaluate an entry if they did not own a copy. That is the only committee I am aware of which actually selects the final nominees for that field.
So, try to recognize that there is no "nominating committee" when it comes to the musical entries. It is a fairly democratic process, with the advantage going to the "big money" artists/performers, just like in the current American political process. If anything, the Grammy Awards are more democratic than they were when I joined back in '92. So, if I could, I would spend a whole lotta dollars to promote my releases, and I may then have better odds at picking up a nomination somewhere down the line. But since I do not have the kind of bucks that Kanye's label and others have to promote and market their stuff, that's unlikely to happen. So the failing of the Grammy "system" is one which revolves around money, or the lack thereof, not some kind of racial discrimination thing.
Regarding "proportional recognition" of Black performers from NARAS, how do you explain Kanye's 21 Grammys? Pretty much all of the people I've worked with in music around Los Angeles are liberals or extreme liberals. There have been many Black artists over the years who have won Grammy Awards for their work, so I'm not sure what Kanye's on about.
If you look again at the various Fields I listed in my first post, you will see many which could be considered "predominantly Black" in influence - R&B; Rap; Jazz; American Roots (which includes traditional blues and various "ethnic" musical genres, such as Polka, Native American and Hawaiian); Gospel; Reggae; World Music - so, how is that indicative of bias against Black artists/performers, or other artists of color?
The only "problem" I have with Kanye is that, as I said before, he demands respect while simultaneously disrespecting other artists. Can you not see the hypocrisy of that? Other than that, I can ignore Kanye exactly the same way I ignore his wife and her family of "famous for being famous" folk.
Also, the Academy has a Latin Music category in the Grammys, PLUS, an entire separate Latin Grammy Awards ceremony, so it seems that "non-white" musical genres/artists/performers are fairly well covered.