The GRAMMYs have updated their rules and award names to address past accusations of racism and corruption
The GRAMMY’s have made some major changes after their controversies reached a heated throwdown with their ex-CEO earlier this year.
The GRAMMY Awards are one of the most prestigious music awards ceremonies in the world, but they’re not without their criticism. This year in particular, their former CEO and president came out to speak on discrimination, harassment, and corruption within the recording academy.
When the GRAMMY’s took place shortly after they came under fire, as they have done before, for not being representative enough of black artists and ethnic minority artists in the US. Tyler, The Creator spoke at the events on their lack of representation after winning a Grammy himself.
It seems that the academy has taken in the criticism against them, either from their hearts or to quell the outrage in a heated time – either way, it seems they’re at least listening.
They have updated their ‘Urban Contemporary’ award to become ‘Best Progressive R&B Album’ and there are changes to the Nominations Review Committees among other updates. They are also making the GRAMMY Awards Rules & Guidelines publicly available for scrutiny for the first time ever in advance of the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.
Chief Awards Officer at the Academy, Bill Freimuth said: “As a peer-driven and peer-voted award, members of the music community are directly involved in the growth and preservation of the GRAMMYs process. Each year we receive a number of rule change proposals from artists, producers and songwriters asking us to reevaluate our process to better reflect the current state of the music industry and how it’s evolved over the past 12 months.”
You can see all the rule changes on the GRAMMY website here.