The Grammys’ pop problem

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Bailey Blum, Sports Editor

Let’s take a moment and imagine if the nominations for “Best Picture” at the Oscars were like the nominations for “Record of the Year” at the Grammys in 2015. That would mean that “Furious 7”, “Mockingjay Part 2”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Minions” would all receive nominations, based solely on their status as some of the highest grossing films of the year. While all are certainly respectable films in their own right, none exactly jump out to us as films we would consider “movie of the year.”

That’s because the Academy does something very admirable when choosing the nominations for “Best Picture” at the Oscars. They consider artistic value, movies that break away from the norm and present something unique in cinematography. That’s how movies such as “Boyhood” and “Birdman” break the mold and become leading candidates for the award. Because of these nominations, the general public is exposed to movies that the majority of them have probably never heard of, and everyone can appreciate these new artistic values that the movies bring.

The nominations for “Record of the Year” at the Grammys last year were “All About that Bass” by Meghan Trainor, “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift, “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea, “Chandelier” by Sia and “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith. All five of these songs appeared in the Top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100, a list based solely on radio play, streaming frequency and sales. And yet, the Grammy website defines this most prestigious award as one “without regard to album sales or chart position.” Is it just a coincidence that all of the nominations for the supposedly highest possible award in music also happened to be the highest selling songs of the year? You tell me if “Fancy” or “All About that Bass” are worthy of the highest “artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry,” as Grammy puts it.

So the Grammys are a popularity contest. What’s the big deal? The big deal is that the awards are putting already successful and well-known artists such as Nicki Minaj, Kanye West or Imagine Dragons on stage in front of 28 million people and setting them up to have (as statistics indicated last year) an 800 percent increase in sales. People like to see artists they know perform, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

Why not give an unknown yet talented artist a chance to experience this same rise to glory? The Grammys would be much more effective if they laced together performances from new, lesser known artists between more popular artists, so that there’s at least some new elements to the show instead of the same old artists you hear every day on the radio. For now though, take all of the awards with a grain of salt, and know that it’s not so much a measure of talent as it is a measure of popularity.