Text by Dawoud Kringle
“Labels; we got you. But do you got us?” – Chappell Rowan
While I am not a fan of Chappell Roan, I acknowledge that she is a talented singer, songwriter, and performer. More than this, I genuinely respect and admire her courage and integrity. At the moment, she would be expected to fawn over the industry bigwigs, but she spoke truth to power. Standing in front of the most influential people in the music industry with the world watching, she told them that they betrayed the people whose works are responsible for their wealth and power.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame project began in the 1950s. This was the beginning of The Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars) and The Emmy Awards, which recognized the leading artists in film and television. However, no such musical equivalent existed. This changed in 1958 with The GRAMMY Awards (originally The Gramophone Awards). It was meant to honor the music industry’s most talented composers, songwriters, and musicians. The number of awards has increased as new musical genres have emerged. In 2017, after several fluctuations in the number of categories, the Recording Academy stabilized the number of awards at 84.
On the surface, the Grammy Awards serve several more or less realistic purposes within the music industry and broader cultural context:
- Providing a platform for recognizing and celebrating artistic achievement and enhancing an artist’s reputation and credibility.
- Increasing sales, streaming numbers, concert attendance, and new opportunities to boost an artist’s career.
- Documenting music history by highlighting significant works and artists each year.
- Increasing sales and streams of nominated and winning works. Boosting tourism and local businesses in the host city.
- Creating shared cultural moments by reaching out to the public and generating discussions about music, fashion, and performance.
- Industry Networking (schmoozing). and
- Advocating for the rights of all music creators and ensuring pro-music policy at the national, state, and local levels.
I think this all looks good on paper. And to be fair, these gains are objective and quantifiable.
The Grammys are peer-reviewed, meaning that awards are based on musical merit rather than popularity, at least in theory. Despite this, it is evident that the nominees and recipients are determined by factors that may have little to do with actual musical merit, career accomplishments, or cultural significance.
To illustrate this, a list of artists who were never nominated for nor won a Grammy (including posthumous or lifetime achievement awards) include Django Reinhardt, Maria Callas, Robert Johnson, Burning Spear, Jascha Heifetz, Howling Wolf, Clifford Brown, Bo Diddly, Kraftwerk, The Velvet Underground, Fela Kuti, Chet Baker, Gregory Isaacs, Oum Kulthum, Leadbelly, Eric Dolphy, Hank Williams, Sergei Rachmaninov, Black Uhuru, Bessie Smith, Salif Keita, Nick Drake, Gram Parsons, Syd Barrett, Richie Valens, Eric B & Rakim, Edith Piaf, Kitraro, Mutabaruka, Tammy Wynette, The Sabri Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, Jean-Michel Jarre, Ma Rainy, Sun Ra, Rory Gallagher, Albert King, Arthur Lee / Love, Bert Jansch, King Tubby, Vangelis, Buck Owens, Motörhead, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Arturo Toscanini.
It’s not impossible (or a right-wing conspiracy theory) to assume that award shows like the Grammys are subservient to the specialized needs of the power base that controls the music industry. It more or less ends up as yet another “Old Boys Network.” It is a small club of rich people that you are not invited to join. Ritualized self-aggrandizement. From this perspective, the existence of the Grammys serves no helpful purpose beyond serving the needs of the industrial oligarchy and providing a spectacle for the people they need to pacify. At the same time, musicians are still cheated, abused, and deliberately impoverished. This vicious cycle is only broken during times such as Ms. Roan’s speech.
A large part of MFM’s mission is to alter public perception of musicians and our place in the music industry. In the 90s, some musicians were blocked for being independent, paying for their record promotion, self-publishing, and self-distributing. Their music was never allowed to chart even though it met the radio threshold. The industry’s mindset has never changed, and neither has the mentality of those who consume music. We are not going to change the music corporations. Even the legislation we manage to help push through is only part of the battle. Does this legislation stop the elites from abusing and impoverishing us decade after decade? No. They will not change. We are the ones who must change. While musicians will always be social and spiritual “outsiders,” and our lives will have unique contours, this does not mean we are not warriors. Or at least human beings deserve the respect our industry is not giving us.
Shortly before his death, John Lee Hooker was given a lifetime achievement award. He was asked how it felt to receive the award after so many years. He said, “I don’t care about no award. Just give me the grease!” Maybe he was right. What purpose, ultimately, do these awards serve beyond ego masturbation? A payday for the tech crew that runs things behind the scenes (not a bad thing, actually)? And in the end, who profits from it? Follow the money. Always follow the money.
We are in terribly uncertain times and are watching the whole of our civilization being dismantled. People who lie so much that nobody in their right mind would believe them if they said “good morning” are saying, “Trust me.” Entire institutions and industries exist for little reason other than to take everything from us, including who we are.
In the end, I must paraphrase Chappell Roan and ask of the Grammys institution and the entire music industry: “We give you everything. What’s in it for us?” I anticipate the powers to respond with either a torrential flood of inconsequential platitudes or an echoing silence.
