Grammy Info
Itâs that time of the year againâŠthe nominations are in; the dresses have been picked and the speeches of the hopeful winners are being practice (maybe). Itâs Grammy time. This year is the 60th anniversary to the award that is one of the most coveted in the music industry. But what really is the Grammys? Who gets to choose who will win, let alone even be nominated? How did they start? Whatâs their purpose?
Hereâs a brief insight into the Grammys:
The Grammys are a product of the Recording Academy which was established in 1957 as the National Academy of Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and now serves as an organization of songwriters, engineers, musicians, producers and other music industry workers that is âdedicated to improving the cultural condition and quality of life for music and its makers.â Many do not know it, but the Recording Academy does more than celebrate music with its annual awards, they also are involved in the community through the Grammy University Network or GrammyU and MusiCares. GrammyU has a primary goal of connecting college students with recording industry professionals while MusiCares provides many services to help people in music in times of needs.
The Grammys were originally created to help give recognition to those in the music industry as television had the Emmys and film had the Oscars. Instead of being called the Gramophone Award, it was almost called an âEddieâ in honor of Thomas Edison the inventor of the phonogram, however it was decided that it would be named after a gramophone which was invented by Emile Berliner. The Grammy Award itself was originally made of soft lead with a gold plating, but today is made ofâŠgrammium, a zinc alloy created by Billings Artworks.
The very first awards were in both Beverly Hills at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and in New York City at the Park Sheraton Hotel where each location awarded Grammys. A total of 28 would be awarded that day and as of February 2009, 7,578 trophies had been awarded. There four main awards that any artist regardless of genre can qualify for which include âAlbum of the Yearâ, âRecord of the Yearâ, âSong of the Yearâ and âBest New Artistâ. Album of the Year is the most coveted of the four as it goes to the performer and production team of the album; Record of the Year is similar to Song of the Year but it is awarded to the performer and production team of a song while Song of the Year goes to the composer(s) of a song; lastly Best New Artist is awarded to an artist who becomes established within the Eligibility Year.
The Eligibility Year runs from October 1st to the September 30th of the following year. The awards at this years Grammys on January 28, 2018 will be awarded to works released between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017 which sometimes means that âoutdatedâ albums that people have forgotten about win awards.
Nominees are selected by The Academyâs Voting members once all entries have been submitted by members and media companies. The nominees are those entries which received the most number of entries in their categories. Once the nominees have been finalized the voting members of the Academy select one of the nominees in each of the general fields and nine of the other fields. The person with the most votes wins!
Hopefully this gives you some insight into the Grammys.