LOS ANGELES — Grousing about the Grammy nominations
is a time-honored practice in the music industry, but those who felt
overlooked, snubbed or robbed this year had new ammunition to bolster
their complaints: a change in the rules that eliminated 31 award
categories, assuring far fewer nominees than in recent years.
“Damn,
this really hurts,” wrote R&B singer Miguel in a series of tweets
Thursday after he failed to get a nomination despite getting some of the
best critical notices of the year for his album “All I Want Is You.” “I
don’t think I’m God’s gift to music, but I know the album or at least
(the single) ‘Sure Thing’ should have been nominated.”
Nominations
in the R&B categories, which were cut from eight to four by the new
rules, seemed to favor tradition over Top 40. Despite major releases
from Beyonce, herself a longtime Grammy darling, Jill Scott, Ne-Yo,
Jazmine Sullivan and Keri Hilson, nods went to quieter releases from
Kelly Price, Ledisi and El DeBarge. There were complaints that the new
rules left little or no distinction between contemporary and traditional
R&B.
“If your music does fall in different
genres and categories, it does slim the chances of being able to be
nominated once or multiple times,” said Melanie Fiona, who scored two
nods for her duet with Cee Lo Green, “Fool for You.” “I know I don’t do
it for the accolades, but it’s nice to be recognized. Some people won’t
be recognized because they don’t fit perfectly in a category.”
Veteran
talent manager and former record executive Jim Guerinot, whose clients
include Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, noted that Reznor won the
Oscar for his score for the movie “The Social Network” but didn’t make
the Grammy nomination list.
“Today it was opening
my paper and seeing that the guy who won the Golden Globe and the
Academy Award for best score didn’t even get nominated. … I don’t know
what they’ve done to improve the process” with this year’s changes,
Guerinot said. “The Grammys have led with their chin for 30 years, and
they’re not going to stop now. It’s what they do.”
The
country music community was affected by the merging of what long had
been separate categories for male and female vocal performance, as well
as the elimination of a category for one-time collaborations between
artists.
“In a way I think the consolidation is a
good thing because there are so many categories,” said Larry Fitzgerald,
president of Fitzgerald-Hartley Management in Nashville, which
represents Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, LeAnn Rimes, Colbie Caillat and
Randy Houser, among others. “But I think it’s kind of weird: It puts
people in a category that probably shouldn’t be in a category together. I
understand what they’re doing, but only time will tell how it shakes
out.”
Roots music categories also were pared back,
which figures to have a major effect on acts that typically never were
highlighted on the Grammy telecast or made headlines with their
nominations.
“In some of these smaller categories,
that’s the artists’ lifeblood,” said Holly Gleason, a publicist for
numerous country and Americana acts.
A Grammy
nomination or win, she said, can have a proportionally greater effect
for the winner of traditional folk or polka album than for the overall
album or record of the year honoree. “It makes a difference in how they
get paid at festivals, whether they get the opportunity to get on public
radio shows. A Grammy is life-changing for them,” Gleason said.
Recording
Academy President Neil Portnow said Thursday that the rule changes,
announced last April amid controversy, were necessary because the number
of awards had ballooned unreasonably, but suggested they would be
re-examined again.
“The honest answer is, it’s
still too early to tell or give any thorough analysis,” he said. “We get
the nominations moments before the show. We haven’t had enough time to
do an analysis. As we do annually, we have our committee meetings where
we will review our categories, obviously with a special eye and ear
toward how this all played out.”
“I think the most
disappointing thing for me,” Guerinot added, “is that this year I
actually (cared). We always look (at nominations and awards) and go,
‘What are they doing?’ And when it happens one more time, you think,
‘Yeah, it’s the same thing.’ It’s not that there aren’t an abundance of
artists who are deserving to win. But you have to wonder what the
process is. You really do.”
But Scott Borchetta,
president of Big Machine Records, the label for Taylor Swift, who scored
three nominations Wednesday night, but none in the major categories,
offered another view.
“Sometimes we get too caught
up in it,” he said. “It’s an award show. Yes, it’s wonderful to be
acknowledged. But if you’re working just to get a Grammy Award, I
suggest that you have to clean your glasses.
“Do this art because you love it. If you really love it, it’s not work.”
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©2011 the Los Angeles Times
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