Music

Musicians criticize organizers for dropping Grammy Award categories

by Ciaran Thompson

Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, and Pepper Mashay have criticized Grammy Award organizers after it was announced last month that at least 30 categories would be cut from the annual award show. They are arguing that the decision was made without consulting members of the Academy and have since sent a letter of protest to the Recording Academy.

Categories including Contemporary blues, Native American, Hawaiian, and Latin jazz are among the 31 that have been scrapped. The protest calling for them to be reinstated cites unfair treatment toward ethnic music.

“I believe the Grammys have done a disservice to many talented musicians by combining previously distinct and separate types of music into a catch-all of blurry larger categories,” Simon wrote in a letter to president of the musical organization, Neil Portnow. “They deserve the separate Grammy acknowledgments that they’ve been afforded until this change eliminated them.”

Santana also commented in a letter to the academy, stating: “To remove Latin Jazz and many other ethnic categories is doing a huge disservice to the brilliant musicians who keep the music vibrant for their fans – new and old. We strongly protest this decision and we ask you to represent all of the colours of the rainbow when it comes to music and give ethnic music a place in the heart of music lovers everywhere.”

Portnow claims a members’ committee had been consulted before the decision was made and says he understands the frustration of those affected.

“This is a committee that is made up of members of the academy who include musicians and producers, engineers and experts in the various fields,” he said. “There was well over a year and a half discussion within that group, in that committee. They recommended the overall changes to the process to the board of trustees, which was discussed thoroughly.”

A date for the 54th Grammy Awards, which usually takes place each February, has yet to be revealed. [BBC]