Ever grabbed aketchupbottle and take the laurels for beneficial new creative person ? You ’re not alone . medicine - lovers the creation over , from truly gifted budding artists to the rest of us tone - deaf crack rooter , ambition of the day they ’ll be recognized at the Grammy Awards , the most prestigious of all music manufacture award record .
Indeed , for all its inherent artistry , music is a prosperous industry . In fact , in 2016 the recorded music industriousness was deserving in excess of $ 15.7 billion , half of which was from digital channels [ rootage : IFPI ] . However , despite all the cha - ching medicine produces , it ’s brisk to know that the Grammy Awards is an event where indie bands like Arcade Fire ( who won Album of the Year in 2011 ) can successfully good musicians with huge gross revenue and rooter bases ( like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga ) [ source : Los Angeles Times ] . An appreciation for aesthetic wholeness , it seems , started off front and revolve about and mostly stay on that direction today .
Be that as it may , the Grammys ceremony itself takes every opportunity to advertise the industriousness and its chosen creative person . The event boasts the red carpet omnipresent to so many accolade shows , everlasting with a concourse of newsperson , stars and paparazzi . unrecorded performances are often huge spectacle designed to leave behind people talking , hand clapping and sometimes scratching their headspring . In fact , for a ceremony that celebrate audio achievements , it has morphed into a visual extravaganza filled with fashion , set and over - the - top choreography .
Although many multitude watch the ceremony , few translate its inner workings . Keep reading to encounter out who nominate the artist and pick out the winners .
The Recording Academy
The Grammy Awards are a product of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences , or the Recording Academy . Founded in 1957 , the Recording Academy is a professional medicine organization . All of its member are originative or technical medicine professionals , such as Isaac M. Singer , composer , producers , nontextual matter theatre director and engineers . The Recording Academy has two membership levels — associate and voting . All voting appendage must have beenproducers , performers or engineers on six or more tracks of a commercially discharge record album ( or 12 or more digital caterpillar tread ) . As a result , the Grammys remain the only award present to peers , by peers to recognise recording industry excellency . The awards map excellence from the old class , so for instance , the 1970 Grammy Awards represented achievement for 1969 .
In addition to organizing the Grammys , the Recording Academy shape with player and lawmakers on legal issues like digital music download . The Recording Academy has also organized the Grammy Foundation for music consciousness as well as theMusiCares Foundation , which provides pinch assist and dependance recuperation program for people in the music industry . Recent years and diminish funding for fine art pedagogy has also direct the group to recommend for the proceed development of our next generation of musician [ seed : Grammy ] .
However baronial these pursuits are , the Recording Academy is most far-famed for its annual awards , which land the headliner front and center and often set tongue a - wagging .
Voting Process for the Grammys
Every class , the Recording Academy gathers nominating speech for the Grammy Awards . Associate and ballot fellow member can name artist online or by mail , as can major and independent record label that have registered with the Awards department . To be eligible , recordings must have been released in general commercial distribution in the United States between October 1 of the previous year and September 30 of the current class .
Once the Recording Academy get the nominations , expert reader prepare them . No judgment take place during this stride — its purpose is only to sort each nomination into one of 30 musical study , such as rap , country , jazzand stone . Although people most often assort the Grammys with euphony , the awards also recognize funniness , verbalise word recordings and euphony TV . As the manufacture acquire , the Awards and Nominations Committee can also tally fields or polish off existing unity ( no more award for best polka album for illustration ) . The Academy Trustees must sanction the change [ source : Grammy ] .
After sorting the nominations , the Recording Academy post ballots to its voting fellow member . The purpose of this first round of ballot is to select the five nominees for each award . To check that the voting cognitive process is exact , members may vote :
Members return their ballots to the sovereign accounting business firm Deloitte , which tallies the votes [ source : Grammy ] .
The Recording Academy then distribute a 2d round of vote to each vote extremity . This time , finalist from a special nominating committee that looks at proficient and other specialized awards are included . The extremity may vote for the four general categories and a utmost of 15 categories in his or her music genre of expertise . Deloitte tallies the vote and places the results in envelopes that remain plastered until the ceremonial .
Most masses associate the Grammy Awards with the telecast awards show and its live performances . But the award extend far more categories than you see on television set . In 2017 , the Recording Academy award Grammys in 84 categories within the 30 W. C. Fields ( pappa , classical , R&B , etc . ) [ root : Grammy ] . In addition to the best - known awards like Song of the Year , the Recording Academy recognizes a wide range of melodious attainment , down to record album tone and parcel intention . The Recording Academy presents most of these awards singly on the afternoon before the televised ceremony .
Regardless of whether they meet their honor on alive TV or to begin with in the day , all winners get a little statue of a gramophone . The Grammys produce its soubriquet from these statues .
Grammy Snubs and Controversies
It all lead off right smart back at the inauguralGrammyAwards in 1959 , when musical icons like Frank Sinatra , Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis , Jr. were nominate in various category . Despite have six nominations , Ol' Blue Eyes take the air away with only the award for best artwork director for his " Only the Lonely " album covert . Meanwhile Domenico Modugno take home the prestigious Record of the Year and Song of the Year for " Volare " [ source : Grammy ] .
Thus , start a rich account of the Grammys giving awarding to creative person who would eventually be far outpaced by their category competitors . In 1973 , the ring America beat out the Eagles for the 1972 Grammy of practiced new creative person , and the same thing happened to Led freakin ' Zeppelin in 1970 when they lost the prize to Crosby , Stills & Nash . To be just , the latter did go on to become fair influential , but are considered by many to be a simple shadow of Led Zeppelin . Crooner Marc Cohn , who scored exactly one hit ( " Walking in Memphis " ) , acquire the same category in 1992 against uber - successful R&B group Boyz II Men [ source : Whittaker ] .
More negative , the rap - pop duo Milli Vanilli ’s 1990 best raw creative person award was revoke when everyone recover out that neither group member actually sang on their album — other uncredited folk did the heavy lifting [ source : Los Angeles Times stave ] . Also in the inexplicable category : At the 31st Annual Grammy Awards ( halt in 1989 ) Jethro Tull and their by all odds un - metallic record album ( " Crest of a Knave " heavy featured the flute ) kill Metallica ’s " And Justice For All " in the first - ever hard rock / great alloy category . This was a real brain - scratcher that metalheads found downright insulting [ source : TIME ] . As fired up as these trip-up made some viewers , they also kept them watch , talking and nowadays , tweeting .
The rap music genre was also a swelled rootage of Grammy - associated controversy . It was n’t until 1989 that the Grammys finally envision the add-on of a rap category to the mix , land slap-up joy and validation to the artists who ’d figure out tirelessly to plant it . But the slap in the face come in subsequently when the campaigner detect out that the relevant award(s ) would n’t be televise , and instead would be presented as part of the ceremony sooner in the day . As a result , major names in rap , like Russell Simmons , Will Smith ( then known as The Fresh Prince ) and Public Enemy boycott the observance outright , select instead to hold a pressing group discussion call out the organization . The office that be pay attention , and rap got its due the next year , when the award was televised [ source : Coscarelli ] .
tight - forrard a bit , and although the Grammys have wised up to the staying - power and influence of rap , the category continues to generate some unpleasant bombilation . In 1992 DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince took the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group over Public Enemy ’s wildly popular , acclaimed and controversial " Apocalypse 91 – The Enemy Strikes Back . " And the 56th Annual Grammys in 2014 envision white rappers Macklemore & Lewis ( who some whang fans do n’t consider " material rapper " ) sweep three of the four major blame categories , shutting out the critically exalt Kendrick Lamar .
The shout postdate this major snub was fleet and real , and Lamar was grant two trophies the next yr . But recognition was truly to be his two years later , when his record album " To Pimp a Butterfly " was nominated for a record - break 11 prize . Although he did n’t win either of the two major general categories he was nominate for , he did take all four blame trophy [ origin : Rys ] .
Great Moments in Grammy History
It is n’t all nitpicking and complaining , fortunately . The Grammys have also seen some pretty nerveless , moving and socially relevant consequence . Here ’s just a low sampling :
1983 wasMichael Jackson ’s standard twelvemonth . He brought along " dates " Brooke Shields and pint - sized Emmanuel Lewis , and collected a record eight separate Grammys for his monster record album " Thriller , " including record of the year and record album of the class .
Eric Clapton won three major awards at the 1993Grammys for his song " Tears in Heaven , " written after his vernal Word croak tragically in an stroke . His operation of the undivided go away nary a dry centre in the house , efficaciously transform him from ' 70s rocker to be legend [ generator : Jang and Haar ] .
In 2000 Jennifer Lopez showed up in a dress so raging that she really inspire web giant Google to formulate an " image hunt " function , since requirement for exposure online the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. was so great .
Rapper Eminem pass 2001 being heavily criticized for language that some look at homophobic on his hit album " The Marshall Mathers LP . " He counter the tilt by doing a surprise duet carrying out with euphony icon Elton John , himself an openly jolly human being . The two maintained a friendly relationship , and the knocker even credit John with helping him through his drug dependency [ sources : Jang and Haar;Silverman ] .
hold out a barely there body suit , Pink sang upside down while perform a trapeze act at the 2010 Grammys . The performance was so stunning she went on to do other aerial acts , while singing live , at later Grammy show up .
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis used their military position as societal influencers to boost love and marriage equality during the 2014 Awards ceremony . Thirty - three gay and square couple were wed on alive television by no other than Queen Latifah while the duo performed their hymn , " Same Love . " Madonna then added to the energy by performing her classic bang , " afford Your substance " [ source : Emery ] .
In 2017 Queen Bey ( or Beyoncé , as most multitude know her ) give a truly innovational visual performance — wearing a gold wearing apparel and a tip she seemed to be hovering in her chair above her professional dancer . Oh , and she did it while pregnant with twins . Girl has chops [ source : Seemayer ] .