The Grammys: Music’s Most Coveted Award
Music’s Most Coveted Award
The Grammys are the most important and prestigious awards in the music industry, the equivalent of the Tony awards of theater, the Emmys of television and the Academy awards or Oscars of the movie industry. The Grammy awards are given every year to outstanding achievers in the music industry by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS).To receive a Grammy is considered to be a great honor especially because it represents recognition of musicians and technical professionals by their peers in the industry for excellence of quality rather than for outstanding sales. The first Grammy was presented on May 4, 1959. 2014 will be the 56th year of the award presentation. The event is televised on a large scale both nationally and internationally, drawing an audience of over twenty eight million viewers. Technical professionals and artists from all over the world come together to attend the ceremony every year. There is an interesting history to the naming of the Grammys. At first it was decided that the award should be called Eddie in honor of Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph. The name finally chosen was the Gramophone awards, which became the Grammys of today.
The award trophies are gold-plated gramophones, which are made and finished by hand. The winners have their names engraved on their awards. Nominees who do not win get medals. The categories for which Grammys are awarded became so large that they had to be reduced from 109 to 78 in 2011. This was done mainly by doing away with separate categories for male and female solo singers and eliminating some categories of solo instrumentalists, bringing them under the general category of best solo performers. The general field category is not genre-specific and includes: 1. Album of the year for performer and production team of a full album.2. Record of the year for singer and producers of a single song. 3. Song of the year for the composers of a song. 4. Best new artist. This does not mean that it is his or her first release; it is the release that first brings the performer to the notice of the public. The Grammys are also given for performers and producers for their work in specific genres, as well as for other contributions such as video. Special awards are given to people who have contributed significantly to the music industry over the years. The Grammy Hall of Fame rewards recordings that have historical value and are at least twenty five years old. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to individuals who have made significant contributions to the music industry during their lifetime.
Grammy winners are chosen by NARAS members from shortlisted nominees by vote. To become eligible for nomination, recordings are submitted online by individual performers or recording companies, and a physical copy of the recording has to be sent to the Recording Academy. There the work will be reviewed by more than a hundred and fifty experts to decide whether it is suitable for selection, and to determine the category in which it should be listed. A list of eligible submissions is drawn up and circulated among the members of NARAS, who all vote in the general field and nine other fields. Five recordings getting the most vote in each category make it to the nomination list. There can be more than five in case there is a tie. In the final selection of winners, members of the Academy vote in the general field and eight other fields. Though they are encouraged to vote in the fields in which they specialize, this is not compulsory. The ballots are counted by the independent accounting firm of Deloitte Touche and Tohmatsu, and the winners are announced at the Grammy awards. The members of NARAS are expected to base their decision exclusively on quality, regardless of chart-topping sales, individual friendships or personal likes and dislikes. The acceptance of gifts is strictly forbidden.
Before 1971, the Grammy awards ceremony was held at different places on the same day, at first in Los Angeles and New York. Chicago was added as a venue in 1962, and Nashville in 1965.In 1971 the entire award ceremony was held at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. In the next two years, New York’s Felt Forum in Madison Square Garden and Nashville’s Tennessee Theater hosted the shows. After moving to various venues such as Radio City Music Hall in New York and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the Grammys finally found a permanent home in Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2004. There is a Grammy museum across the street with memorabilia of the awards. Like the Hollywood walk of fame, bronze disks are embedded in the sidewalks in front of Staples Center in honor of the winners of the Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist categories. The Grammy awards ceremony is telecast live every year to an international audience in a presentation show where well-known artists perform.
The glittering ceremony with its red carpet, master of ceremonies and stars of the music world, is reminiscent of the Oscar Awards. Actually, only awards in the categories of greatest interest to the public, such as the general field categories of best album, best song, best record and best new artist, along with some other popular categories such as rock, pop, country and rap, are presented at the ceremony that is televised live. Other awards of more technical categories are telecast in an award ceremony held on the same afternoon. The first live telecast of the Grammys was in 1971 by American Broadcasting Company (ABC). CBS Broadcasting bought the rights in 1973, and in 2011 signed a deal to broadcast the show for the next ten years. Sir Georg Solti is the top male award winner with thirty one awards. Alison Krauss leads the women performers with twenty seven Grammys. U2 is the leading group winner with twenty two awards. The Latin Grammy Awards, started in 2000, was aired by CBS. It is a highly coveted award in the Spanish-speaking world. In 2014, the 56th Grammy awards will be presented on 26th January at the Staples Center.
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The Author is conveying information about the Grammys. You’re probably thinking, everyone says that, so, what’s different here. It’s the commitment of quality, genuineness, and a guarantee that values your time and interest.
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