A Bold Idea to Improve Grammy Voting (And Why You Shouldn’t Hold Your Breath for It Happening)

Being a Grammy voter may sound glamorous, but it’s a lot of work if you do it right, or even close to right. That’s because, in the first round of voting, the Recording Academy presents voting members with really long lists of titles and asks them to select the five they think are most worthy of a nomination.

How long is “really long”? This year, voters had to wade through alphabetical lists of 780 entries for record of the year, 707 for album of the year, 978 for song of the year and 323 for best new artist. And that’s just the Big Four categories!

Can you imagine how much time and mental effort it would take to contentiously pick your five favorite anythings from a list of 978 contenders? If that task were less overwhelming, it seems likely that the quality of voting would go up – and that the percentage of voting members who completed it would go up. If the voters were presented with a list of, say, 100 contenders, it would turn a daunting task into a manageable, and maybe even pleasurable, one. (That number could go up a bit, to 125, 150 or 200, but of course the higher it goes up, the less benefit would be realized.)   

My idea is to have a group of knowledgeable, plugged-in and fair-minded people cull the massive entry lists and bring them down to a more reasonable length. Big hits would probably remain on the list, as would non-hits that people on the panel spoke up for.

You might say, “Didn’t the Recording Academy just get rid of Nomination Review Committees a few years ago — now you’re talking about bringing them back?” Good recall on the review committees, including the primary one, which determined the final nominees in the Big Four categories every year from the ceremony held in 1996 through the one held in 2021. Most Grammy-watchers (including me) were happy to see that committee disbanded, but there’s an important distinction to be made: The academy had the review committee at the tail-end of the process, after voting members had voted and just before the nominations were announced.

Here’s how it worked back then: The committee members selected their five favorites from the top 20 or 25 vote-getters from rank-and-file voters. They essentially second-guessed the voters, which always struck me as elitist, as if their taste and judgment was superior to that of the voters. I’m suggesting putting the committee at the front-end of the process. They wouldn’t be second-guessing anybody, but simply performing a reality check by eliminating the records, albums, songs and artists that have little to no chance of being nominated, but which clog up the list.

And why do I say you shouldn’t hold your breath for this actually happening? Many voting members like to see their entries on the list. If they didn’t see them anymore, they might not see any point in renewing their membership. Member dues are $150 per year. If, say, 2,000 of the current 13,000 voting members walked away because they missed seeing their names on the entry list, that’s $300,000 in lost revenue each year for the Recording Academy. But do the Grammys really want people voting who are that shallow and motivated only by narrow self-interest?

It’s not just the Big Four categories that have large numbers of entries. A total of 33 categories on this year’s Grammy ballot had 200 or more entries. Of those 33, 14 had 300 or more entries. In addition to the Big Four, the categories with 300+ entries are best music video (637), best global music performance (456), best engineered album, non-classical (456), best arrangement, instruments and vocals (444), best jazz performance (420), best instrumental composition (395), best American roots song (373), best alternative music performance (331), best pop solo performance (314) and best American roots performance (310). These categories could also stand a trim, either by this committee or by committees closer to these genres and fields of endeavor.

A small point, but just so there’s no confusion, voters are tasked with picking their five favorites in the Big Four categories, even though there are eight eventual nominees in those categories. That slight numerical difference doesn’t matter, but presenting the voting members with a reasonable task does.

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