Awards

The Recording Academy recently announced that 66% of its voting members have joined since 2019, when the academy adopted a peer-reviewed membership model. Harvey Mason Jr., the academy’s CEO, says the change in the membership can be seen in this year’s nominations.

Album of the year nominees include three albums from genres that are not in regular rotation in this top category – André 3000’s New Blue Sun, which is also nominated for best alternative jazz album; Charli XCX’s Brat, which is also nominated for best dance/electronic album; and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which is also nominated for best country album.

Mason took time on the eve of the nominations reveal to talk to Billboard about the nominations. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

In a press release, you were quoted saying “These nominations reflect the work of a voting body that is more representative of the music community than ever before.” Can you point to a specific nomination that illustrates that point?

I would start by looking at the General Field [which includes the Big Four categories – record, album and song of the year plus best new artist]. The reach of genres in those categories – country, rap, alternative jazz – is a direct reflection of the diversity of our membership.

66% of this year’s voters are new [since 2019]. More than 3,000 women voters have joined. People of color are now almost 40%. That is a stark difference from where we were about four or five years ago. Definitely, the tastes, the ears, the outcomes are going to change.

Back in July, I sent a very direct message to our voters. I asked them to please vote with purpose; vote with intention; vote with your ears. And I’m really, really pleased. It seems like they definitely did that.

I was a little surprised by The Beatles being nominated for record of the year for “Now and Then.”

You can never be surprised by The Beatles popping up. When I was nominated many moons ago [for Dreamgirls, nominated for best pop compilation soundtrack album for motion picture, television or other visual media], I thought I had that sucker won, and then The Beatles came along and snatched it [for Love, featuring music remixed for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name].

To me, the AI is kind of the interesting part [of ‘Now and Then’]. It’s a great example of how AI definitely enhanced some creativity as opposed to creating a fake voice. This was a cool use of AI that I felt made a lot of sense and I’m pleased it’s been nominated.

Beyoncé was shut out in the nominations at the CMA Awards, a very credible show, and leads here with 11 nominations for the same album. How do you reconcile that?

I would reconcile it by saying our voters really resonated with the music. And it wasn’t just one group of voters. Because of our 10-3 rule, voters have to declare [no more than] three fields you’re going to vote in, so you’re not just wandering all over the ballot voting. Country voters voted for Beyoncé in country. Different voters voted for her in rap – she’s nominated for best melodic rap performance. It’s totally different subsets of voters. So, I think it’s really impressive.

Jack Antonoff co-produced two albums that are nominated for album of the year (Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department). He’s the only producer with two albums in that category, but he’s not nominated for producer of the year, non-classical. How do you explain that?

Yeah, that’s definitely different. I can’t speak for the voters. They each vote in their own way, but it’s something to look at.

This is the second year in a row you’ve had eight nominees in each of the Big Four categories. Before that, it was 10 for two years and before that it was eight for three years. Do you like eight?

I do because I think it gives us the opportunity to celebrate more music than five [nominees, which was the norm before 2018]; more diverse genres and to hear from a lot of different artists. I think maybe to get much higher than that, it starts to get confusing, too many to choose from for voters and maybe diluting the category. We’re trying to find the sweet spot, the right number. We’ll continue to look at it.

André 3000’s album wasn’t a big hit – it spent two weeks on the Billboard 200 last December – but it’s up for album of the year.

That’s hopefully reflective of the fact that they listened to the music and they’re not basing it on chart positions or fan reactions or streaming numbers. It’s really based on the quality of the music. You don’t know what’s going to resonate from year to year. This year, these eight albums resonated with our voters and I think they did a great job.

Cowboy Carter is the only country album up for album of the year and even Beyoncé wrote on Instagram, ‘This ain’t a Country album, it’s a Beyoncé album.’ We don’t have a Chris Stapleton or a Kacey Musgraves or a Lainey Wilson in there. It seems to me you’re perennially a little light on country. When you see the nominations every year, do you think ‘We need to work on this’?

I say that about a lot of things when I see the nominations – more so when I see our voting membership numbers. We’re always working on this. The membership team is working really hard, making adjustments to the membership so that we’re reflective of the music community. Yes, we’re working on balancing out different genres, and we’ll continue to do that work. But you’re not wrong.