There are many different ways people watch modern award ceremonies, with some choosing to not open it at all. There’s an anticipation of which nominee will win whichever award, or who will have the best speech. After watching for awhile, people often begin to notice something. The same names are often repeated over and over. It’s at this point many come to realize that there isn’t really a whole lot of variety in the nominees. Not only that, but almost all of the categories seem extremely similar. If all the awards are focused on a select group of categories and nominees, then the event loses its purpose. So what is really accounted for?
Take the Grammy’s for example. When you watch the Grammy’s it seems like it’s long enough of a show, looking like they hand out about 20 awards. What you don’t know is that there are actually 84 total categories. Furthermore, who ever knew there was an award for best opera recording, best surround sound album, or best historical album. So where are all of these awards? There is a ceremony before the full televised extravaganza announcing nearly ⅔ of the winners. Therefore, there are categories that are reserved for the big show. This is understandable as categories are far more popular than others, but there is a bit of unevenness in the reserved categories. For example, Bruno Mars was part of 6 winning awards, Kendrick Lamar won 4 categories and Chris Stapleton for 3 categories. How did these artists win so much? This is because of an endless list of subcategories. For example, Kendrick Lamar won best rap performance, best rap/sung performance, best rap song, and best rap album. Essentially this can be cut in half as they essentially go hand in hand. Instead of filling spots with subcategories that are the same category, many believe awards shows should present a more diverse selection of awards. There was a time when rock music was the center of attention in music, but now the rock category was not even included in the main award show.
Award shows today are based on exemplary work or popularity. Some of the most contemporary and brilliant works of the year will not even reach the light of day. Maybe it is the fact that people’s interests are ever changing and nothing stays popular forever. In a day and age where there are so many different genres and artists, it is very difficult to find a compromise in music, therefore only a select few categories are presented in award shows. To conclude when viewing awards it may be best to keep an open mind and focus on whatever award you favorite categories win.