For generations, people have wanted to be rewarded for their art. Whether it’s in the film and television industries or the music industry, creators and fans alike eagerly wait for award season. Each year, numerous creatives are given Grammys, Emmys, Oscars and more for their work, statuettes representing the dedication they put in to their respective crafts.
For some, it’s validation that their work was not in vain and proof that they have “made it” in their respective industry. For others, awards shows are more of a popularity contest than an actual contest based on merit: the more units an album sells or star ratings a movie gets, the more likely it is to be celebrated. My fear is that the industries I have mentioned are beginning to lean towards a system that rewards popular mediocrity rather than substantive greatness.
For recency’s sake, let’s look at the major award winners of the 2024 Grammys. I want to preface by saying that this writer is a Taylor Swift fan. The last thing I need is Taylor Nation breaking down my door in the wee hours of the morning for writing an inflammatory report about their beloved “Mother.”
However, it can be objectively argued that Midnights, Swift’s most recent foray into synth-pop that won Album of the Year (AOTY) at the Grammys, did not deserve the award. Swift is one of the rare artists who has yet to put out a truly bad album. While some entries into her discography (Red, Folklore), stand out more than others (Lover, Self-Titled), each album in Swift’s discography has added a unique chapter (or era), into her career, making her one of the biggest pop stars of all time. However, Midnights was far from her best work.
The sound of it was amorphous- on some songs Swift leaned on her creative and inspiring songwriting, while in others it seemed she was catering to stadiums rather than the average listener. When compared to the undeniable chemistry and rawness of Boygenius (The Record), Lana Del Rey’s sweeping opus to Americana (Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd), Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore knockout (GUTS) or SZA’s genre-bending, revelatory masterpiece (SOS), Midnights didn’t move the needle as much as these records did. In fact, what many considered the best album of the year, Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, was not even nominated for AOTY at the Grammys.
The list of egregious errors by award shows goes on for seemingly ever: In 2014, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s The Heist, which contained crowd-pleasers such as “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us”, won Best Rap Album at the Grammys in 2014 over the following albums: Nothing Was the Same (one of Drake’s best albums), Magna Carta Holy Grail (a solid Jay-Z album), Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (Kendrick Lamar’s masterpiece on life in Compton) and Yeezus (Kanye West’s most ambitiously produced album).
On the film side, Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, never won an Oscar. Neither did John Hughes, whose coming-of-age films defined the 1980s.
The call here is for awards shows to either be disbanded or to change. In the film Whiplash, which was nominated for dozens of awards, dictatorial jazz conductor Terence Fletcher says to his pupil, Andrew Neiman, that “there are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’”.
Until awards shows like the Oscars and Grammys begin to actually celebrate the best films, albums and television shows from the calendar year, we as a society need to stop revering them as authorities on what to consume.
Sports Editor
