Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Grammy Awards and Music's Finest Artists

By Danny Hoover

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences started the Gramophone Awards as a means of honoring the brightest stars in the music recording industry. Since the gramophone is no longer a prominent item in most homes, the name was later changed to the Grammy Awards; although the actual award is still a Gramophone. There are more then 20 genres and over a hundred categories that are covered by this world-renowned annual award ceremony that is held every year in February.

Every year in at the Grammy Awards, many artists can win an award or even multiple ones. You will hear about the Song of the Year award or even the record of the Year. Some years they have special awards issued for lifetime achievements by a recording artist as well. All of these winners are selected by a voting committee that includes top names in the recording industry like Beyonce Knowles, Paul Simon as well as Prince.

There are more then 150 members of the review committees whose sole responsibility is researching and making a selection of the nominees for each and every year. They will base their selections on the magic date of October 1st with the current year's awards being based on released material between October 1st 2 years prior until the previous year; from the date of the actual ceremony. Once these nominations are made, they are passed on to the voting committee who will keep their results a secret until the day of the awards.

For most of the years, the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was home to the Grammy Awards just like they continue to be for the Oscars. However in recent years due to the increase in categories and genres, the venue needed to be moved to a larger location so the Los Angeles Staples Center was chosen.

When it comes to attending the Grammy Awards, everyone has to pay for their seats including those who have been nominated for an award. These seats have been steadily increasing in prices over the years with the most recent ceremony costing more then $2,000 per seat. Attending the official post part also costs money even if you win and those tickets have to be paid in advanced as well. One of the benefits though is a cool gift bag that is filled with things like jewelry, CDs and a whole lot more.

Since 1971, every year the Grammy Awards are aired live around the country and the nation. It was ABC who originally had the contract for the ceremony, but in recent times CBS has been in charge of airing the live performances. To date, there have been just over 50 annual Grammy Award ceremonies.

There have been those who have been against the Grammy Awards as well. Many insist that the Grammy Awards focus is only on the mainstream music artists who are signed with studios who are part of the RIAA and does not give awards to those outside of that group. Furthermore, there have also been complaints about the influence of the outcomes by the recording industry itself. However, anyway that you choose to look at it, the Grammy Awards are nothing short of one of the largest recording industry award ceremonies in the world. - 17943

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