Music awards celebrate the best music in the world each year. They reward the work of many people involved in making chart-topping albums, including artists and musicians, songwriters and producers. The most prestigious and well-known music awards are the Grammys, but there are also many others around the world. In this article we explore some of the main types of music awards, looking at how they are judged and why they matter.
Many music awards are determined by industry insiders and are given out at an annual ceremony. These are usually televised and are seen as the most coveted accolades in the world of popular music. The most important ones are the Grammys, Brit Awards, Billboard Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. These are considered the most important industry awards and the one’s that can have a major impact on an artist’s career.
Other awards are presented by national music organizations and are based on sales data for a period of time. These include the BRITS, Juno awards in Canada and ARIA awards in Australia. They are usually based on the number of physical and digital copies of an album sold during a certain time frame. Often these records are sold in countries with different recording laws and may have significantly different sales figures for the same record.
The Pulitzer Prize is another well-known award that has been handed out since 1943. It is awarded for a variety of categories and in the music category it is for “a distinguished musical composition of significant dimension that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the calendar year.” The selection process is largely independent of commercial considerations, with nominations coming from the public and then a committee (The Special Honours Advisory Committee) made up of past honorees and other distinguished artists decides on a shortlist and two members of the Board of Trustees make a final decision.
Unlike the AMAs, which are voted on by hundreds of thousands of music fans and have a clear commercial bias, the Grammys are chosen by a panel of experts. These are generally composed of musicians, presenters and critics. This has led to some artists being disappointed when they have been snubbed for an award, as they believe that the Grammys only reward those who can win votes and are most popular. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘Grammy curse’.
For example, in 1978, Debby Boone won the Best New Artist Grammy for her version of Pat Boone’s classic song ‘You Light Up My Life,’ even though the record had only reached No. 1 on the charts 10 weeks before. Similarly, in 2016, Taylor Swift and Adele both won Grammys for their albums despite them both having sold over nine million copies by the time of the ceremony. Nonetheless, the Grammys are still regarded as the most important awards in the world of popular music and their significance is reflected in the amount of coverage they receive in the media.