The highest achievement in the music industry.
The Grammy Awards, or simply Grammys, are awards for music issued by the Recording Academy in the United States. The name comes from the shape of the awarded statue, a small gilded gramophone. As with all of the major awards shows, the Grammys give far more awards each year
than the Prime Time telecast can accommodate; technical categories and awards for less popular genres are distributed in a separate ceremony.
A Spanish-language counterpart, the Latin Grammys, was launched in 2000.
The Grammys have often been criticized for being old-fashioned, pandering too much to what is commercially succesful instead of artistically meaningful, and neglecting and ignoring countless works and artists who deserved to receive an award. In that regard, they are not much different compared to any other award show. Though, contrary to some other award shows, they have tried to make up for it by introducing a Consolation Award called the Grammy Hall Of Fame Award, which awards records of particular historical or quality importance that are at least 25 years old.
The ceremony has been held at the Crypto.com Arena (previously the Staples Center) in Los Angeles, California since 2000, but for the 2021 show, it was held outside the venue for safety reasons. The 2022 show was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, marking this the first Grammys show to be held in the state of Nevada.note
List of winners of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year
- The Music from Peter Gunn (1959) — Henry Mancini
- Come Dance With Me! (1960) — Frank Sinatra
- The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1961) — Bob Newhart
- Judy At Carnegie Hall (1962) — Judy Garland
- The First Family (1963) — Vaughn Meader
- The Barbra Streisand Album (1964) — Barbra Streisand
- Getz / Gilberto (1965) — Stan Getz, João and Astrud Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim.
- September Of My Years (1966) — Frank Sinatra
- A Man And His Music (1967) — Frank Sinatra
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1968) — The Beatles
- By The Time I Get To Phoenix (1969) — Glen Campbell
- Blood, Sweat & Tears (1970) — Blood, Sweat & Tears
- Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971) — Simon & Garfunkel
- Tapestry (1972) — Carole King
- The Concert for Bangladesh (1973) — George Harrison & Friends
- Innervisions (1974) — Stevie Wonder
- Fulfillingness' First Finale (1975) — Stevie Wonder
- Still Crazy After All These Years (1976) — Paul Simon
- Songs in the Key of Life (1977) — Stevie Wonder
- Rumours (1978) — Fleetwood Mac
- Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack (1979) — The Bee Gees, etc.
- 52nd Street (1980) — Billy Joel
- Christopher Cross (1981) — Christopher Cross
- Double Fantasy (1982) — John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Toto IV (1983) — Toto
- Thriller (1984) — Michael Jackson
- Can't Slow Down (1985) — Lionel Richie
- No Jacket Required (1986) — Phil Collins
- Graceland (1987) — Paul Simon
- The Joshua Tree (1988) — U2
- FAITH (1989) — George Michael
- Nick Of Time (1990) — Bonnie Raitt
- Back On The Block (1991) — Quincy Jones
- Unforgettable... with Love (1992) — Natalie Cole
- Unplugged (1993) — Eric Clapton
- The Bodyguard: soundtrack (1994) — Whitney Houston
- MTV Unplugged (1995) — Tony Bennett
- Jagged Little Pill (1996) — Alanis Morissette
- Falling Into You (1997) — Céline Dion
- Time Out of Mind (1998) — Bob Dylan
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1999) — Lauryn Hill
- Supernatural (2000) — Santana
- Two Against Nature (2001) — Steely Dan
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2002) — Various artists
- Come Away With Me (2003) — Norah Jones
- Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (2004) — OutKast
- Genius Loves Company (2005) — Ray Charles & various artists
- How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2006) — U2
- Taking The Long Way (2007) — The Chicks
- River: The Joni Letters (2008) — Herbie Hancock
- Raising Sand (2009) — Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
- Fearless (2010) — Taylor Swift
- The Suburbs (2011) — Arcade Fire
- 21 (2012) — Adele
- Babel (2013) — Mumford & Sons
- Random Access Memories (2014) — Daft Punk
- Morning Phase (2015) — Beck
- 1989 (2016) — Taylor Swift
- 25 (2017) — Adele
- 24K Magic (2018) — Bruno Mars
- Golden Hour (2019) — Kacey Musgraves
- WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (2020) — Billie Eilish
- folklore (2021) — Taylor Swift
- We Are (2022) — Jon Batiste
- Harry's House (2023) - Harry Styles
- Midnights (2024) - Taylor Swift
The Grammy Awards provide examples of:
- Alternative Rock: The Grammy Award for "Best Alternative Music Album" awards this genre.
- Award-Bait Song: Every year there will be entries that will be accused of being desperate to win a Grammy.
- "Baba Yetu", the opening music from Civilization 4. Literally Award Bait, as it's the only video game music to have ever been considered for and given a Grammy Award.
- Award Show: The most famous musical award show in the world.
- Blues: There is a Grammy Award for "Best Traditional Blues Album" and "Best Contemporary Blues Album", which has been changed to "Best Blues Album."
- Comedy: There is an award for "Best Comedy Album".
- Classical Music: There are Grammy Awards for "Best Engineered Album, Classical", "Producer of the Year, Classical", "Best Orchestral Performance", "Best Opera Recording", "Best Choral Performance", "Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance", "Best Classical Vocal Album", "Best Classical Instrumental Solo", "Best Classical Compendium", "Best Classical Contemporary Composition", "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)", "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (without orchestra)", "Best Classical Performance, Operatic or Choral", "Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (with or without orchestra)", "Best New Classical Artist", "Best Chamber Music Performance", "Best Classical Album" and "Best Classical Crossover Album".
- Country Music: Eight possible awards can be won in this genre.
- Crossover: There is an award for "Best Classical Crossover Album".
- Cult Soundtrack: "Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Visual Media", "Best Song Written for Visual Media" and "Best Score Soundtrack Album For Visual Media" are three possible Grammy's to be won in this category.
- Dead Air: The director of the show cut short Frank Sinatra's acceptance speech for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1994 ceremony. Billy Joel responded by stopping his performance of "The River of Dreams" in the middle. He sat there, grinning at the audience, while pretending to check his watch, and quipped, "valuable advertising time going by...dollars...dollars...dollars..." After wasting around 30 seconds, he resumed playing the song.
- Dead Artists Are Better:
- In 1982 John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy won the Album Of The Year award, two years after Lennon's murder.
- Peter Tosh was murdered in 1987. A year later his album "No Nuclear War" won the 1988 Grammy for "Best Reggae Album".
- Nirvana's only Grammy win could be considered a result of this trope. After five unsuccessful nominations, the band finally won a Grammy award in 1996 for Best Alternative Music Performance for MTV Unplugged in New York (1994). Seeing as how the band had already broken up by then after Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, this was obviously the last chance the Grammys had to award the band and mostly a result of Cobain's leap into legend after his death.
- Ray Charles died in 2004. He won five posthumous Grammy Awards during the next ceremony, including Album of the Year. He is still the record holder of most posthumous awards in one night.
- David Bowie was given four posthumous Grammys in 2017 for Blackstar and its title track. He'd previously only won once, for Best Video, Short Form in 1985.
- Disco Sucks: In 1980 the first Grammy Award was handed out for "Best Disco Recording". It was also the last, as the Disco craze died out soon afterwards. The prize went to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".
- Folk Music: There orginally was a Grammy Award for "Best Traditional Folk Album" and "Best Contemporary Folk Album", but this has been changed into "Best Folk Album".
- Genre Roulette: The show gives out awards to many artists and works from different musical genres, from Classical Music over Heavy Metal all the way to Hiphop and even Alternative Rock. From 1986 to 2009 there was even a Grammy Award for Best Polka Album!
- Gospel Music: There used to be 23 different awards in this genre. This has been reduced to just "Best Gospel Performance/Song", "Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song", "Best Gospel Album", "Best Contemporary Christian Music Album" and "Best Roots Gospel Album".
- Heavy Metal: There is a Grammy for "Best Metal Performance".
- Hiphop: Four awards exist: "Best Rap Performance", "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration", "Best Rap Song" and "Best Rap Album".
- Hologram: The performance of Madonna with Gorillaz at the 2006 ceremony.
- Instrumentals: A Grammy for "Best Instrumental Composition" is one of the possible awards to be won.
- Jazz: Six possible Grammy's can be won in this genre: "Best Improvised Jazz Solo", "Best Jazz Vocal Album", "Best Jazz Instrumental Album", "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album" and "Best Latin Jazz Album."
- Long-Runners: The ceremony has been held annually since 1959.
- Music Video: Three awards celebrate music videos: "Best Concept Music Video", "Best Performance Video" and "Video Of The Year".
- New Age: Since 1987 there is a "Grammy Award for Best New Age Album".
- Odd Couple: Eminem was called out as "homophobic". His reaction? Performs "Stan" with Elton John (who is homosexual) at the 2001 ceremony. At the end, they hugged and Eminem gave the audience the finger.
- Pop: Four albums exist in the pop category: "Best Pop Solo Performance", "Best Pop Duo/Group Performance", "Best Pop Vocal Album" and "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album".
- RAndB: Five possible awards exist: "Best R&B Performance", "Best Traditional R&B Performance", "Best Traditional R&B Performance", "Best R&B Song", "Best R&B Album", "Best Urban Contemporary Album".
- Reaction Shot: As most televised award ceremonies. After the name of the award winner is announced, the camera cuts to the attending nominees who don't win the award.
- When someone is performing onstage, the camera also cuts to the audience, especially the attending celebrities and nominees, from time to time.
- Reggae: There is a Grammy for "Best Reggae Album".
- Rock: There are eight different Grammy's to be won in this genre.
- Roll Out the Red Carpet: Before and after the ceremony.
- Spoken Word in Music: There used to be a Grammy Award for "Best Spoken Comedy Album", but this has been split up in "Best Spoken Word Album" and "Best Comedy Album".
- Take That!: Like any other awards show the Grammy's haven't been spared from criticism:
- The Simpsons: In The Simpsons S5 E1 "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" Homer wins a Grammy, but gives it to a bell boy:
Homer: Here. (hands bellhop his statue)
Bellhop: Oh boy, an awards statue! Oh wait, it's a Grammy. (throws it down the balcony)
Man: Hey, don't throw your garbage down here! (throws it back up, hits Homer and knocks him out)- In "Behind The Laughter", "Simpsons Christmas Boogie" wins for "Best Hardcore/Trash Metal", a pointed jab at their snub of Metallica for Jethro Tull at the 1988 Grammys.
- In The Mansion Family, Marge brings up Homer's Grammy when he complains about having never won any awards. Homer says he means an award worth winning and the viewers are shown a disclaimer stating Homer's opinions don't necessarily reflect those of the network, who don't consider the Grammy an award at all.
- Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), who won a Grammy in 1996 for Best Hard Rock Performance, commented on stage:
I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything.- Sinéad O'Connor and Maynard James Keenan (tool) refused to pick up their awards or attend the ceremony. Keenan said:
I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself. That's basically what it's all about. - Time Marches On: The Grammy's are named after the gramophone, a late 1890s and early 20th century musical instrument that nobody listens to anymore and was already old-fashioned in 1959, when the show was created.
- World Music: There used to be two separate awards for "Best Traditional World Music Album" and "Best Contemporary World Music Album", but they have been merged to "Best World Music Album".
