The Grammys are this Sunday—music’s biggest night.
In truth, I never care much about who receives each award. I am more interested in the performances because they often feature unexpected collaborations between artists.
As an avid music fan, I feel like the Grammys are an unfair evaluation of music. I get it, they have to pick music that is popular for the nominations. Otherwise, nobody would tune in to watch. But it pains me to think of all the talented artists making incredible music that will never receive recognition at the highest level.
Typically, I never feel like the albums nominated for Best Album are actually the best. It seems like a popularity contest more than a competition based on merit alone.
So I decided to do some digging to find out how true that was.
Here are the top 10 albums of 2022 by total album equivalent units sold (source):
Now take a look at the 10 albums nominated for Best Album at the Grammys (source):
You’ll notice that there’s only two artists that appear on both lists: Bad Bunny and Harry Styles. There is however a slight caveat that needs to be made, which is that Adele’s album came out in 2021 and was the top-selling album of that year. So technically, her name should be included in the overlap between the two lists.
Then, I got curious. I decided to do the same exercise for the Oscars.
Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office (source):
And here are the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars (source):
Similar to the Grammys, there are only two titles that appear on both lists: Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. I found a few contradictory reports about the ordering and exact box office figures, but by and large, the ten movies listed above were the top grossing movies of the year. It’s also important to note that these are only showing 2022 box office figures; Avatar: The Way of Water was released in December and has since grossed over $625M at the domestic box office.
Regardless, it made me realize that my assumptions about the award shows were wrong. They are not simply picking the most popular music or movies and pitting them against each other. Instead, they’re only picking about two or three of the most popular titles to include in their nominations.
The reality is that music and films are art, and the value of art is determined by the subjective interpretation of the individual. So in reality, there is no perfect list of nominees and there will never be a perfect list.
Why are we so obsessed with choosing “the best” anyway, when we know very well that there is no such thing?
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The Grammys are this Sunday—music’s biggest night.
In truth, I never care much about who receives each award. I am more interested in the performances because they often feature unexpected collaborations between artists.
As an avid music fan, I feel like the Grammys are an unfair evaluation of music. I get it, they have to pick music that is popular for the nominations. Otherwise, nobody would tune in to watch. But it pains me to think of all the talented artists making incredible music that will never receive recognition at the highest level.
Typically, I never feel like the albums nominated for Best Album are actually the best. It seems like a popularity contest more than a competition based on merit alone.
So I decided to do some digging to find out how true that was.
Here are the top 10 albums of 2022 by total album equivalent units sold (source):
Now take a look at the 10 albums nominated for Best Album at the Grammys (source):
You’ll notice that there’s only two artists that appear on both lists: Bad Bunny and Harry Styles. There is however a slight caveat that needs to be made, which is that Adele’s album came out in 2021 and was the top-selling album of that year. So technically, her name should be included in the overlap between the two lists.
Then, I got curious. I decided to do the same exercise for the Oscars.
Here are the top 10 movies at the domestic box office (source):
And here are the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars (source):
Similar to the Grammys, there are only two titles that appear on both lists: Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. I found a few contradictory reports about the ordering and exact box office figures, but by and large, the ten movies listed above were the top grossing movies of the year. It’s also important to note that these are only showing 2022 box office figures; Avatar: The Way of Water was released in December and has since grossed over $625M at the domestic box office.
Regardless, it made me realize that my assumptions about the award shows were wrong. They are not simply picking the most popular music or movies and pitting them against each other. Instead, they’re only picking about two or three of the most popular titles to include in their nominations.
The reality is that music and films are art, and the value of art is determined by the subjective interpretation of the individual. So in reality, there is no perfect list of nominees and there will never be a perfect list.
Why are we so obsessed with choosing “the best” anyway, when we know very well that there is no such thing?
