The Recording Academy is a giant ball of chaos & sexism just before the Grammys

Deborah Dugan (The Recording Academy Pre...

I’m trying not to be a giant bummer, but wow, this year’s awards season sucks, right? The only good things about the 2020 awards season are A) Parasite winning some prizes and B) everything has been pretty easy to cover because there hasn’t been any huge scandal beyond the annual displays of racism and sexism. So, at best, a mixed bag. Whenever I get too down on Hollywood, I remember that the music industry is so much worse. Usually I remember that on Grammys night, because the Grammys are always a giant ass-ache to cover and discuss. In recent years, the Grammys have put in a masterclass of ingrained and systemic sexism and racism. And what’s worse is that the Grammys voting system makes the Oscars look well-managed and transparent. No one really understands how the Grammy nominating process happens or how winners are really determined. And it’s gotten so much worse in recent weeks. I can’t even begin to summarize, so here’s Vanity Fair’s summary:

In a Good Morning America appearance on Thursday, former Recording Academy president and CEO Deborah Dugan made her first public appearance after making explosive allegations about the organization and her predecessor, Neil Portnow. With just days to go until this year’s Grammy Awards, Dugan repeated her claim that the nomination process is deeply flawed—“there are incidents of conflict of interest that taints the results,” she said.

Last Thursday, the academy announced it had placed Dugan on administrative leave over alleged abusive conduct; on Tuesday Dugan countered with a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming she had been placed on leave only after making internal allegations that she had been sexually harassed by the firm’s general counsel Joel Katz and that its Grammy nominations procedures were marred by corruption. She also said in the suit that her predecessor, Neil Portnow, didn’t have his contract renewed because he’d been accused of raping a performer; Portnow has denied the rape allegation.

Dugan didn’t share many additional details in her Good Morning America appearance, but said that during the dinner when she claims Katz began to harass her, “I felt like I was being tested in how much I would acquiesce, and I realized that was a power-setting move just on the onset as I was coming into the committee.” Katz has denied her account through a statement by his lawyer, Howard Weitzman, that said, “Ms. Dugan’s allegations of harassment and her description of a dinner at the steakhouse in the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel are false and Mr. Katz categorically and emphatically denies her version of that evening.”

Aside from her allegations about Katz and Portnow, Dugan has also claimed that the Grammy nominations process is, in effect, rigged. “The system should be transparent and there are incidents of conflict of interest that taints the results,” she said on Thursday. In the complaint filed Tuesday, she recounted one particular instance in the 2019 song-of-the-year category, when an artist ranked 18th out of 20 in the nominating process ended up making the final short list. That artist, Dugan said, was actually on the nominating committee, and the artist was represented by a member of the academy’s board. On Good Morning America, Dugan declined to identify the artist but reasserted the claim.

[From Vanity Fair]

This is actually just a fraction of all of the sh-t that’s happened in the past two weeks in the lead-up to the Grammys on Sunday. Ever since #MeToo became a thing in Hollywood in 2017, there has been a lot of talk of the music industry’s need for it’s own “Me Too” moment, for the dam to break and the whole lousy predator lot in music to get outed and publicly named and shamed. So far, it hasn’t happened, although Kesha tried (and God bless her for it, her battle was heart-wrenching). I also don’t doubt that the Grammy nominations and the Grammy votes are rigged. But will anything be done?

Also, regarding Neil Portnow. I have no idea if he’s a rapist, but I do know that in 2018, he gave male performers nearly uninterrupted air time to perform their songs and medleys, but he refused to allow Lorde to perform solo, even though she was the only woman nominated in the Album of the Year category. After the Grammys, there were complaints about how the show was a total sausage party and Portnow sniffed that women “need to step up” if they want air time or awards. So…. that’s who Neil Portnow is.

60th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Arrivals

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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13 Responses to “The Recording Academy is a giant ball of chaos & sexism just before the Grammys”

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  1. Allz says:

    I’ve read quotes (and I don’t know how fake they are) from Taylor Swift fans saying that her album Red was supposed to win AOTY but they decided to drop it. So her fans are using this as examples of how Taylor is such a survivor and always the victim of sexism. And while the quote may actually be true, Taylor is the least affected person in the long list of racist, sexist Grammy issues. I still stand by the fact that she shouldn’t have won over Kendrick Lamar, and one of the voters said he voted for her because she was nicer to them by doing concerts and interviews for them while campaigning.

    It honestly comes as no surprise to anyone that these awards can be bought and are obviously given to people with better favors or connections, rather than who actually deserves it.

    • Leriel says:

      Lmao her stans are really fun. She is in the first top ten on the list who got their awards not really fair, I am certain of it.

    • Beach Dreams says:

      Lol her fans are delusional. She had already won AOTY when Red lost, so that’s not a valid complaint at all. Taylor would’ve been name-checked like Beyoncé and Mariah Carey were if she was actually one of the artists who were subjected to the academy’s nonsense. Dugan listed some of the biggest names in her lawsuit and Taylor was not one of them.

    • Sarah says:

      Miss Forever 13’s fans have some nerve complaining about the Grammy process after their queen’s scandalous win over Kendrick Lamar’s masterpiece.

  2. Leriel says:

    I want everything to come out, every damn thing. Film industry is corrupted and abusive to every new comer, but music industry is just exploitative, and it must come out like now. Not just only meetoo, but payed awards, exploitation of kids and teens for boys/girlsbands, etc. It will be really interesting case, and maybe it will take recording academy down for a bit.

  3. Noodle says:

    I heard on a program (Sirius XM The Pulse) that the two artists who were supposed to be on the SotY list were Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran, but were left off for a board member and someone represented by a board member. Any guesses as to who those two are/were? Ariana’s protests from last year are starting to make sense.

    • Beach Dreams says:

      I’ve seen HER being discussed as the potential artist. HER is very talented but people have noticed that she gets a lot of attention from the Grammys that most other artists with her level of fame and impact wouldn’t receive. Her team has also combined EPs twice to submit a full “album” for nominations (she is currently nominated in some of the biggest categories). HER still technically hasn’t released an actual album that isn’t an EP compilation yet.

  4. broodytrudy says:

    Did we not already know this? I mean, with the mass quantity of music out there, do we really think a whole bunch of people think that Taylor or Ed or Ariana had a better album than every single music group that put out an album that year? Lol no. Prog rock which is insane in technical skill doesn’t take a lot of awards home. We don’t see “rock” bands get awarded often, just “alternative” bands chucked into the rock category. It’s just another level of the Oscars.

  5. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    The Grammys, and the people behind it, is corrupt? Inconceivable.

  6. Other Renee says:

    Is this really news to anyone? All these awards are rigged in some manner. And they wonder why there is diminished interest in them. I haven’t watched an awards show in years.

    • Trillion says:

      I’m only in it for the frock-watching these days. I just go to Tom and Lorenzo the day after and that’s the limit of my interest level.

  7. No Doubt says:

    I lost interest in the Grammy’s after Beyonce lost AOTY for Lemonade. They have been out of touch for years and rarely get things right.