Will the Grammy’s Scrap Reggae Category due to Predictability?
On February - 7 - 2010
With another Grammy gramophone gift presented to a member of the Marley family, some are debating whether the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences may eliminate the one reggae music category after 26 years of predictable voting.
“It is very possible,” Lister Hewan-Lowe, former Island Records promotion/artist relations/publicity executive said.
Hewan-Lowe said the detriment of that is that NARAS could pull the plug on the category. He cited last year’s decision by NARAS to scratch the polka category after 24 years.
Some contend, the Marley family name is now the established reggae formula that NARAS members relate. They are convinced any individual named Marley could score one of the five final nods annually culled from a list of submissions.
“The hype out of Jamaica is partly responsible for the demise of reggae,” Hewan-Lowe stated, “some of the best reggae is being produced by non-Jamaicans but there is a notion that if an artist is not from Jamaica they should not represent.”
Fewer and fewer recordings are deciding the best of the genre. Each year it seems a recurring debate about who other than a Marley could take the miniature gramophone, which represents excellence and achievement.
“If a Marley is nominated, it’s almost a guaranteed win,” David Katz, a British reggae insider said.
“Other artists will only have a chance if the Marleys stay out of the studio.”
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