The Grammys: A Sick Joke

Bo Burnham made the most vital comedy record during the 2020-2021 eligibility year for the 2022 Grammys — yet the Recording Academy, for all of its big talk about making itself more responsive and relevant — said no to Bo, and moved him out of the Comedy Album category and into Music Film, where he lost to Questlove’s Oscar-winning Summer of Soul documentary. Never you mind that they didn’t actually release the soundtrack to that music film until this January, outside the eligibility window. Because that doesn’t matter at the Grammys.

Perhaps nothing matters?!

The Recording Academy says one thing to its voting members and all of us who actually buy and listen to records, and then historically keeps voting to reward musicians who make the old guard feel comfortable about their old, crusty ways. They will reward names they already know and love for their familiarity. And they will defend their old ways to the death, and sometimes afterward with posthumous praise.