Award Shows

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Here’s my opinion on award shows: I find them conflicting in how they award certain projects, especially in the music industry.

Recently, I started paying more attention to award shows and I love that certain award shows are awarding artists for their outstanding performances and ambitious voices rather than just looking at sales, charts, and ratings.  However, I have so many questions about how certain artists, or even groups, win some of these awards, specifically in music. When I looked up criteria for film, books, television, and even theatre, they award artists with how they perform in certain projects and not solely on how they do well in sales. So, what is it in music that makes it seem that certain groups and artists win awards because of the sales they’ve obtained? It’s like, if any artist doesn’t sell over two hundred thousand copies domestically or internationally, will they even qualify to get any kind of award? Or will they just get a participation ribbon?

When I look at the award show criteria for film, books, and theatre, it’s really simple to just apply the project. However, and from what I observed, receiving the award is based on the performance by the creators and performers involved in the project. So, here’s what has me floored: does the sale of the project really matter when receiving awards? What makes the music award shows so significantly different from the rest? I have so many questions, and I really wish someone can give me the answers.

I believe that my new goal now is to watch these award shows during their season and observe who gets what, and even start venturing out more with looking for projects that can potentially be entered for nominations because what truly brought this on is what was happening in the world of K-pop, especially with their music award shows. But until the next award show, I can only base my observations and conversations from social media. With every award show that I’ve come across to, I think that the best ones would have to be the awards for television, film, books, and theatre because they recognize performance and impact and not just ratings and sales. I do agree that sales are important because that can determine how much the public gets involved with consuming the projects, but it still doesn’t determine if the project is good or not. However, I find it that the music show awards have proven to me that the sales and charts are what determines the success of the artists and groups, at least in the most recent years it seems. What’s disappointing is that the music award shows prevent artists and groups who have done relatively well in sales and charts in the recent years to participate and be nominated. It’s like, if they don’t get to platinum status in album sales, why would any award show give them a chance to be nominated, let alone win anything? Oh, here’s an idea: give them a participation award and tell them “Good job!”

Sounds like the Razzie awards to me.

I’m not saying to award everyone that can just do the bare minimum, but what I am saying is that we should award people who not only demonstrate their talent in their respective field of expertise, but also have made an impact with how the public react positively in the way they enjoy the arts through these media. Sales and charts can be a good component, but not something that is HIGHLY required to be nominated. What if the projects weren’t that good? How can we or the critics determine what is well produced or not? How can we find honest reviews about the projects we consume when all we say is that it’s not that bad? Why are we using metrics to determine if something is good when we can just how we react on that project? Wouldn’t it hurt the artist more if we’re not honest with them, let alone ourselves? Can we give more meaningful and prestigious awards to those who have worked so hard and put a lot of thought into their projects? There are so many questions after what I have observed, and I would love some answers.

Remember, if it were up to you to vote who gets what award, what would your criteria look like? Comment down below what you think.

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