I used to go down to L.A. to cover the Grammys back when they had 100-plus categories. It was insane trying to keep track of it all. On the plus side, I was also there the year they streamlined the process by turfing and combining a couple of dozen categories.
Thankfully, the Recording Academy hasn’t started adding them back in yet — Lord knows Tia Carrere doesn’t need any more trophies. But as part of their ongoing campaign to keep niggling with the awards until everybody stops complaining and leaves them alone, the Grammy honchos just renamed a redefined some classical, dance and other categories today — and also made a gigantic, absurd change to the Album Of The Year category. As of now, every single musician, artist, songwriter, producer, engineer and performer who contributes anything to an album will now be nominated for an award. That’s a lot to unpack. But superstar publicist and commentator Eric Alper don’t need a lot of time to break it down in today’s episode of Sonic Reducers. Give us five minutes and we’ll fill you in on what it means, how much those little statues actually cost (vs. how much they’re worth), whether the pizza-delivery guy really deserves that nomination — and how long it will be before artists start selling placements on their albums to wannabe nominees. (Hint: About as long as it takes you to listen to us.)
