[ad_1]
In the most aggressive bid of the Academy to diversify its membership, 1,340 invitations were sent.
The BTS has not yet secured its first Grammy nomination, but the hugely popular K-pop band has been invited to become a member of the Recording Academy. This is part of a massive campaign to attract new members, especially those who will help diversify the Academy's membership by racial, gender and age groups. BTS fulfills two of these objectives, which partly explains why they were among 1,340 potential new members invited to participate.
This is the second time in the past year that the Academy has embraced new potential members. Last year, thanks to the efforts of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force recently formed by the Academy, 900 invitations were sent out. According to the Academy, about 20% of these people (180) subscribed to the Recording Academy's offer and joined it.
This second campaign works a little differently. The 1,340 new invitations were launched as part of the new community-driven, peer-reviewed membership model, in which current members are recommending potential new members. (Academy officials add that the total of 1,340 extended invitations includes additional invitations to some of the more than 720 people invited last year who did not join.)
Of the guests, 1,186 are to become voting members; 154 must become "professional" members (without the right to vote).
Laura Segura Mueller, vice president of industry relations and members of the Academy, said in a statement: "The 2019 promotion includes creators and music professionals from the music industry. backgrounds cover a wide range of genres, trades, ethnicities and genres As a result of recent significant changes in our membership recruitment process, the class is more representative of the diverse voices, modes of expression and excellence in the music industry, compared to data reported in USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative studies published in 2018 and 2019. "
Annenberg studies have revealed an imbalanced distribution of the sexes, indicating that Display panel According to graphical data sources, women represent only 21.7% of artists, 12.3% of songwriters and 2.1% of producers.
According to the Academy, 49% of the 1,340 potential new members are women, 41% belong to "traditionally underrepresented communities" (euphemism for non-Caucasians) and 51% are 39 and under. The Academy also revealed that it currently has 26% women, 24% "traditionally underrepresented communities" and 29% under 39 years old.
"When you compare these figures to those reported in the Annenberg Study of 2019, it is clear that our new class of members shows a marked improvement," Mueller said. "We are deeply committed to continuing this positive trend for years to come."
But she pointed out that it would be increasingly difficult for the Academy to find new qualified members to invite to become voting members unless the music industry offers more opportunities to women and minorities.
"With such appalling statistics across the sector, we will have difficulty with new membership categories if the number of women and people of color to hire is insufficient, if we offer them a mentor and if we can "We have access to opportunities to lead and excel that will be achieved only when new voices are encouraged to join the ranks," she said.
These changes are part of a broad commitment to diversity that the Academy took last year as a result of an awkward comment from Neil Portnow, President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Toronto. Academy, which set off a fire storm. The Academy organized the aforementioned Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, chaired by Tina Tchen, to better understand the barriers and biases that affect underrepresented voices in the music industry and the Academy.
Portnow, whose term as president and CEO ends nearly 17 years to the end of July, testifies: "I thank Tina and all the participants for their hard work and their follow-up … The working group played a key role in the review and the new member model was born after many years of internal development. "
Of the 1,340 new invitations by craft, 57% were awarded to singers, followed by instrumentalists (15%), songwriters (15%), producers (9%) and engineers (6%).
By genre, the most popular genre is pop (17%), followed by rap (13%), American music (12%), R & B (11%) and rock (11%).
In order to participate in the upcoming Grammy Awards process, new members must accept their invitations by September 15th. The first ballot will open on September 25 and will end on October 10. The 62nd Grammy Awards will be held on January 1st. May 26, 2020 in Los Angeles.
Does all of this make a difference in the rewards results? Very probably. These 180 people who became new members last year may have helped Childish Gambino's "This Is America" to become the first hip-hop song to win the Grammys of Record and Song. # 39; year. We will never know for sure, but it is an enticing opportunity.
[ad_2]
Source link