The Recording Academy is in a world way of thinking.
With the rise of genres like Okay-pop and Afrobeats and the regular domination of Latin music — from conventional regional Mexican to up to date Latin lure music — the group that places on the Grammy Awards yearly has been on a mission to globalize and broaden its presence and work around the globe.
This yr, the Academy partnered with the United Nations to indicate how the ability of music promotes social change around the globe and launched a marketing campaign that encourages artists to make use of their expertise to help human rights points, together with advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, girls’s empowerment and local weather justice; the Latin Recording Academy, launched 25 years in the past, will maintain the Latin Grammys (set for Nov. 16) outdoors of the U.S. for the primary time — in Sevilla, Spain; and the Grammys will debut its finest African music efficiency class on the 2024 present, giving African-based artists extra publicity.
And final month Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. traveled to Washington, D.C., for the State Division’s World Music Diplomacy Initiative launch, which is a direct results of the PEACE By Music Diplomacy Act, which the Academy repeatedly advocated for (President Biden signed it into legislation final yr). Mason jr. and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken offered iconic musician Quincy Jones, a 28-time Grammy winner, the first-ever Peace by means of Music Award on the occasion.
“In the previous few years the Academy has tried to place itself to make use of music and our platform for good and for international change, and we see the thought of exploring what we are able to do around the globe as a really subsequent logical step — each for our members and for what we are able to accomplish to maneuver the needle,” Mason jr. tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The way in which music has been going, the way in which that the world goes, it’s turning into smaller, know-how is permitting us to do extra, and we’re seeing these actually thriving, vibrant music scenes maturing and growing all around the globe, and the music ecosystem has simply advanced. It’s simply modified. You’re listening to songs from different components of the world on our streaming platforms and radio. You’re listening to our music being exported around the globe, however issues that used to maintain music very contained — borders, languages, customs, beliefs — they’re actually being worn out and music is transcending and going around the globe.”
Later this month the Academy might be an official accomplice of the Abu Dhabi Tradition Summit and take part in workshops and dialogue in regards to the Center Japanese music scene for a second yr; on the 2022 Grammys the group devoted a phase to the struggle in Ukraine, which included an tackle by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and an unique tune by John Legend; in April Grammys on the Hill highlighted Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist Dr. Ahmad Sarmast and his Afghanistan Nationwide Institute of Music; and at this yr’s Grammys First Girl Dr. Jill Biden offered the inaugural finest tune for social change award to the Iranian protest tune “Baraye” by Shervin Hajipour.
Mason jr. says the Academy has hung out on the highway “assembly with music folks, assembly with ministers of tradition, assembly with influential folks, authorities, management to essentially get a way of what they’re engaged on of their areas.
“We’ve been going to each nook of the world to study and perceive what’s occurring and the place we would have the ability to be useful or in service. We’ve additionally been finding out what’s occurring on the enterprise facet of music. The place are there customers? The place are folks creating a number of music? The place are folks listening to a number of music? The place are we seeing the following music scene growing?” he explains.
“What are the issues which are missing? What are the issues that they really feel they need to enhance? Or what are the issues they’re attempting to develop? And is there house for us? Is there room for us? We don’t go locations pondering we’re going to show any person one thing or we’re going to deliver this nice experience and data. We’re going locations to try to perceive how we are able to collaborate, how we will be part of their music ecosystem,” Mason jr. continues. “Our members are making the music that’s being exported around the globe. We all know this. It’s occurred for a very long time, however much more so now. What we don’t know is how our members are capable of management, monetize and defend their work all around the globe. There’s billions of individuals which are listening to the music, however we need to additionally make certain there’s a wholesome equitable ecosystem the place creators from the U.S. and around the globe can take part and profit and earn a good dwelling from their artwork.”
In Africa particularly, Mason jr. says the continent is an open marketplace for musicians to search out audiences who can devour their music. “In Africa, there’s 1.4 billion folks. It’s the youngest inhabitants on the planet so far as the continent is worried. They’re consuming in all probability simply as a lot music, if no more, than wherever else on this planet. So the market in Africa, if developed, may very well be a large music market the place everybody from across the globe is perhaps saying ‘how can we get into the African market?’ as a substitute of ‘how can we get into the U.S. market?’”
Mason jr. — who can also be a well-liked, Grammy-nominated songwriter-producer who has labored with Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Aretha Franklin, Justin Bieber, Toni Braxton, Chris Brown and others — says he traveled to Korea greater than a decade in the past to work with Okay-pop musicians. “And I noticed the chance and I used to be like, ‘This Okay-pop music is unimaginable. They’re so artistic. They’re making nice data. The artists, the event is there.’ And it actually turned embedded in my consciousness that it wasn’t nearly making music for the U.S., and it wasn’t nearly producing artists within the U.S. And it actually opened up my thoughts, and that expansiveness is one thing that I’ve carried over to my position right here on the Academy. And that’s actually, for me personally, one of many first examples of how I see the worth in globalization and why it is smart for the Academy, for our members, for our business to proceed to achieve out and proceed to broaden as a result of there’s simply a lot nice alternative.”
“An enormous a part of why we’re doing it’s because I strongly imagine within the energy of music. That’s the rationale I’m right here. I promise you, I actually love celebrating the perfect of the perfect year-to-year with trophies and Grammys and ceremonies and events and the shiny stage, however what I actually love is utilizing that as a chance to amplify and speak about what music can do,” he continues. “Going to a rustic the place the narrative that the world has heard about them has at all times been one factor, and thru music, they will begin telling totally different tales. They’ll begin opening different folks’s eyes and hopefully different folks’s hearts. And take into consideration components of the world the place possibly they haven’t at all times had the power to precise themselves or have freedom of speech, or they’ve been oppressed or they’ve been underrepresented — by means of music, they will inform these tales.”
He provides: “And as we begin touring the world and assembly with these creators, we need to help them wherever they’re from. We’re not going locations to try to get into politics or get into authorities. It’s in regards to the creators. And take into consideration the thought of utilizing music to permit all these folks from around the globe to precise themselves, to collaborate, to work with different folks and inform totally different tales — that’s one of many massive the reason why I strongly imagine that it’s incumbent on the Academy to verify we’re representing not only a small subset of music folks, however a world group of music creators.”
