What we expected was change without chaos. | | | | All the solo female artists who won Grammys on-screen in 2018 pose with their trophies. Alessia Cara, New York, Jan. 28, 2018.
(Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images) | | | | | | “What we expected was change without chaos.”
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| | rantnrave:// Shortly after I started at VH1, where I was hired in the early 2000s to work on pop-culture news and documentaries, a producer showed me a reel of potential experts, mostly journalists and mostly women, who could provide commentary on a particular doc. After each woman showed up on his computer screen, he asked, "Would you want to f*** her?" I was dumbstruck. I had kind of assumed this was how the men who make TV and movies had always approached their casting work, but I had no idea they would say it out loud. In an office. To someone they didn't know all that well. While making decisions about people who would be on-screen for maybe 20 or 30 seconds, sitting in a chair. I had thought the old boys' clubs existed in back rooms and whispers, but it turned out they existed in the open, unjudged, as if it were completely normal to make decisions this way. In a 46-page complaint to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, embattled RECORDING ACADEMY CEO DEBORAH DUGAN goes nuclear on her own organization, describing in great detail a "boys' club" (she uses the phrase 19 times), rife with conflicts of interest, that she says dictates nearly everything the Academy does at the GRAMMY AWARDS and elsewhere. And that, she claims, blocked nearly all her efforts at reform and ultimately pushed her out for her efforts to expose it. There are explosive allegations within: that her predecessor, NEIL PORTNOW, was accused of raping an artist after she performed at CARNEGIE HALL, and that the Academy's board pressured Dugan to give him a high-six-figure consulting job despite knowing of the charge. That the Academy's powerful general counsel, JOEL KATZ, repeatedly sexually harassed her. (Katz denied the allegation and Portnow has yet to comment; the Academy said it's reviewing Dugan's claims but "It is curious that Ms. Dugan never raised these grave allegations until a week after legal claims were made against her personally by a female employee who alleged Ms. Dugan had created a ‘toxic and intolerable’ work environment." Dugan disputes that.) And then there are the eye-opening accounts of how Grammy nominees are chosen behind closed doors, which may align with what you've always kind of assumed as you were throwing things at your TV but that you never allowed yourself to believe because when you say it out loud, it sounds a little too unbelievable. Dugan says the Academy board "manipulates the nominations" to reward songs that Grammys producer KEN EHRLICH wants to see performed on the show. She says the board frequently nominates artists who aren't on the 20-deep list the Academy's members and expert committees propose for nomination, to reward "artists with whom they have personal or business relationships." (Grammy guessing game: who was gifted a Song of the Year nomination a year ago over ED SHEERAN and ARIANA GRANDE after being invited to sit on the nominating committee?). Long story short: Dugan, who was technically in charge of the Grammys until last week, says the awards are fixed... And guess who the losers tend to be? In its third report on diversity in the music industry, the USC ANNENBERG INCLUSION INITIATIVE says a higher percentage of women is nominated for 2020 Grammys than in recent years, but it's still a low percentage overall. Women account for 21 percent of nominations in the highest-profile Grammy categories. In 2018, when Annenberg's last report was issued, it was only 9 percent. That led to the #GrammysSoMale protest that in part led to Neil Portnow's unfortunate "step up" comment, which in turn led in part to Dugan replacing him at the Academy. So what now? Who'll be around to listen and respond this year? CHRISTINE ALBERT, Academy board emeritus, told the NEW YORK TIMES Tuesday that the board wants change but, "What we expected was change without chaos. It's been rewarded with something much worse: Chaos without change... CMT, opting for clear and simple change, announced Tuesday it will switch its programming to feature a 50/50 split between female and male artists. That's how you do it. You just go ahead and do it. Change without chaos, you might say... Longtime MTV/VH1/CMT/LOGO fixture AMY DOYLE is stepping down in the spring as general manager of the channels... REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, D-NY, quoted the NOTORIOUS B.I.G. on the Senate floor Tuesday during the impeachment trial for PRESIDENT TRUMP. A first, we're guessing... Hugs to OZZY OSBOURNE... RIP HOSTYLE. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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