Music Executive Buys Full Page NY Times Ad Slamming Grammys
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Music executive, Steve Stoute, bought out a full page ad in the NY Times last week to write an open letter to Grammy officials and voters about this year’s unsatisfactory ceremony. He not only openly ripped on the organization’s choices for their award recipients, but also discouragingly pointed out that the organizers have lost their touch with society.
The angry executive, who is currently CEO of the marketing company Translation, was livid that the Grammys overtly snubbed Eminem and Justin Bieber this year, as well as doing the same in previous years against artists like Kanye West.
Stoute noted, “Over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture. Unfortunately, the awards show has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions, leaving me to question why any contemporary popular artist would even participate."
Eminem, this year's leading contender with nominations, lost in most of the major categories for which he was nominated. Two-time nominee Bieber went home empty-handed and disappointed, a surprise to many.
"We must acknowledge the massive cultural impact of Eminem and Kanye West and how their music is shaping, influencing and defining the voice of a generation," Stoute wrote.
When referring to Bieber’s loss, he wrote, "How is it that Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist, did not win Best New Artist?"
Stoute even went so far as to make a connection between performers and winners, citing Arcade Fire's surprise album of the year win just after they had finished their performance. "Does the Grammys intentionally use artists for their celebrity, popularity, and cultural appeal when they already know the winners and then program a show against this expectation?"
The Recording Academy has made no response, to Stoute’s message; The full letter can be read at here.