What does the Grammy's change to 'Best World Music Album' mean for Africans? [Opinion]

In a public statement, the Recording Academy wrote, "As we continue to embrace a truly global mindset, we update our language to reflect a more appropriate categorization that seeks to engage and celebrate the current scope of music from around the world."

The new category is now described as, "This category recognizes excellence in albums of world music, including recordings of international non-Western classical music, international non-American and non-British traditional folk music, international cross-cultural music based on the previously mentioned genres as well as international recordings of world beat, world jazz (with a higher percentage of world than jazz music), world pop and cross-cultural music.

"Albums of reggae, Latin or European pop music aren't eligible in this category and should be entered in other categories as appropriate."

It follows a similar decision by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences - organizers of the Oscars - in renaming the 'Best Foreign Language Film to 'Best International Feature Film.'

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This change also follows the changes for the 62nd Grammy Awards held earlier in 2020. Here are some of those changes;

As of the 62nd Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy will accepted links to streaming services as opposed to physical copies as submissions. The Academy stated: "For most categories, we would prefer streaming distribution links for online entry submissions, though CD submissions remain optional." As justification for this development, the Academy highlighted the changing music industry and added that submitting links was more convenient and cost effective, especially for smaller and independent labels.
Additionally, they had separate screening committees for Pop and Rock, whereas previously these categories were screened by a Core Committee. This left the Core Committee to focus on the more difficult decisions such as determining who is eligible for the Best New Artist category and trying to find the best home for borderline genre entries.

The definition of the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album was expanded to accept "contemporary pop songs performed in traditional pop style - the term "traditional" being a reference to the style of the composition, vocal styling and the instrumental arrangement without regard to the age of the material." The Academy stated that broadening the category was done in an attempt to allow it to "remain robust and inclusive" and enable it to be more competitive as, for example, Tony Bennett has won the award 13 times.
Spoken word recordings targeted at children was moved from the Best Children's Album category to the Best Spoken Word Album.
As of the 62nd Grammy Award, Spanish-language Latin Gospel and Christian music was officially welcomed in the Best Gospel Album, Best Contemporary Christian Music Album, Best Roots Gospel Album, Best Gospel Performance/Song and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song categories.

Several music enthusiasts and eminent personalities like Angelique Kidjo had asked for the change in categorization of the 'Best World Music Album category. In fact, some people have gone ahead to argue that the change from 'Best World Music Album' to 'Best Global Music Album' is more than an arbitrary change.

Pitchfork reports that ethnomusicologists and linguists were consulted before the change. OkayAfrica also writes that, "The former name weighted English music more thereby promoting colonialist sentiments."

Problem I: The change is as arbitrary as a racist euphemism

Any reasonable person knows that this change is as arbitrary as a racist euphemism because it changes nothing. Some of the biggest winners in this category are Angelique Kidjo and Ladysmith Black Mambazo who usually make alternative/avant-garde genres of music in foreign languages.

In fact, Kidjo's latest win for Celia came off covers of music made in Afro-Cuban Creole. If this writer was allowed to curse in this article, this line would be filled with expletives because this praise is actually wild.

Problem II: The call for change reeks of entitlement

The demonization and criticism of the 'Best World Music Album' category at the Grammy Awards is actually disturbing. It's almost as if everyone is sleeping the same way and hanging their heads in the same direction. People treat it like it's inherently bad when it's not.

The Grammy Award is an American institution. It was created to celebrate American music, not satisfy the entire world. As much as 'Best World Music Album' might be exclusionary or might make the Grammys seem elitist, the category has also served a purpose.

That purpose is simple; to celebrate music from other parts of the world - music that might not be popular or recognized on American soil, but deserve some recognition. It's just like when the MTV African Music Awards created a 'Best International Artist' category.

Why are American artists not rioting to be properly represented? It's simple and I get it; a Grammy Award is more desirable and America inspires the rest of the world more than the world inspires America - even though America culturally feeds of the rest of the world for sustenance.

African artists have a problem with how Grammy Award is elitist. The argument for changing the name of that 'Best World Music Album' is that the 'world' means that America is not a part of the rest of the world but in fact, superior to other countries.

However, the problem with that calling for a change incidentally means we are also subconsciously elevating America and American music in importance. Here's what we Africans are basically saying;

'We are African superstars and we want our music to be properly represented at your American award. We think this 'Best World Music Album' category is actually elitist and it passively elevates American music over the rest of the world.

'So, we would like to request that you stop that. Accommodate us into other categories because your award ceremony is more desirable to ours.'

By not wanting your music to feel inferior in an AMERICAN AWARD, we ended up making the entire Africa inferior by pandering for inclusion at an AMERICAN AWARD - not a global award.

Problem III: Entitlement and the need to build an African Award

Asides from how there's a load of entitlement in that conversation, it feels like African artists also seem to think that their chances of winning a Grammy would increase if their music could get nominated in other categories. Why are you dissing people who don't really owe you that recognition?

Why are we not trying to build an African Award? Is nobody thinking? For example, Nigerian artists don't give two craps about Black, African and Nigerian award and won't even attend most those awards. But instead, they'll be fighting for inclusion at another country's award at another country's award ceremony while backing it up with some laughable narratives that racial politics birthed.

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If American artists treated their award with this much disdain, it would not be this desirable. The only way Africa will be respected is if Africa builds its own award ceremony. The Grammy Awards don't owe us anything.

Some African artists hate their own award ceremonies because they think they get cheated but they go to cry for an award that didn't even nominate Kanye's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' for album of the year.

As Africans, we need to get our priorities straight.

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*Pulse Editor's Opinion is the opinion of an editor at Pulse. It does not represent the views of the organisation Pulse.