INTERVIEW: Grammys Reflect Hip-Hop Culture, Political Divide

02/10/2005 8:33 PM, Reuters
Chris Morris

Friday night's MusiCares charity dinner in Hollywood honoring Brian Wilson is the big liftoff for the Recording Academy's Grammy Awards weekend, which climaxes with the televised awards show Sunday night at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Academy president Neil Portnow talked about this year's Grammy honors and the organization's efforts in advocacy and education with the Hollywood Reporter.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A GRAMMY FIELD SO DOMINATED BY R&B AND HIP-HOP AS THERE IS THIS YEAR. WHAT'S THE REASON FOR THIS HUGE EXPLOSION?

Neil Portnow: The fact is that the culture in this country has shifted and is changing. The acceptance of hip-hop culture is not something that's fringe or niche-specific anymore -- it's in the mainstream of American life. You see it music, you see it in film, you see it in television and you very much see it in fashion. Lastly, you see it reflected in Madison Avenue's choice of music beds for mainstream corporate American advertising, which really tells me that it's arrived in the culture. Certainly, our membership is also a reflection of what's happening culturally in America. We've also made a concerted effort to reach out to a variety of constituencies -- and certainly one is the urban/hip-hop community -- in recruiting membership because we want our voting members to be reflective of the reality of what's going on in music and in the world.

THR: GREEN DAY MADE A REMARKABLE SHOWING THIS YEAR WITH A FORCEFUL, POLITICAL RECORD. DID THAT SURPRISE YOU?

Portnow: Again, it's reflective culturally of things that are going on. Politically in this country, as evidenced by the incredible closeness of the last political campaign, the almost 50-50 division of opinion about events in the world, it makes you think that there's a tremendous group of folks that (a) are interested in politics and (b) that have perhaps a different opinion than what prevailing political results turned out to be. The point of view of a group like Green Day is going to be resonant with a lot of those folks. So it doesn't really surprise me that much.

THR: THIS YEAR THERE ARE 107 CATEGORIES, UP TWO FROM LAST YEAR; THERE WERE ONLY 28 CATEGORIES IN THE GRAMMYS' FIRST YEAR. IS THERE ANY KIND OF A CEILING AS FAR AS WHAT YOU ADDRESS AT THE GRAMMYS?

Portnow: There is no arbitrary ceiling or quota we've established, so we're not saying we stop at a certain number. We have a process, which is pretty sophisticated, to annually look at the categories we have and make sure that they're relevant and that they're meaningful. So at the same time that we add categories, we also have the ability to remove and combine categories. For example, this year we combined the rock (vocal performance) male and female categories, because, frankly, there were not enough individual entries to warrant having them separate. So it's like an accordion. It can contract and it can also expand. But we would rather be inclusive rather than exclusive.

THR: WHAT DO YOU FORESEE IN THE FUTURE FOR THE ACADEMY'S ADVOCACY INITIATIVES?

Portnow: Over the past year, we've seen a number of tangible activities that we've done as an academy in terms of advocacy. We've hired and put on a full-time lobbyist in D.C. We've never had that before. This gives us information 24-7, and also gives us a way of disseminating our information, our message. The academy also created an amicus brief that was presented to the Supreme Court in the hopes of influencing them to consider the MGM vs. Grokster case. From the information we've received, this was very compelling to the court, in terms of their decision to actually take this case on. We now are writing a brief that will be submitted for the actual deliberation.

THR: HAVE THE ACADEMY'S EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OVER THE PAST YEAR HAD AN IMPACT ON CONSUMERS' VIEWS ABOUT ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING, AND HOW CAN YOU BROADEN THE MESSAGE?

Portnow: The simple answer is, yes, we believe we've had an impact, and a direct impact. If you remember, last year on the show we announced our public-service campaign, What'stheDownload.com. That came as a result of about 18 months of research, focus groups, going out into the field with the Edelman research and public relations firms as a partner. We wanted to craft a message that young people would be able to hear. What it's ultimately about is changing behavior. We allowed behavior to develop without having any educational component. There was no place where a young person could learn about intellectual property, what are the ethical things to do, what are the issues. They just don't know. We felt our role as an academy is as educators. Hence, the What'stheDownload site. Since we launched, we've had over 500,000 consumers visit the site. We've heard from educators, parents, the kids themselves: "Hey, this is great; this is useful for us." Now we've expanded the campaign this year by creating what we're calling an interactive advisory board. We did a nationwide contest for a dozen kids to become this board, who are typical everyday music fans. It gives us a place to go to get feedback about how they're feeling about these issues. We're having our first discussion this week, on Saturday. That will bring food for thought about additional elements for the campaign. We want to be sure that any message is one that our target audience is going to be listening to. Otherwise, we're just wasting our time.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter