Should Country Awards Change Their Rules, Too?
Earlier this week, the Recording Academy changed the rules about the Grammy for best new artist. It used to be that in order to qualify for that award, you could not have been previously nominated for any Grammy. I guess they figured you weren't truly "new" if any of your work had already been recognized, even if it was for a collaboration or just your first single before your full album came out. But now, you can still be eligible for best new artist even with a prior Grammy nomination. (If you've won one, though, you aren't eligible.) This all stemmed from the fact that when the Zac Brown Band won the Grammy for best new artist earlier this year, Lady Gaga wasn't even nominated because she'd received a nod for her debut single, "Just Dance," a year before. Her team said it was unfair that she wasn't in the category and the Grammy organization said they would change the rules. So they did. That makes me wonder if any rules should be modified in the country world. There have been complaints before, about how some awards should be fan-voted or another category shouldn't include a certain artist. Or that ticket sales should matter more than album sales in major categories. Whatever your reasons, do you think country should change any of its award show rules?
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Robin says:
For what it’s worth, I think no awards should be fan voted except the CMT awards. ACM’s and CMA’s should be completely membership voted. Their name is on the award after all.
Other than that, as long as the rules are known and the category title makes sense, then I don’t care. For instance maybe the CMA’s should rename their “Male Vocalist” and “Female Vocalist” award, “Male Artist” and “Female Artist”. Then they wouldn’t make themselves look silly on occassion.
james2008 says:
I have one rule: You don’t have Kid Rock host another C.M.T. Awards show!
granna says:
Yeah, I agree with Robin. No fan voting except CMT awards for sure. Also, that would be good to change Vocalist categories to artist. Robin, isn’t there something you could come up with for the Entertainer, because it’s really not the best entertainer, but the one that makes the most money that year. I know, the High Grosser Award. lol!!
DustinG says:
If the CMAs and ACMs leave the categories titled “Female Vocalist” or “Male Vocalist” then they must base their decision of vocal talent by the nominated artists. Artists that cannot sing a tune or carry a pitch in any live performance should not be nominated or even win. Nominees and winners in these categories should be able to perform with vocal perfection instead of imperfection.
Peacock Queen says:
I agree with DustinG!
elizabeth says:
When will good talent be recognized? JMO - haven’t seen much of it in recent years. So many awards given to sound alike singers with mediocre vocals.
Elizabeth says:
I agree with only the CMT Awards being fan voted. I think allowing fan voting for any category especially EOTY is ridiculous. Of course all the teenagers out there are going to vote for Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood because they have a stronger base with the “internet” generation where as Kenny Chesney one of the top selling acts in the entire WORLD may not have the much appeal because he’s not on twitter all the time interacting with fans but he truly is Entertainer of the Year…. or whoever else is out there with headlining tours selling more versus twittering more. I think ticket sales should definitely play a larger part, going out and seeing a show is the “entertainment”
Robin says:
granna - for EOY, they shouldn’t re-name it, they should just do it right.
Another thing, I just want to throw out there if there are any voters that read these. But, please make the songs in the “Single of the Year” and the “Song of the Year” make sense.
For instance, I happen to love “Cowboy Casanova”, but at the ACM’s it should have been in the “Single of the Year” category, not the “Song of the Year”. Same thing goes for “Need You Now”, which was in both. Neither of these songs are GREAT on the song quality front. I mean, they are bad songs, but they are the best story telling songs that we had. “Single of the Year” doesn’t need to be the BEST song in the world, but should have been a high impact single in the country music industry for the year.
Good choices (IMO) for “Song of the Year” material (I don’t mean this year in particular):
“American Honey”
“Temporary Home”
“The House That Built Me”
“Fifteen”
“Whiskey Lullaby”
“Highway 20 Ride”
“High Cost of Living”
Good choices (IMO) for “Single of the Year” material (I don’t mean this year in particular):
“Need You Now”
“Cowboy Casanova”
“Water”
“Toes”
“Honky Tonk Ba Donk a Donk” written by Jamey Johnson
Robin says:
In the second paragraph I meant to say “I mean, they aren’t bad songs,”
Robin says:
Elizabeth - Carrie doesn’t have a twitter account. She doesn’t believe in giving every moment of her life away (has said that). Her Carnival Ride tour sold nearly as many tickets as Kenny and she was second in sales only to him (barely second). He won with the same exact manner of voting the year prior to Carrie’s first win.
My comment wasn’t focused on Carrie winning because she would have probably won it anyway. I’m just saying it shouldn’t be fan voted.
You can’t vote a million times on that anyway unless you have a million different e-mails. But, it still should be voted on by the members of the Academy of Country Music for integrity’s sake (as long as the academy voters hold themselves to high standards).
chris says:
I agree-the onlt fan voted awards-besides People’s, should be the CMT Awards. However, maybe changing the ACM and CMA Male and Female “Vocalist” Award to “Artist” Award may not be a bad idea seeing as how Taylor Swift beat out the likes of Reba and Martina McBride last year-no offense, but Reba could sing the phone book, and make it a #1 hit, and yet Taylor was “Vocalist” of the year? What’s wrong with that picture?
I believe when it comes to these awards, it’s no fun anymore, because the same people are always winning. I was really surprised this past year when Miranda took it home-excited, but surprised. Congrats to Carrie for winningt he “Entertainer of the Year” 2x’s-1st female to do so, however, she has never been voted by her peers as that. The fans gave her that. At least Loretta, Barabara, Dolly, and Reba can say their peers gave them their EOTY awards.
I’m only 24, but I prefer they way things were done in the 90’s. Shows aren’t that interesting anymore. Even the opening of the shows aren’t that great anymore. Artists today don’t have the “entertainment factor” that artists even in the 90’s had.
When you strip most of these artists down to just a guitar and their voices, and i’m not just talking about country- it ain’t pretty! Give me Reba, George Strait and Garth Brooks any day compare to these artists! And most people out there know I’m right!
Jay says:
I don’t think Carrie’s EOTY win was solely due to fan votes. Taylor has just as big a fan base, maybe even bigger. The rules were clear. A person can vote ONCE online and ONCE during the show by text. They took every precaution possible even to the extend that only one vote came from a single IP address. So assuming that Taylor’s fans voted hard enough, Carrie had to have had substantial support from the Academy. I’m not belittling the fan base of any other artist but these two seem to have the biggest. But I agree that the fan voted EOTY business should stop or the fan voting should only contribute a possible minimum to the actual award, just enough so that the fans feels they have selected their Entertainer.
Robin says:
By the way, EOTY at the ACM was not 100% fan voted. There was a fan voted component and a ACM member component. The membership did not only give the nominations, but they were also a component of the final vote. The ACM’s have never disclosed how big a portion of the decision is the fan vote and how big a portion of the decision is the academy vote.
WAYNOE says:
Get rid of the duo award. Combine it with the group award. For obvious reasons of course.
M says:
wow. i REALLY agree with robin, dustinG, & chris!! it’s like you guys read my mind! why dont u guys just run the award shows?! haha. id like that.
&chris, i love that you said “…Loretta, Barabara, Dolly, and Reba can say their peers gave them their EOTY awards.”
because having your peers vote&having the fans vote are two totally different things. (even if fans dont count as 100% of the vote). im not saying that one is better, but theyre just different. so you cant really compare carrie winning EOTY 2times to reba (love her) winning 1 time because now EOTY is a whole new ball game.
=)
love me all kinds of country music. <3
Bailey says:
I’d be happy if they’d just get back to having Country people as hosts and presenters. After all, it’s more about the show than the award, anyway!
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