The Beatles Influence On The Grammys

The Grammy Awards have been around for close to sixty years and as of right now is a highly respected awards show that represented what people were listening to in that given year. Looking back now, one can see that, that was not always the case. In 1965, the 7th year for the Grammys, there was a wide amount of controversy surrounding the winners. The Grammys had added new categories like “Best Vocal Performance” and “Best Single,” but the category was labeled as “Contemporary(R&B)” instead of properly being labeled rock and roll. Because of this, The Beatles were snubbed in favor of Roger Miller, even though The Beatles had released HELP!, which is regarded as one of the top 5 best singles of 1965. Beatlemania was in full swing so; in my opinion

Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited was released in the same year and it sold over a million records. Bob Dylan continues to be looked toward as an inspiration to musicians of today which draws me to the conclusion that record sales do not influence the Grammys when it comes to who they select. Today, I would say winning a Grammy means more than it did in 1965. Winning a Grammy is a great honor, but it does not mean that the winner will forever be immortalized in music history. Unless there is an absolute clear front runner in the “big four” categories, the winners of these awards are really just who the committee happened to be listening to that year. The reason I say that is because of the last Grammy awards where Adele took home three of the four categories, only not winning “Best New Artist,” an award she was not eligible for. In the case of 1965 however, rock and roll was seen still as defiant to mainstream, so many worthy songs and artists did not get what they deserved. The Grammy awards were initially founded on the principle to exclude rock and roll because it was taking over and making children sinful or fascists or any other ridiculous reason why rock and roll should not be