The 2012 Grammy Awards show was recently held. The Grammy awards honour the work of musicians throughout the year. The Grammys honour musicians from all genres of music, including Reggae. Now, I have a beef with the Grammys and it is not the length of the show, though I find the ceremony way too long and filled with boring performances, such as Chris Brown’s first performance. My beef is their disrespect of Reggae music.
A number of Jamaican artists have won the Grammy in the Reggae category. These include, Shaba Ranks, Buju Banton, Sean Paul, the Marley brothers and a few others. However, I have never seen them on the Grammy stage collecting their awards. Why is this? How are we to interpret this? Should we interpret it as the organizer of the awards show, telling us that they do not think that Reggae is not that important of a genre, for the awardees in that category to be honoured on the main stage with all the other artists? Are they saying that the genre of music that boasts the song of the millennium is not important enough?
The argument I gather is that not all the awardees can be honoured on the main stage, in the interest of time. I say, cut out some of the lackluster performances and show us the awards. It is an awards ceremony after all. And even if all the awards cannot be presented on the big night, I believe that the Reggae award should be presented on the night, and I do not say this just because I am a Jamaican. I say this because; Reggae music is significant enough, to be honounred on the same stage where country (which is a dying genre) is honoured. Reggae music is a global musical genre and appeals to a wide cross section of persons and deals with important topics, so if that is not reason enough to honour it, then what is?
