The Grammy Awards have made a few changes for 2010’s ceremony. First, the awards show will move to the last week of January, a full week earlier than it has aired in previous years. Second, the eligibility period has changed: Releases must street by August 31 of the previous year to be nominated, a full month earlier than the previous September 30 cut-off.
Thankfully, the eligibility period for the 2010 ceremony will begin on October 1, 2008, so there won’t be the embarrassment of work from September 2008 being nominated again. The CMA moved up their eligibility period by a full month in 1995, but allowed June 1994 releases to compete for a second time. The end result was two consecutive nominations for Album of the Year for Alan Jackson’s Who I Am.
An interview with NARAS head Neil Portnow is quite illuminating, revealing all of the moving parts of this new decision. Still, reaction has been negative in some quarters, as there’s a feeling that this will make the ceremony seem more dated and less relevant, and there is confusion as to why they would make a change that excludes fourth quarter releases completely.
Personally, I disagree. I think that the Grammys are better off having a longer time to consider the quality of those fourth-quarter releases. That way, there won’t be a rush to nominate something that has a lot of hype surrounding it at the time, and a worthy album that is overshadowed by high-profile releases from the fourth quarter is less likely to get lost in the shuffle.
What do you think?
It’s only a month’s diefference – hardly enough to make any significant difference. I wonder if we might see any release dates brought forward this year, though?
Personally I would have preferred a move in the other direction, so that more of the calendar year was considered. Ideally I would have liked an eventual move to the full calendar year’s releases considered together (Jan-Dec), with the award ceremony delayed to say April the next year.
They must have moved it up cuz the Superbowl is Feb 7, 2010.