Month: June 2020

The Recording Academy is making changes to several Grammy Awards categories, including the often-debated best new artist title, and having nomination review committee members sign disclosure forms to prevent conflicts of interest.
The new rules announced Wednesday will affect the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, which will air live on Jan. 31, 2021.  
The best new artist award has been criticized for decades, and the academy has tried to evolve with the ever-changing music industry by continually updating the category’s rules. In recent years, the award has been scrutinized because the academy placed a song and album limit, disqualifying certain performers. But the new rules say, “there is no longer a specified maximum number of releases prohibiting artists from entering” the category.
The change will benefit younger artists, specifically rappers, who tend to release many singles and therefore did not qualify in recent years because they surpassed the 30-song limit. Whitney Houston and Lady Gaga missed out on being best new artist nominees because of the category’s rules in the years they marked their breakthroughs.
The academy also said musicians invited to participate in a nomination review committee — in place to safeguard a specific genre’s integrity and to serve as additional checks and balances — will have to agree to the terms of a conflict of interest disclosure form. Committee participants will have to reveal if they would benefit from an artist’s nomination for that category, whether the ties are financial, familial or creative.
If a conflict is discovered, that person would not be allowed to sit on that committee that year.
Some of the new changes could be a response to former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan, who was fired only months into her job and days before the 2020 Grammys, held in January. Dugan had said the awards show was rigged and muddled with conflicts of interest. Questions have loomed for years around the nominations process for the Grammys, but the doubts reached a new level following Dugan’s comments.
The academy has said that nominees are selected from contenders voted into the top 20 in each category. But critics have called the voting less than transparent, because the choice of finalists happens behind closed doors. That has stirred claims that members of key nominating committees promote projects they worked on or projects they favor based on personal relationships.
The academy’s board of trustees approved the new changes last month. The organization also said it is making its 66-page rules and guidelines book public for the first time, at Grammys.com, starting Wednesday.
Songs and albums released between Sept. 1, 2019 and Aug. 31, 2020 will be eligible for nominations at the 2021 Grammys. There are 84 categories.  
Other changes approved by the board:
— The best rap/sung performance Grammy will now be called best melodic rap performance. The category was originally titled best rap/sung collaboration and was established at the 2002 Grammys for collaborations between rappers and R&B or pop singers. For the 2017 Grammys, the academy renamed it and allowed solo artists who sing and rap on a song — from Drake to Chris Brown — to compete. The newly titled category, available to solo performances or collaborations, now “requires a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence, and is inclusive of dialects, lyrics or performance elements from non-rap genres including R&B, rock, country, electronic or more.”
— The best urban contemporary album award, which debuted at the 2013 Grammys and represented R&B albums that fused elements of other genres, from rock to dance, has been renamed to best progressive R&B album. Qualified albums should “include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music.”
— The Latin pop album Grammy has expanded and been renamed to best Latin pop or urban album, while the best Latin rock, urban or alternative album will now be called best Latin rock or alternative album.
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The editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, Adam Rapoport, resigned after a photo of him dressed in a stereotypical Puerto Rican costume surfaced on social media.Staffers at the magazine had criticized him after the photo, of him and his wife, circulated on Twitter. That tweet featured a screenshot of a 2013 Instagram photo by Rapoport’s wife that depicted the two dressed up in costume. In the screenshot, his wife tagged the photo “boricua,” a reference to Puerto Ricans, and called Rapoport “papi.” He was wearing a large, heavy chain, a do-rag and a baseball cap. His wife’s account is private.  In an Instagram post, Rapoport said he was stepping down as editor “to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being.” He said the photo was of an “extremely ill-conceived” Halloween costume 16 years ago. He acknowledged “blind spots” as an editor and said the magazine’s staff and readers deserved better leadership.Furor over the photo unleashed other employee complaints. One staffer, Sohla El-Waylly, claimed on Instagram that she hasn’t been paid for appearing in videos for Bon Appetit’s popular YouTube channel, in contrast to white editors who did likewise. She called for Rapoport’s resignation and for people of color on staff to receive “fair titles, fair salaries, and compensation for video appearances.” She received support online from several of her colleagues. At least four said they would not appear in the publication’s videos until their colleagues of color received equal pay.  Condé Nast, the magazine’s publisher, did not address those concerns directly. But in a statement it said it is “dedicated to creating a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace.”Several of Bon Appetit’s staff, including El-Waylly, are YouTube stars. Devoted fans devour videos of them making dishes, sometimes with celebrities; recreating junk-food classics from scratch, like Oreos and Warheads, in the magazine’s test kitchen; and just chatting about food, food media and each other. Videos get millions of views.Bon Appetit has been trying to tap into a national moment, saying recently that it will be highlighting more black-owned food businesses and “tackling more of the racial and political issues at the core of the food world.”Media companies are facing their own moment of reckoning around racism as rallies protesting police brutality against black people  spread across the U.S., touching off broader conversations about race.  Reporters, editors and other staff members, particularly people of color, are speaking up about racist content and policies at their publications. New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet resigned Sunday over publication of an opinion piece by Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, that advocated for using military force to quell unrest. That followed a revolt by many Times employees, some of whom argued that publication of Cotton’s argument endangered the lives of black staff.The Philadelphia Inquirer’s top editor resigned  Saturday after the paper’s staffers pushed back against a “Buildings Matter, Too,” headline on a column about buildings damaged in the protests. The headline was a play on the Black Lives Matter movement that the paper acknowledged was “offensive and inappropriate.”Colleagues of a black reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  are supporting her after the paper told her she could not cover the police brutality protests because she was biased.Also on Monday, Christene Barberich, the founder and top editor of Refinery29, a website owned by Vice and aimed at women, said she was stepping down after seeing “the raw and personal accounts of Black women and women of color regarding their experiences” at the company. Several former staffers had posted on social media about racism they experienced, including pay disparities.  In a memo to staff, Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc said the company will begin a company-wide and systematic overhaul of “how we hire, develop and retain a globally diverse workforce.” Barberich will remain with the company through a “transition period,” Dubuc said. 
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Former World Athletics’ Chief Lamine Diack was in a Paris courtroom Monday as a corruption trial opened against him. The case involves a Russian doping scandal. Eighty-seven-year-old Lamine Diack seemed relaxed as he made his court appearance Monday, sporting a dark grey suit. Arguments in the case were originally due to start in January, but postponed when new documents containing testimony from his son and co-defendant were submitted to the court. Lamine Diack is the former head of World Athletics – which was once known as the IAAF. As head of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015, Diack was once one of the most powerful figures in world athletics. Today, he lives under house arrest in Paris, charged with corruption and money laundering.  Prosecutors allege Diack solicited millions of dollars to cover up Russian doping tests.  Some of the money allegedly went to finance Macky Sall’s 2012 presidential campaign in Senegal. Sall won the election.  If found guilty, Diack faces up to 10 years in prison.  Diack denies wrongdoing. The trial is being held in Paris as the alleged money-laundering happened on French soil.  One of Diack’s lawyers, Simon Ndiaye, told reporters that people were unfairly lashing out against his client without any precise elements to back up their accusations. Ndiaye said Diack’s accusers have forgotten others surrounding the ex-chief. His client’s only concern, Ndiaye said, was to defend the IAAF and preserve its financial resources.  One of Diack’s sons, Papa Massata Diack, also faces corruption among other charges. He remains in Senegal, which has refused to extradite him, and will be tried in absentia. Four others are also on trial.  Briton Sebastian Coe replaced Diack as the association’s head. He is trying to rebuild trust in athletics and has introduced changes in how sport is governed. 
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To entice a European TV executive shopping for programs a few years ago, ABC offered up glossy fare including “Scandal” starring Kerry Washington and “How to Get Away with Murder” with Oscar-winner Viola Davis.
 
“‘This is great, but when are you going to start bringing us shows that don’t have black leads?'” the buyer asked in the 2015 meeting, as then-ABC executive Channing Dungey recounts. “I was sitting in a room in the 21st century, and I thought I was being slapped across the face.”
 
The remark was unusually blunt but the attitude is a familiar one within Hollywood’s own ranks: African American actors and stories make for poor exports, an assertion that’s burdened black artists and limited their opportunity and influence.
 
Until now. Box-office hits like “Black Panther” and the ethnically diverse “Fast & Furious” franchise increasingly undercut what filmmaker Ava DuVernay calls a “longstanding myth,” joined by a new generation of successful small-screen fare.
 
It’s an issue with resonance, as American torment over to the videotaped death of a black man in police custody is reflected in demonstrations held far outside this nation’s borders. Protesters carrying “We Are All George Floyd” and “Black Lives Matter” placards have gathered in cities including Montreal, London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Auckland.
 
Dungey, who at ABC became the first African American to head a major broadcast network and now is Netflix’s vice president for original series, says diversity’s appeal is proven by the streaming service’s globally distributed programs and closely held viewership figures provided to The Associated Press.
 
Racial discrimination and injustice are themes of some, but not all, of the Netflix projects that have drawn widespread audiences. The characters tend to be African American, created by the black writers, directors and stars whose progress in the U.S. entertainment industry has outpaced that of other people of color.
 
“When They See Us,” DuVernay’s Emmy-winning miniseries about the Central Park Five case, was watched by 31 million households worldwide in its first month of release, according to Netflix, with 51 percent of the audience outside the United States. “American Son,” about a missing black teenager that was produced by and starred Washington, was watched in 17 million homes worldwide in its first month, with non-U.S. subscribers making up 46 percent of viewers.
 
“Raising Dion,” about a black youngster with superpowers, drew attention from 32 million households, with 60 percent outside the U.S.
 
“I thought we might be in trouble when it’s called ‘American Son,'” Washington said of her film’s global prospects. “But the (African) diaspora was vast and large and the struggles that people of color have in facing prejudice when dealing with people in authority, that is not an American phenomenon. Racism and the prejudice expressed particularly toward young men of color happens all over the world.”
 
Multinational consumption is critical to the streaming service, with about 65 percent of its subscribers outside the U.S.
 
Netflix has begun sharing viewership results with its creators, resulting in what DuVernay called “astounding numbers” that are in dismaying contrast to how her major studio films, “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Selma,” fared with limited international releases.
 
“It wasn’t until I made a small documentary about prisons in America that I felt the world watching my work, and that was because Netflix made ‘13th’ available in 100-plus countries,” she said of her Oscar-nominated 2016 film.
 
The numbers provided by Netflix to the AP aren’t wholly revelatory: they represent one of the service’s viewing yardsticks — households that watched at least two minutes of a program. Netflix declined to provide overall program rankings.
 
Where viewers of black-led projects are found varies widely. “When They See Us” was most popular in Britain, Ireland, the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), and in Africa. “American Son” did well in France, Africa, Mexico and Latin America.
 
“If you think about the global market, what does the rest of the world look like? The rest of the world looks like America’s diversity. It does not look like Europe,” said Darnell Hunt, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor and lead author of annual research on diversity and profitability. “The rest of it is Africa, it’s Asia, it’s Australia, all these other countries that look like America’s minority groups.”
 
Kenya Barris, creator of ABC’s sitcom “black-ish” and Netflix’s new comedy “#blackAF,” saw the bias at work with the 2017 big-screen romp “Girls Trip,” which he co-wrote. It was a U.S. box- office hit with $115 million but drew only $25 million internationally, which Barris attributed to a lack of support.
 
The result is different when a TV show such as “black-ish” is widely seen.
 
“I was in England, gave a waiter my (credit) card and he was like, ‘Oh my God, are you Kenya Barris? I love your show.’ And I was shocked,” said the writer-producer.
 
Studios and others resisting inclusiveness risk a “death knell” as newcomers such as Netflix open their doors, DuVernay said.
 
“Now there is a way to say, ‘I’m not going to deal with the trauma of this lie that handcuffs my work,'” she said. “I’m going to make work where it is embraced and where it will be shared widely.”
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Until last week, if you clicked the hashtag #whitelivesmatter on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you’d find a smattering of right-wing posts by those opposed to the wave of global protests against racism and police brutality.  But follow that hashtag now, and you’re likely to find something much different: random, fan-created videos of South Korean pop music stars.  Over the past week, K-Pop fans around the world have commandeered the #whitelivesmatter hashtag, as well as #alllivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter, as a way to drown out racist posts that have also used those labels. It’s not just hashtags. When the Dallas, Texas police department set up a mobile app for users to submit videos of “illegal activity” from the protests, K-Pop fans quickly overwhelmed the site with tributes to their favorite stars, forcing the police department to take it down because of “technical difficulties.”  The online disruption, combined with the millions of dollars donated by K-Pop celebrities and their followers to Black Lives Matter causes, underscores how international fans of Korean music have emerged as a formidable organizing force for social causes around the world. “Their ability to massively coordinate action is just unparalleled. I’m serious when I say they are the most potent online force in the world right now,” says TK Park, who has written about Korean pop culture and runs the “Ask A Korean!” blog. Organizing skills It may seem random, but the closer you look the more sense it makes. K-Pop has become a global phenomenon, with massive fan bases in every part of the world. In the United States, many of those fans are African Americans. As Park points out, K-Pop fans everywhere are very skilled at massive online campaigns with very specific goals. Usually, that means coordinated efforts by fans to push certain songs or videos up the music charts by streaming them obsessively or posting about the content on social media.  “These groups of fans have accumulated a lot of [organizing] experience while supporting their idols,” says Hong Seok-kyeong, a communications professor at Seoul National University. “It requires a great deal of logic and strategy, like setting a timeline or choosing a channel.”  But K-Pop fans are increasingly aiming their grassroots organizational powers at charitable and other causes, such as A group of protesters take a knee while marching in lower Manhattan, June 6, 2020, in New York.But those efforts have been turbo-charged with the reemergence of Black Lives Matter protests, which were spurred by the most recent police killings of African Americans.  After BTS on Sunday donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter organization, the group’s fans, known collectively as the “ARMY,” matched that donation within 24 hours, according to the OIAA website — a stunning display of online fundraising ability.  우리는 인종차별에 반대합니다.
우리는 폭력에 반대합니다.
나, 당신, 우리 모두는 존중받을 권리가 있습니다. 함께 하겠습니다.
We stand against racial discrimination.
We condemn violence.
You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.#BlackLivesMatter
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) June 4, 2020“We’re happy to help ARMY organize and support the Black Lives Matter movement,” said an OIAA spokesperson. “We stand in solidarity with black ARMY. They’re an important part of our family. And we stand with black people everywhere. Your voices deserve to be heard.” Political past It’s not the first time K-Pop fans have influenced international politics.  In 2019, Korean music fans in Chile were partly responsible for a series of protests calling for more social and economic equality, a report by the country’s interior ministry concluded.  During those protests, K-pop fans criticized alleged human rights violations by the Chilean police force, according to a report by CNN Chile.  Why K-Pop? 
But why are K-Pop fans more politically active, especially on explicitly progressive causes, than fans of other types of music?  After all, most K-Pop songs aren’t particularly political, at least no more than the music of any other country. The answer, according to Park, may be that K-Pop seems to have a special appeal to racial minorities and immigrants across the world — groups that don’t necessarily see themselves reflected in white-dominated western pop culture.  In the United States, Asian-Americans and then African Americans were among the first to embrace Korean music, Park says. He notes there has been a similar trend in Europe. It’s possible, he speculates, that K-Pop is “essentially serving as a pop culture conduit connecting the marginalized around the world.” It could be “the pop culture representation of Third Worldism,” he says, referring to the diplomatic stance of non-aligned countries during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The explanation may not be all-encompassing. After all, not all Korean music fans are marginalized or even minorities.  But whatever is behind the activism, one thing is certain: the organization of K-pop fans is organic, with both the strategies and targets developing naturally online.  “This collective action takes place as voluntary support, not a top-down order,” says Professor Hong. “They learn from themselves, by themselves.” While some K-Pop fans have at times been accused of cyber bullying, groups like OIAA are now trying to harness the community’s collective power to accomplish “global good,” the group’s website says. To do that, the collective selects a different non-profit group every month to which it directs fan contributions.  “Many people giving small amounts,” it says, “can create a substantial impact when we work together.”   Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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