The Recording Academy Is On a International Mission

The Recording Academy is in a world way of thinking. 

With the rise of genres like Okay-pop and Afrobeats and the regular domination of Latin music — from conventional regional Mexican to up to date Latin entice music — the group that places on the Grammy Awards yearly has been on a mission to globalize and broaden its presence and work around the globe.

This yr, the Academy partnered with the United Nations to indicate how the facility of music promotes social change around the globe and launched a marketing campaign that encourages artists to make use of their expertise to assist human rights points, together with advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, girls’s empowerment and local weather justice; the Latin Recording Academy, launched 25 years in the past, will maintain the Latin Grammys (set for Nov. 16) outdoors of the U.S. for the primary time — in Sevilla, Spain; and the Grammys will debut its finest African music efficiency class on the 2024 present, giving African-based artists extra publicity.

And final month Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. traveled to Washington, D.C., for the State Division’s International Music Diplomacy Initiative launch, which is a direct results of the PEACE By Music Diplomacy Act, which the Academy constantly advocated for (President Biden signed it into regulation final yr). Mason jr. and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken offered iconic musician Quincy Jones, a 28-time Grammy winner, the first-ever Peace by means of Music Award on the occasion.

“In the previous few years the Academy has tried to place itself to make use of music and our platform for good and for international change, and we see the thought of exploring what we are able to do around the globe as a really subsequent logical step — each for our members and for what we are able to accomplish to maneuver the needle,” Mason jr. tells The Hollywood Reporter. “The way in which music has been going, the best way that the world goes, it’s changing into smaller, expertise is permitting us to do extra, and we’re seeing these actually thriving, vibrant music scenes maturing and creating all around the globe, and the music ecosystem has simply developed. It’s simply modified. You’re listening to songs from different elements of the world on our streaming platforms and radio. You’re listening to our music being exported around the globe, however issues that used to maintain music very contained — borders, languages, customs, beliefs — they’re actually being worn out and music is transcending and going around the globe.”

Later this month the Academy shall be an official companion of the Abu Dhabi Tradition Summit and take part in workshops and dialogue in regards to the Center Japanese music scene for a second yr; on the 2022 Grammys the group devoted a phase to the conflict in Ukraine, which included an tackle by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and an unique track by John Legend; in April Grammys on the Hill highlighted Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist Dr. Ahmad Sarmast and his Afghanistan Nationwide Institute of Music; and at this yr’s Grammys First Girl Dr. Jill Biden offered the inaugural finest track for social change award to the Iranian protest track “Baraye” by Shervin Hajipour.

Mason jr. says the Academy has frolicked on the highway “assembly with music individuals, assembly with ministers of tradition, assembly with influential individuals, authorities, management to actually get a way of what they’re engaged on of their areas.

“We’ve been going to each nook of the world to study and perceive what’s taking place and the place we’d have the ability to be useful or in service. We’ve additionally been finding out what’s taking place on the enterprise facet of music. The place are there shoppers? The place are individuals creating a whole lot of music? The place are individuals listening to a whole lot of music? The place are we seeing the following music scene creating?” he explains.

“What are the issues which are missing? What are the issues that they really feel they wish to enhance? Or what are the issues they’re making an attempt to develop? And is there house for us? Is there room for us? We don’t go locations pondering we’re going to show someone one thing or we’re going to deliver this nice experience and data. We’re going locations to attempt to perceive how we are able to collaborate, how we will be part of their music ecosystem,” Mason jr. continues. “Our members are making the music that’s being exported around the globe. We all know this. It’s occurred for a very long time, however much more so now. What we don’t know is how our members are capable of management, monetize and shield their work all around the globe. There’s billions of individuals which are listening to the music, however we wish to additionally make sure that there’s a wholesome equitable ecosystem the place creators from the U.S. and around the globe can take part and profit and earn a good dwelling from their artwork.”

In Africa particularly, Mason jr. says the continent is an open marketplace for musicians to search out audiences who can eat their music. “In Africa, there’s 1.4 billion individuals. It’s the youngest inhabitants on the planet so far as the continent is anxious. They’re consuming in all probability simply as a lot music, if no more, than anyplace else on the earth. So the market in Africa, if developed, could possibly be an enormous music market the place everybody from across the globe is likely to be saying ‘how can we get into the African market?’ as an alternative of ‘how can we get into the U.S. market?’”

Mason jr. — who can be a preferred, Grammy-nominated songwriter-producer who has labored with Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Aretha Franklin, Justin Bieber, Toni Braxton, Chris Brown and others — says he traveled to Korea greater than a decade in the past to work with Okay-pop musicians. “And I noticed the chance and I used to be like, ‘This Okay-pop music is unimaginable. They’re so artistic. They’re making nice data. The artists, the event is there.’ And it actually turned embedded in my consciousness that it wasn’t nearly making music for the U.S., and it wasn’t nearly producing artists within the U.S. And it actually opened up my thoughts, and that expansiveness is one thing that I’ve carried over to my position right here on the Academy. And that’s actually, for me personally, one of many first examples of how I see the worth in globalization and why it is smart for the Academy, for our members, for our business to proceed to achieve out and proceed to broaden as a result of there’s simply a lot nice alternative.”

“A giant a part of why we’re doing it is because I strongly consider within the energy of music. That’s the explanation I’m right here. I promise you, I actually love celebrating the most effective of the most effective year-to-year with trophies and Grammys and ceremonies and events and the shiny stage, however what I actually love is utilizing that as a chance to amplify and discuss what music can do,” he continues. “Going to a rustic the place the narrative that the world has heard about them has all the time been one factor, and thru music, they will begin telling completely different tales. They will begin opening different individuals’s eyes and hopefully different individuals’s hearts. And take into consideration elements of the world the place perhaps they haven’t all the time had the power to precise themselves or have freedom of speech, or they’ve been oppressed or they’ve been underrepresented — by means of music, they will inform these tales.”

He provides: “And as we begin touring the world and assembly with these creators, we wish to assist them wherever they’re from. We’re not going locations to attempt to get into politics or get into authorities. It’s in regards to the creators. And take into consideration the thought of utilizing music to permit all these individuals from around the globe to precise themselves, to collaborate, to work with different individuals and inform completely different tales — that’s one of many large explanation why I strongly consider that it’s incumbent on the Academy to ensure we’re representing not only a small subset of music individuals, however a world group of music creators.”