Why Latin Jazz Was Reinstated in the Grammys
In my opinion, Latin Jazz was reinstated at the Grammys because of declining record sales and the negative public relations incited by a group of Latin Jazz musicians.
NARAS reinstated Latin Jazz because it would be a poor financial decision not to do so and it was becoming a PR nightmare. NARAS realized they were shooting themselves in the foot by being discriminatory, especially against Latinos. This has nothing to do with music classification.
Latin Jazz For Music Sales
NARAS thought a good strategy was to focus on the hot selling music categories and artists which bring in more sales. NARAS must have believed they could increase their music sales numbers by eliminating “distracting” categories.
In other words, they didn’t want another “Esperanza Spalding beats Justin Bieber” for Best New Artist “fiasco”! Perhaps they thought that not winning the Grammy would cost Justin Bieber sales that Esperanza would never come close to replace.
But when record sales numbers came in for 2011, NARAS must have realized they were wrong. Record sales continue to decline. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they are not declining nearly as fast. But they also realized that one of the hottest selling music sectors is the “Latino Crossover” sector (if you can call it that). These would include Don Omar, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and Pitbull among others, who record and appeal to the English speaking Latinos.
What does this has to do with Latin Jazz? The way I see it, Latin Jazz also appeals to a “Latino crossover” audience, although a different one from the ones following Don Omar, Shakira, and J-Lo. But the math is quite simple. Latinos are now the biggest minority and the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Latinos in the U.S. have a purchasing power greater than that of Latinos in Latin America (combined). There are more Latinos in the U.S. than Canadians in Canada. And one of Latinos favorite things to purchase is…you guessed it…music!
Grammys PR Fiasco with Latino Music Market
So the last thing NARAS wants to do is alienate the Latino market if they want to improve their music sales. With Latin Jazz musicians like Bobby Sanabria, John Santos, and many others raising their voices in disgust over the elimination of the Latin Jazz category, NARAS got a bunch of bad public relations press they probably didn’t see coming. The perseverance of Bobby, John, and many others that included Carlos Santana, Eddie Palmieri, and Paul Simon, made them think of the negative PR they were getting on the Latino and general music communities.
The determination and perseverance of Latin musicians like Bobby Sanabria, who led this effort from the very beginning, are a clear reminder that we the people have the power to change things, it we work together. I was encouraged that Latin musicians from other musical genres like Carlos Santana expressed loudly their disapproval of the NARAS decision. Even non-Latinos like Bill Cosby and Paul Simon also joined the fight for Latin Jazz reinstatement.
But I was disappointed not to see more support from known Latino musicians from other Latin music genres. In a case like this all Latinos should join forces. Like Martin Luther King Jr. said…”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
The call for help went out load and clear, and only a few responded to it. Thankfully there were enough respondents to make a significant enough impact on the press and media to make the Latin Jazz elimination a bad decision that turned out was not backed by the record sales numbers NARAS must have expected. I don’t know if NARAS president knows how to read music, but he and his board seem adept at reading financial statements.
Dude, god bless Bobby Sanabria, I swear, that was such a challenge to have them re-introduce Jazz into the Latin Grammys. I truly believe that what they did was completaty out of order, Latin Jazz is still solid and alive, bring in all the nueva musica latina, but man, you gotta keep jazz in there, how could they have taken it off.
Awesome post !
Quote of the day !!!
”Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment of Latin music being reinstated to the Grammy’s. It’s business. The Grammy’s like controversy but not when it’s out of their control and hurts business.
I once knew someone who was given an invite to vote in the Grammy’s. We would discuss music and he’d argue with every opinion I said. I didn’t have a clue. He’d then uncover a review by some big magazine – which agreed with me 100% – and suddenly his viewpoint changed. I soon learned his opinion didn’t mean much as he didn’t have one. Or, as a friend said – he decorated his little trendy box nicely and redecorated every day.