Glamour! Lights! Stars! Performances! Many words described the night of the Grammy’s. With every Grammy’s, there is always a winner. These winners are usually musicians who have pushed themselves to put out a quality album for listeners.

This prompts question, as it does every year, did the winners deserve the awards they won? I plan on answering this question with this article, but I want to put some background behind some of points.

2015 was an amazing year for the music industry. New artists were emerging and even breaking new ground with different sounds and melodies. I personally have been listening to a lot of music that has came out this year, and there is not much like it.

So obviously the awards were well deserved, right?

This is not the case.

I’m the kind of person that is big on rock and roll. So when the winner of best rock album was announced, I eagerly went to the internet to check if one of my favorite artists had made the cut. None of them had made it, but who was the winner?

Drones by Muse. Now listen, I am a big fan of Muse, but their new album just did not cut it. So why would Drones win this award?

This is where I started thinking a lot more about the importance of mainstream influence. For example, 1989 by Taylor Swift won the title of album of the year, over many releases. Now in no way is her album bad, but did it really beat other musical heavyweights? The problem with these other artists are not their musical capabilities, but their ability to thrive in mainstream culture.

While Kendrick Lamar’s newest album was a huge feat for the musician and his popularity, the album was not able to break through other people’s standards, meaning that he did not break the mainstream barrier.

What I’m trying to say is that these award shows are mainly run by popularity of said artist over talent. I am not saying boycott these events, but to just keep in mind the bias of the events before you end up ranting to your friends about the winners of certain award shows.