Grammy Awards

Originally a respected award from its inception until the 80s, it's now a night of music industry masturbation. 90% of the awards are given based on how well an album sold rather than an artist's critical and artistic recognition. Mainstream, generic, and record label-designed songs and bands sweep the awards while more talented and deserving artists are either ignored completely or, should they get the nomination, left hanging in the wind while a commercially successful artist accepts an award s/he knew would be theirs as soon as their name was called. Despite this, the jazz, classical, gospel/soul, and folk categories are still respected and the winning artists are held at a high esteem. These genres are less commercially popular than pop, rock, country, hip-hop, and r&b and as such artists are actually awarded based on merit and talent rather than record sales. The night is self-contradicting in that there is always a speech about the importance of music education and the need for new artists, despite the same artists winning every time they're nominated and performances being lip synced and incredibly dull, with very few exceptions.