photo courtesy of Time magazine
The Grammys, which aired February 5th, is arguably the biggest night of the year for the music industry. Popular artists among upper school students at Fieldston are nominated for many major awards, including ABBA, Harry Styles, Adele and Lizzo. Yet, many students did not plan on watching the Grammys or were even interested in who wins what.
When asking Fieldston form III students whether they plan on watching the Grammys, responses ranged from Stella Brothers saying “as long as I do not have too much homework”, to Noah Bilerman saying “I might watch it in the background. ” Despite being musically inclined like many other peers that were interviewed, Adriana Walker-Neuman said “No, I just don’t think that it is interesting or worth my time.” Stella Gerstenblatt said, “I’ll watch a bit for the fashion, but that is really it.” When asked if these students knew who was nominated for what, they did not know. Although many students and people worldwide listen to music on a daily basis, watching musical artists get recognition for their accomplishments within the music industry does not seem interesting to many students. Instead, they believe there are better things that they would rather be doing with their limited free time.
Among the students surveyed, the most predicted winner for Best Album was Harry’s House, and for Best Song, “As it Was.” Whether these popular artists win a Grammy this year, Fieldston student Helena Stark said, “Whoever wins a Grammy won’t impact whose music I listen to…I may just watch some recorded clips of the Grammy the next day though.” Nowadays, students can listen to music on their phones at their discretion instead of live television or radio, which dictated when and who to listen to.
When asking parents if they watched the Grammys as kids, some remember staying up past midnight to watch the entire show. Others recall talking about what happened the next day at school. Student Ella Eisenberg’s mom, Liz Eisenberg, said, “As a kid, I liked to see the artists and use that to see who to listen to and see what the artists wear.” The Grammys distinguishes itself from other music awards, such as the Billboard Music Awards and the American Music Awards, because it is peer-voted, not fan based.
Since peaking at 39 million viewers in 2012, the numbers plummeted to 26.05 million viewers in 2017 and then plunged again to 8.93 million in 2022. Based on students surveyed at Fieldston, the downward trend did not appear to be reversing for this year’s Grammys. However, we found ourselves slightly surprised to find the numbers in 2023 increase to 12.4 million. The 65th Grammys aired live this past Sunday at 7pm EST; Trevor Noah hosted.
