The 40th anniversary of the Juno Awards was easily the least cringe-inducing in its history – although some might argue that’s not saying much.
The musical guests were decent overall, the pacing was relatively peppy, some great artists took home well-deserved awards and Drake pulled off his hosting duties quite admirably.
However, despite all the noise about the Junos finally giving hip-hop some proper respect by hiring the rap superstar to helm the ceremonies, the Degrassi alumni didn’t take home a single trophy, even though he was leading the pack with six nominations. Seems that they were happy to profit from the ratings he could bring, but when it came to voting, the music industry showed what their true tastes are.
Mulling this over the morning after the awards, I can’t help but think of the infamous full page ad Steve Stoute purchased in the New York Times after this year’s Grammy Awards, in which he accused them of being out-of-touch with contemporary trends, and of using popular artists to get ratings for an institution that doesn’t respect their success. At the time it seemed like sour grapes from someone who doesn’t get how awesome Arcade Fire are, but maybe he does have a point after all.
As much as we enjoy taking the piss out of Drake, you’d think the industry that profits from his incredible success would be willing to throw the dude a bone.
Both the Junos and the Grammy Awards are popularity contests, but are based on who’s popular within the music industry, rather than reflecting the general public’s taste. Given the crumbling state of the mainstream record industry, it’s debatable that anyone would care what it thinks, but the results do tell us a bit about some of the reasons the business is in such trouble.
Compared to big winners Neil Young and Arcade Fire, Drake’s audience is younger, less male-dominated, and less white. The Canadian music industry, on the other hand, is often portrayed as being too male, too white, and too old. The list of winners this year doesn’t do much to counter that perception.
Some might counter that Drake was up against some pretty big names in many of his categories, which is true.
It’s not surprising that Bieber beat him in the Fan Choice category (the kid is hugely popular), nor is it that strange that he lost Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year to Arcade Fire (their Grammy win pretty much locked those up).
However, as much as we respect Shad’s mic skills, no one would argue that giving him Rap Recording of the Year in the untelevised portion wasn’t a major upset. Giving his wholesome traditionalist hip-hop the nod over Drake’s much more contemporary sound would be like Neil Young winning Artist of the Year in 2011 for an experimental folk record that has little hope for radio play or commercial success. Oh wait, that happened too.
So while it’s refreshing to see the Canadian music industry recognizing critically acclaimed artists for a change, even us critics can’t help but wonder how the industry ended up so out-of-touch with popular culture and trends.
If they can’t bring themselves to even recognize Drake’s insane success at a cheesy awards show, is it any wonder the major labels can’t seem to sign anybody who actually sells records?
See photos from the awards show here.
