I'd say all those ads in Variety, the Hollywood reporter, and other trade magazines asking for nominations and votes show there is a level of caring and an attempt to influence the outcome of such races.
The song or movie probably wasn't produced with competition in mind, but there is certainly competition in vying for the awards. I'm more familiar with the Oscar process, and I know that the studios who produce the movies lobby hard to get them nominated and lobby again to get votes. In the end, you have winners and losers. How is that not a competition?
I meant that there's not an intended competition on the part of the nominees. Yes it's a feather in their cap, possibly their wallet, but there's nothing that the individual does that constitutes a competition, or for which they can affect the outcome. No amount of hard work or exceeding their expectations necessarily gives anyone an edge. The nominations and ultimate voting decisions are made by their peers in the industry, based on the finished work, and obviously not everyone can agree on the winners or non-winners (losers hate being called losers.)
With regard to the Grammy nominations, the first step is the entry process, where voting members submit nominations in various categories. Those nominations are then returned to the voting members for a preliminary vote. Sometimes there are
more than 400 entries for popular categories such as Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, etc. The members can vote for 5 or 6 from the list in their choice of a certain number of categories. Those top results are returned for a final vote, and the winners are determined.
Basically, attempts at recognition are widespread, it's never so unanimous that a clear winner is evident early on. And the nominees can do nothing about it, apart from trying to get some of their voting friends to consider them. I still get emails every fall from (former) fellow members asking me to listen to their work. And of course everyone votes for themselves. But there's nothing that the artist/writer/producer/musician can do to create a product with getting a Grammy as a goal. It's not up to them, and therefore cannot be considered a competition.
Now, the
labels take great pride in the number of Grammy winners in their family... but because of the limit on votable categories, even they can't flood the ballot box with their acts. So there's really not a workable competition there, either. It's really more about bragging rights, and the ability to label certain product with a Grammy Award Winning sticker.
Even if they can renew some interest in an album that came out a year ago, it's unlikely that the extra sales would amount to much.
Yeah, bragging rights is pretty much the extent of it.
Bermuda
