One academy insider stresses
the urgency to settle with Dugan
and move past the last two years of
troubles, rhetorically asking Billboard:
“How much longer does [the acad-
emy] want to drag this out before
they risk having to rebuild the whole
organization from scratch?”
Another industry executive sug-
gests that if Dugan leaves — and the
expectation is that she’ll do so after
the investigation is concluded, if
not before — the organization’s next
leader should continue to change it.
“It all needs to be overhauled,” says
the executive. “It sounds like every-
thing [Dugan] was bringing up should
be investigated, but she was moving
too fast too soon and didn’t try to work
within the system and, instead, just
blazed through it.”
Others believe that, despite seem-
ingly being open to evolving during
the CEO recruitment process, the
academy board is too locked into its
way of working to embrace any kind
of shift. “She believed she was coming
to be an agent of change, but they
don’t really want change at all,” says a
source. “They had entrenched ways of
doing business, and anything she tried
to change was met with, ‘That’s not
how we do it.’ ”
Whoever takes the reins from
Dugan may face similar obstacles in
trying to enact change from within
while dealing with increased calls for
reform from creators and music execu-
tives outside the academy. On Dec. 12,
the task force that had been set up in
2018 to address diversity and inclusion
released a report with 18 recommenda-
tions, zeroing in on the academy’s ho-
mogenous, 44-member national board
of trustees and how some have kept
their positions — and maintained their
power — for years. Since 2012, the
report found, the academy board has
been 68% male and 69% Caucasian,
a state of affairs it blamed on an out-
moded election process. “Chapters are
repeatedly electing the same people,
[making] it difficult (if not impossible)
for new, underrepresented voices to
break in,” the report stated. “[Chapters
have] essentially become silos.” The
current board is now 35% women, and
50% of the trustees have served for
three years or less.
The task force recommended let-
ting the academy’s voting members
elect one-third of the board’s trustees
from a pool chosen by the executive
committee, having local chapters elect
one-third (as they do now) and hiring
an independent entity to fill in the final
one-third after the first two-thirds
have been chosen to ensure the most
diverse possible outcome.
In response to the task force’s
recommendation, the academy agreed
to change its voting system — but not
nearly as much as many music execu-
tives had hoped. Trustees voted in No-
vember that 30 out of 38 of the trustees
would continue to be elected by local
chapters, which have little oversight
under the current process. The overall
membership afterward would vote on
the remaining eight trustees.
For now, Mason — who first became
a trustee over a decade ago — is work-
ing to put the spotlight back on the
Grammy stage.
“I encourage anyone who is truly
interested to go beyond the sensational
sound bites and teaser headlines and
look at what the academy actually
does and how it functions,” he wrote
in his letter to the organization’s
membership. “My pledge to you is that
I will address the findings of these
investigations fairly and honestly and
work to make needed repairs and
changes while ensuring we have an
academy that honors diversity, inclu-
sion and a safe work environment for
all concerned.”
Politics As Usual?
MUSICIANS ARE COVETED ENDORSEMENTS — BUT
THEY’VE PROVED A MIXED BLESSING
BY STEVE KNOPPER
A
NDREW YANG SANG
along to Weezer
frontman Rivers
Cuomo’s performance
of “Say It Ain’t So” at a campaign
rally in Des Moines, Iowa, in
November. Days later, Jack White
screamed the ironic White Stripes
“Icky Thump” line “Why don’t
you kick yourself out/You’re an
immigrant too?” under a Bernie
Sanders sign in Detroit. That same
month, Ben Harper changed a
line in the song “People Lead”
to “When Pete takes the lead,”
endorsing Pete Buttigieg.
Every candidate in the Feb. 3
Iowa Democratic caucus knows
pop stars have the ability to draw
attention to their campaigns even
more than movie stars or other
celebrities. Yang has smartly used
artists like Cuomo and Childish
Gambino for this purpose; Sanders
is better known, but his progres-
sive politics align seamlessly with
liberal artists from White to Cardi B.
In primary season, pop stars could
be an X-factor to help candidates
distinguish themselves.
Artist endorsements rarely push
campaigns over the edge, yet can-
didates crave them. “The group [of
voters] that’s really important is the
group that doesn’t pay a whole lot
of attention to politics — and all of
a sudden, Katy Perry, who they like,
is paying attention to Hillary Clin-
ton,” says Joe Trippi, a Democratic
strategist who worked on Howard
Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign
and is advising Sen. Doug Jones
on his Alabama reelection. “You’re
getting people who don’t tune in,
necessarily, to political discourse, to
start thinking about that candidate.”
Of all the candidates, Sand-
ers has by far the most musical
endorsements, including Cardi B,
Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and
Brandi Carlile. “Pop, rock, hip-hop
and R&B stars cast themselves as
outliers, free thinkers and individu-
alists who resist the status quo,”
says Columbia University journalism
professor David Hajdu. “That’s why
someone like Bernie Sanders, an
old white guy in his 70s, can stand
up with any 20-year-old rock and
pop star and they seem in sync. We
think they’re telling the same story.”
Musicians can make a more
emotional connection with voters
than other celebrities, but there is
a risk. “The memes and the images
can last a long time,” says MSNBC
contributor and author Jason
Johnson. “A wrong look, the image
of JAY-Z looking vaguely bored
when he’s got his arm around Hill-
ary Clinton’s shoulder — those are
things that can be awkward.”
The efforts also don’t always
work. Last fall, Taylor Swift an-
nounced support for U.S. Senate
candidate Phil Bredesen in her
home state of Tennessee and
helped register 169,000 voters,
but Bredesen lost to Rep. Marsha
Blackburn. In 2016, Clinton drew
dozens of musical endorsements,
from Demi Lovato to Snoop Dogg.
President Donald Trump’s sup-
port from the music world isn’t as
crucial to his 2020 campaign as
it is for lesser-known Democrats:
He’s already a celebrity and doesn’t
need outside star power to draw
attention. “Performers who are in
sync with the kind of mid-America
discontent and bubbling-up rage,
a feeling of just being fed up with
liberals — like Kid Rock — suit
Trump,” says Hajdu. Trippi adds
that Trump plays well-known
songs at his rallies, even when
Rihanna, Elton John and others
have demanded that he stop, for
one crucial reason. “Music drives
everything,” he says. “If it wasn’t
important, why don’t they stop
playing Prince? It matters.”
23.71B
7.2%
TOTAL ON-DEMAND
STREAMS WEEK
OVER WEEK
Number of audio and video
on-demand streams for the week
ending Jan. 16.
45.83B
18.7%
TOTAL ON-DEMAND
STREAMS YEAR OVER
YEAR TO DATE
Number of audio and video
streams for 2020 so far over the
same period in 2019.
13.2M
3.8%
ALBUM CONSUMPTION
UNITS WEEK OVER WEEK
Album sales plus track-equivalent
albums plus streaming-
equivalent albums for the week
ending Jan. 16.
MARKET WATCH
GRATEFUL DEAD’S ICE NINE SIGNED A PUBLISHING DEAL WITH WARNER CHAPPELL. PRIMARY WAVE MUSIC PUBLISHING PARTNERED WITH THE ESTATE OF DONNY HATHAWAY.
White at a
Sanders rally
in Detroit in
October.
SCOTT^HEINS/GETTY^IMAGES34 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020