Michael Jackson Wins Four American Music Awards: So What? - A Look at Award Shows

Last night, Michael Jackson took home four American Music Awards for Pop/Rock Favorite Male Artist, Soul/R&B Favorite Male Artist and Favorite Album in both genres for the album Number Ones. That's two awards on the night for an album that was released in 2003.

The real question is "so what?" The American Music Awards were created in 1973 by Dick Clark as a response to the Grammy Awards but unlike the Grammys, it is based solely on popularity and not artistic merit. The nominations are based on the biggest selling record or artist in each genre and the winner picked by the public in a (now) on-line poll.

That means that only those things that sell, whether they are good or not, get nominated and the one that is currently most popular wins. People tend to "love" the latest, being unable to put their current musical lust into perspective against older artists/songs. Taylor Swift is the current "it" artist, so she naturally takes home five awards. Michael Jackson has been foremost in the news for months, so he takes four (even though, a year ago, he couldn't have bought a nomination much less an award).

Thus, we tend to consider the American Music Awards as a "tier three" bottom of the barrel awards show with little long-term significance. To explain further, here is how we breakdown awards of the four major groups, music, movies, TV and theater.

Tier 1 - The Majors

There is one major award for each area of entertainment, the Academy Awards/Oscars (movies), the Grammys (music), the Emmys (TV) and the Tonys (theater). They carry the most prestige and generally get the most publicity. There are flaws in most of their systems as the entire membership for each gets to vote in most categories, so rappers vote for country artists at the Grammys and sound editors vote for actors at the Oscars. Overall, though, these awards allow the widest group of professionals to evaluate the other professionals in their industry.

Tier 2 - Genre, Guild and Critics Awards

The next most important groups include a wide range of award shows that recognize and are voted on by a specific subset of each industry. In the field of music, there are the genre specific awards like the CMA and Acaedmy of Country Music Awards, both recognizing achievements in country music. Fellow industry people nominate and vote for others in their specific genre. In Soul/R&B/Hip Hop there are the BET Awards and revived Soul Train Awards. Even smaller genres get in the act with the Americana Awards, Bluesgrass Awards and others.

In the film industry, the various guilds have their own awards, including the Director's Guild, Writer's Guild and Screen Actor's Guild. In all cases, the voting members are others of the same vocation who, presumably, are the best people to judge the work of their piers.

Finally, there are the critics awards. As they say, if you can't do, be a critic but the fact is that many of those who write about movies, theater, etc. for a living are knowledgeable in their field and may have seen the widest array of productions to be able to evaluate what truly is the best of a year. Critic's awards include the Golden Globes for movies and TV and the Drama Desk and New York Theater Critics awards for Broadway and Off-Broadway.
Tier 3 - The Junk

The American Music Awards, the MTV Movie Awards, the People's Choice Awards, the Teen Choice Awards. They all have one thing in common. They are voted on by the public. Not that the public shouldn't have an opinion but, don't they already choose their "favorites" through record sales, TV viewership and movie and theater box office? These awards are nothing more than another way to promote the latest projects, be seen on another red carpet, get personalities that have nothing to do with a genre to present awards ("...and now, to present the award for Best Actor in a Drama, here's Carrot Top") and get egos stroked in one more way.