Did the Grammys really ‘get it right’?

Welcome to Open Up and Read, the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow. Tell your friends to subscribe at OpenUpAndRead.com. You can also toss a few dollars his way via Ko-Fi. Be kind to cats. Music is the best.

A few days removed from the Grammys, it seems the consensus is that the show good! They finally “got it right.” The correct people won and we, the viewers, enjoyed a reprieve from the onslaught of climate change disasters, plane crashes and fascist tactics.

There was an air of positivity within the show, despite reality. Andrew Unterberger, a very good writer at Billboard[1], said the Grammys had “such little inherent drama or divisiveness that it felt like the room was altogether in the fight, more focused on battling what was going outside that room than on sparring with one another within it.”

During the broadcast? Yes. Chappell Roan advocated for musicians’ mental health and living wages. Lady Gaga and Charli XCX showed support for the trans community. Alicia Keys and Shakira used their moments to denounce the attacks on civil rights, diversity and immigrants. These stars clashed against the oppressive, regressive forces that seek to drag us back into the darkness.

But during the untelevised pre-show, it was business as usual, with the Grammys handing out awards to Dave Chappelle and Chris Brown.

I’m not going to tell you what you think about Chris Brown. It’s been fifteen years since he assaulted Rihanna, but the dude has racked up many more controversies since then. I’m sure he’d like us all to see how he’s grown since that night in 2009, but as someone once paid to write about him at length, I can say that his act of getting his shit together remains a work in progress.

As for Dave Chappelle, at this point, everyone should know the man likes mocking the trans community. He won’t stop it; why should he? He keeps getting rewarded for it. His “obsession” with trans people has gone over three Netflix specials now, including 2023’s The Dreamer—which just won him the Grammy for Best Comedy Album.

It’s his sixth win in the past ten years. The only other winners are Tiffany Haddish, Patton Oswalt and Louis C.K. (whose second win came in 2022, five years after admitting to the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in a New York Times article). The Recording Academy seems happy to overlook dudes being shitty to others if they know how to make ‘em laugh.

I’m not entirely up to date on comedy, so I asked James Crowley, the culture commentator behind Doom and Groove and a stand-up comedian, whether The Dreamer was the best.

“Personally, I do think Nikki [Glaser’s Someday You’ll Die] should’ve won it from those nominated,” he says. “She had such a huge year with The Roast of Tom Brady, and this special really made her stand out while riding that wave.”

“Plus, [Someday You’ll Die is] legitimately funny,” adds James. “I feel like the Grammys just give the trophy to Chappelle because he's the most recognizable name. I have my doubts that any Grammy voters are watching all five of those specials, so they're just going with the most famous person.”

Currently, Recording Academy members are entrusted to “only select and vote in the Fields and categories in which they work, day to day.” But, more times than not, they get it wrong, either snubbing obvious picks or random nominations (see André 3000’s New Blue Sun AOTY nomination and how Jacob Collier has set up residency in the category[2]).

Harvey Mason Jr., the CEO of the Recording Academy, appeared during the 2025 broadcast to tout how the voting process has changed. He cited how the Recording Academy snubbed The Weeknd’s After Hours and its massive hit, “Blinding Lights,” as an example of how badly they fucked it up.

(Cue a surprise performance by The Weeknd. Boycotts be damned when you got a new album to promote.)

I don’t know. It’s dubious for Mason to say the Recording Academy thinks music is a force “that unites us” after giving a Grammy to a dude who proudly said he was on “team TERF.[3]”

And the Recording Academy can’t pat itself on the back for being inclusive and adding more women to its ranks if they’re rewarding a singer who had a five-year restraining order against him for allegedly making death threats against his ex.

Hey, if you think Chris Brown has paid his penance, that’s your choice (hell, I listen to music by assholes, too.) Many people have forgiven him: 11:11, which won the Grammy for Best R&B Album[4], reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200. He continues to rack up streams and ticket sales. Chris Brown is going to be okay. He doesn’t need the Recording Academy’s cosign. Neither does Chappelle, who is probably signing another Netflix deal as we speak.

So, when these guys drop another album, I’m asking the Recording Academy to consider someone else.

I know the Grammys are an industry event. Discussing its morality is like trying to philosophize the AHR Expo.

But many people left the 2025 Grammys feeling good, and it’s a time when we’re desperate for some kind of a win. The world has gone to shit, as Stereogum’s Chris DeVille wrote, but viewers were happy to see Beyoncé get her overdue Album of the Year. They watched those star-making performances by Doechii, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter (as if these women weren’t already superstars). Everyone wanted to join Charli XCX as she took a brat victory lap that included trans models and activists. It was a fun night, something not usually said about the Grammys.

Yeah, the show came close to being worthy of being called “Music’s Biggest Night.” But if the Grammys really want to “get it right,” they need to do it throughout the whole program and not just during the primetime broadcast. Maybe next year.

[1] This is sincere. The whole piece might be a contrarian stance against what he wrote, but his recap is more eloquent in its observance.  

[2] He seems like a good guy desperately in search of a comb. He just is always up for Album of the Year.

[3] Chappelle’s The Closer, which also won him a Grammy.

[4] Technically, it was 11:11 (Deluxe). Apparently, those extra 13 tracks were what he needed to push it over the edge.

When Anthony Kiedis appeared on the Grammys, I saw a few people point out his own problematic sexual history. If we still hold Chris Brown to his past mistakes, the same can be done for the RHCP singer.

Gorija won Best Metal Performance for "Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)," the song they performed at the 2024 Olympics. Someone on Bluesky wrote, “If Gojira wasn't involved in the Olympics, then Metallica would have won.” They’re right. After presenter Bob Clearmountain read out Gojira’s name, the house band began to play Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” Apparently, they didn’t have enough time to learn “Flying Whales.”

Clearmountain almost accepted the Grammy on Gojira’s behalf because the band was seated so far back in the Crypto.com arena that it took them forever to get to the stage.

At least Bob got the name correctly. On the red carpet, Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante got mistaken for Poppy…and she went with it for three minutes. And everyone has joked about it.

The Hollywood Reporter published a guest column from a former music industry executive who felt the overwhelming need to write 1700 words criticizing Chappell Roan’s Grammy acceptance speech asking labels to provide mental health services and a livable wage to their artists.

It’s a hate-read; find it for yourself. It boils down to how dare you make any demand! You lack knowledge of the nuances of the situation! You need to spend more time in the industry to realize this is how it’s supposed to be!

If there’s an indication of how this is a smug bloviation, it has a subheading that reads “Bill Maher Had a Point.” When you’re siding with a shithead who thinks he knows it all, you’re on the wrong side.

This is why societal change is an uphill battle. Roan made a simple critique of the music industry—notorious for how it preys on dreamers and workers, tossing them aside at the earliest chance to make a profit—and this fool rushed in to vigorously defend it.

It is essentially this:

Moon Destroys released a new song, “Echoes (The Empress),” off their forthcoming debut album, She Walks By Moonlight. The band’s sound is a hit of heavy psychedelic stonergaze. It caught my attention because it features Juan Montoya (formerly of Torche) but you got Charlie Suárez, Arnold Nese, and Evan Diprima. So it’s a mix of Sunday Driver, MonstrO, Torche—just some sludgey goodness.

Suggested Reads: Doom and Groove, Embedded, Kim Kelly’s Salvo. Anything Craig Jenkins writes (including his response to the Grammys).

 I started this newsletter on Beehiiv because I never do things the easy way. If you prefer it on Substack, it’s over there too.

Thanks for reading Open Up and Read, the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow. Tell your friends to subscribe at OpenUpAndRead.com. You can also toss a few dollars his way via Ko-Fi. Be kind to cats. Music is the best.