Do Awards Shows Matter? Con

This year’s Oscars and Grammys award shows have just passed and were subject to some controversy, with La La Land accidentally being named best picture and Beyonce fans’ outraged at the pop icon’s loss. Adele beat out Beyonce for album of the year and “Moonlight” beat out “La La Land” for best picture. By this reasoning, everyone has now accepted that Adele and Moonlight are superior to Beyonce and La La Land.

Now that the facts and the alternative facts are out of the way, it is time to discuss the matter at hand. Do awards matter? The answer is yes and no, but mostly no.

Human beings have accomplished a variety of extraordinary things throughout history, and many of those feats should be celebrated and recognized. However, awards are not to be confused as equal to the effort that it took to achieve those feats.

Actors and recording artists much like athletes sacrifice years of their lives in the hopes of wooing audiences with stunning performances throughout storic careers. With that in mind, does it really make sense to quantify all of their professional worth with a trophy or plaque? The arts are not appreciated for being critically acclaimed or even fiscally successful necessarily. People enjoy watching movies and listening to music when artists put their best effort into projects and deliver great performances. If an award were an actor’s sole motivation for doing that audiences would be robbed of performances that take chances and are not afraid of scrutiny or losing.    

The Grammys and Oscars are not judged by the public, even though both industries would not exist if not for their respective audiences. Critics subjectively decide that one work of art is better than the other and for what purpose exactly? Adele and Beyonce have not gained or lost any fame from the results of the Grammys.

It seems as though award ceremonies are just pretentious and self-glorifying events that people watch much like they watch a commercial. They are both just on television. Oscar viewers are not getting all dressed up to watch the ceremony in their homes. The audience plays such a small role in the ceremony despite being the driving force behind the industry. How could anyone be excited to not actively participate in an event with no action other than acceptance speeches, a few musical performances, and political speeches.   

Actors, musicians and athletes all deserve respect for their accomplishments. It takes years of hard work to be able to perform and create spectacles in the way they do. But at the end of the day an award is a meaningless trinket that does not equal for the hours of practice alongside one’s peers in the pursuit of creating something greater.