Should they give a Grammy for Hawaiian music?
In case you were living under a rock and missed the news yesterday, Tia Carrere won her second Grammy for Best Hawaiian Music Album, beating out perennial Na Hoku Hanohano winners Amy Hanaiali’i, Ledward Kaapana and Jeff Peterson. Since the category was created in 2005, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has awarded five Grammys to slack key guitar compilations and two albums by Carrere. Due to the Academy’s obvious lack of knowledge of Hawaiian music, should there even be a Hawaiian music category?
2005 – Slack Key Guitar Volume II
2006 – Masters Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Vol. 1
2007 – Legends Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar: Live From Maui
2008 -Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar
2009 – Ikena by Tia Carrere and Daniel Ho
2010 – Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2
2011 – Huana Ke Aloha by Tia Carrere
Hawaiian music is so much more than slack key guitar, so you could argue that this list is not reflective of the diversity of Hawaiian music. It’s also worth noting that all of Carrere’s Hawaiian albums have been nominated for Grammys and that six of the seven Grammy winning albums were produced by Los Angeles based Daniel Ho. Someone who doesn’t know much about Hawaiian music could look at this list and think Carrere is one of the top recording artists in Hawaii, which she’s not. It’s not that Carrere’s albums are bad. It’s just that Na Hoku Hanohano winners like Hanaiali’i, The Brothers Cazimero, Cyril Pahinui, Henry Kapono, Ho’okena, Kapono Beamer, Keali’i Reichel, Ledward Kaapana and Raiatea Helm are equally worthy, if not more worthy, of being recognized.
Given the number of compilation albums that have won, it’s apparent the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is not putting forth much effort to really understand Hawaiian music. I’m sure similar things could be said about other musical genres. For instance, how accurately are Latin or World music represented? The fact that all the music of the rest of the world is lumped into the World Music category suggests most likely not.
However, the Academy has shown that it does eventually catch up to the tastes of the music-listening public. All Metal Heads remember when Jethro Tull — with flutist Ian Anderson leading the band — beat out Metallica for the Best Metal Performance Grammy in 1988. Granted a flute is made of metal, but the Academy was oblivious to the nature of the category. Thankfully, they caught on and awarded the Grammy to Metallica the next year. And although the Grammys wouldn’t have thought of recognizing hip-hop in the past, hip-hop artists are now routinely included among Album and Song of the Year nominees.
But how many more slack key guitar compilation albums will Hawaiian music fans have to endure before the Grammys become comparable to the Na Hoku Hanohano awards?
