So what's wrong with an obscure artist suddenly grabbing a Grammy nomination? Sounds like my kind of story, except that a growing number of people absolutely hate how this happened. The simmering controversy surrounds Grammy nominee Linda Chorney, a 51-year-old from South Jersey who's been accused of
blatantly gaming the Grammy system. It all started a few weeks ago, when Chorney successfully lured enough votes by networking at Grammy365, a private network filled with voting members. In the end, the carefully-constructed ploy worked, and Chorney now finds herself sitting on an Americana nomination slate that also includes Lucinda Williams, Ry Cooder, and Emmylou Harris. That's kosher according to the Recording Academy, and Chorney was playing by the rules. But the Americana community is quietly fuming. "The Americana Music Association has yet to acknowledge Linda on their website, newsletter or press releases about nominees in their category," Chorney's publicist told Digital Music News last week. "They don't want to mention Linda Chorney. I think they’re doing an injustice to music in general, by doing this."
Indeed, we didn't see this newcomer anywhere on americanamusic.org, where legends like Lucinda Williams and Gregg Allman are featured. Maybe that's a sneering response from purists, or maybe that's because Chorney shrewdly picked the category as part of the game. In other words, a smaller, more insular genre that could be more easily influenced. One report suggested that Chorney looked 'Americana' up on Wikipedia, which loosely coincides with what her publicist told us. "Based on Webster's definition of what 'Americana' was, and she felt that it would fit," the publicist shared. "She felt she'd have a better chance [in Americana,] because she didn't feel she could compete with Lady Gaga."Perhaps the publicist was being a bit too forthcoming: shortly after our interview, Chorney cut her loose. But really, who cares: Chorney is now busy managing the things that a Grammy nomination brings, including lots of press, radio station appearances, and a whole host of production, label, and publishing partnerships that were previously unavailable. It's a game, and Chorney simply figured out how to play it.
Source
Posted 21/2011
