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The Recording Academy said it was adopting a
so-called "inclusion rider" to its contract with producers of
the January 2022 Grammy ceremony to boost diversity at every
level.
The inclusion rider will oblige the company that produces the
show to "make its best effort to recruit, audition, interview
and hire on-stage and off-stage people who have been
historically and systematically excluded from the industry."
The Recording Academy said it would be the first major music
awards show to commit to using an inclusion rider.
The move is part of wider efforts to elevate Black voices at all
levels of the music business following a cultural reckoning
spurred by the 2020 nationwide protests over systemic racism in
the United States.
Rap and R&B is the dominant music genre in the United States but
only a handful of Black executives are at senior levels in the
industry.
Inclusion riders were first adopted in the film and television
industry some three years ago as contract extensions that
stipulate the numbers of women and people of color working in
front of and behind the camera on individual projects. They have
since been extended to cover age, disability and sexual
orientation.
"We're dedicated to fostering an environment of inclusion
industry-wide and hope that our efforts set an example for our
peers in the music community," Recording Academy Chief Executive
Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Recording Academy is partnering with racial justice
nonprofit Color of Change on the inclusion rider initiative.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Richard Chang)
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