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cocochannel00 · 3 years

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The Azoff Family: A Case Study on one of the Music Industry’s Most Connected Families

(ft. a breakdown of the Grammy voting process and problems)

This is very long so I will try and split it up into categories for everyone (sorry I got carried away- I spent like 2 hours writing this) but enjoy!

*Disclaimer: I want to preface while the majority of this is based in research, some parts may be speculation. I don’t know the family personally so I can’t tell you what goes on behind closed doors but I can tell you how parts of the entertainment/music industry work. I’ve had 5 internships in the industry (one in marketing at one of the big record labels) and the rest of my work is publicity (what I enjoy) and events and a former advisor used to run in the same circles as Irving Azoff (and he spilled some tea last year) I’m not out here to diminish the hard work of any artists or their teams, I’m simply here to showcase parts of the industry that aren’t always shown.*

Please also see: Story Time: How Fan Pages Directly Impact Columbia Records Decisions and Harry Styles Image

IRVING AZOFF: NEVER STOP THE GRIND

Let’s begin with the great business man himself Mr. Irving Azoff Irving Azoff is the literal posture child for connections and power in the music industry (he was also inducted into the 2020 rock and roll hall of fame class which is like a huge fucking deal for a manager to be inducted so you know he's the real deal)

In conclusion, I love Irving Azoff and his drive.

Irving Azoff: Early Years Run Down:

He came up middle class (dad was a pharmacist, mom a bookkeeper) in Danville, Illinois

He dropped out of college to run a small Midwestern concert-booking empire and managed local acts in the era

Opportunity came knocking and he got the chance to manage the Eagles and the rest is history

He's one of the best negotiators and has negotiated business on behalf of stars like Stevie Nicks, the Eagles, and Jimmy Buffet

Azoff has been an incredible manager and his drive to always advocate for his clients while basically not giving two sh*ts about what people think of him has gotten him the incredible reputation he has today.

All of Irving Azoff’s Major Job Positions:

Former President MCA (major label)

Former CEO of Ticketmaster and executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, the behemoth formed from Ticketmaster’s merger with Live Nation.

In 2013 he and Cablevision Systems Corp. CEO and New York Knicks owner James Dolan formed a partnership, Azoff MSG Entertainment (Currently still CEO)

----> Azoff also ran the Forum in Inglewood under Azoff MSG Entertainment after MSG purchased it in 2012 (it was sold in 2020 to the owner of the Clippers) — why do you think Harry played the forum for the Fine Line show? Azoff connection

Azoff MSG Entertainment encompasses all of the other companies including Full Stop Management, Global Music Rights (performance-rights org), and the Oak View Group (arena developing company)

He also is the co-founder and manager of the lobbying group Music Artists Coalition, a group that helps lobby for artists-rights issues such as royalty rates, copyright issue and healthcare insurance (see he's not all bad)

Essentially what I'm getting at is this man knows anybody who's anybody. He's the man you want on your team to help promote your music, plan your tour, and get you on that Grammy nom list.

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JEFFREY AZOFF: THE CHILD OF NEPOTISM

So for those of you that don't know, Jeffery Azoff is Harry's current manager and the son of Irving Azoff (the third of four kids). He's currently a partner at Full Stop Management, the company owned by Irving and the one artists such as Harry, Haim, the Eagles, Kings of Leon, and Meghan Trainer are signed to.

Jeffrey graduated from the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business and started working fresh out of college at his father's old Management company (Frontline Management) working under Maroon 5's manager Jordan Feldstein (the only way you get that kind of internship/job as a 21 year old fresh out of college is if your family or family friends gives it to you). He worked here for 5 years.

Direct Quote from Irving Azoff to Jeffrey (really tells you a lot): "Listen carefully, because I’m going to say this one time. You have a phone and you have my last name. If you can’t figure it out, you’re not my son."

After working for his father, Jeffrey moved on to the talent agency CAA (Creative Artist Agency) where he worked for roughly 3 and half years before joining his dad in forming Full Stop Management in 2016.

While he was at CAA, Irving moved over clients like Christina Aguilera and the Eagles to the talent agency to help with tour booking instead of doing it internally through LiveNation (he was CEO).

Even though I'm sure Jeff has had to work somewhat hard to get to where he is (or at least to mess up his dad's work as he doesn't seem like the type to take laziness well), the door into the industry and every job was basically handed to him on a silver platter.

Not to mention if you watch episodes of keeping up with the kardashians (like myself) you can actually see Jeff hanging out with kendall and the rest of the fam at their Palm Springs house (you know you're a nepotism kid if you have an in with the Kardashian crew). Invite me next time Jeffrey!!!

Think of the Azoff's as the mafia family of the music industry, you don't mess with the mafia

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THE GRAMMY AWARDS: STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS ON STEROIDS

Ok so here's where we’re going to get into a bit more of the speculation/grey area. I don't need to tell you that award shows are corrupt (See the Golden Globes Emily in Paris scandal) and the Grammys are not an exception. Think of the Grammys as one big student council/government elections where despite the fact the teachers tell you six times to vote for the best candidate, you're still going to vote for your friends even if they aren't the best.

A simplified break-down of Grammy voting:

1) Recording Academy voting members (artists, producers, musicians- anyone involved first hand with the creation of music; All voting members must have been producers, performers or engineers on six or more tracks of a commercially released album (or 12 or more digital tracks) and record labels will submit nominations in various categories to the grammys (songs need to be released commercially between October 1 of the previous year and September 30th of this year). You can also become a voting member by either winning a grammy or being endorsed by a current voting member (hint hint)

2) Once received, the recording academy with have the academy of trustees and its reviewers organize them and approve any changes to the 30 categories/fields (aka they can add new categories or remove old ones; so no best ukulele album of the year -- this is where things get funky)

There's speculation that during this stage when these special groups of 8-10 people are organizing genres, there's an "unwritten rule" that you need to be careful what album you green light (especially for famous artists) if you don't want them to win) (Rob Kenner said this- he used to be on one of these committees). Famous people tend to get more votes from clueless or lay Academy members that don't know the specialized categories or don't care enough to listen to songs that aren't radio trending.

3) After the nominations occur, Voting members begin their first voting. Members can vote for the four general categories of record of the year, album of the year, song of the year and best new artist and a maximum of 15 categories, all within their areas of expertise. Now the interesting thing is that while these are the guidelines there is literally nothing stopping them from voting in whatever categories they want (i.g. a rapper voting in the opera category despite not listening to opera). Theses ballots are all tallied and the top 20 entries are determined in each category (funky moment #2)

In 12 of the 84 categories those top 20 go to the ballot and it's done; for the rest it’s not like that. 59 categories including the big four go to a "nomination review committees" (identities are protected so they can't get lobbied... sure) who take a look at the top 20 and narrow it down to 7 or 8. (these are the special committees the Weekend talked about when he was snubbed). They're supposed to choose the nominees "based solely on the artistic and technical merits of the eligible recordings" which lets be real if that was the case Watermelon Sugar (along with most of the others in the category) I don't think would have been nomimated as they are very generic pop (none of them are special... sorry to the WM lovers out there).

This committee is basically held to THE HONOR CODE SYSTEM... I mean tell me when the last time the honor code system worked in literally any scenario (literally wtf). Don't take my word for it though the former CEO of the Academy Deborah Dugan (a queen) filed a complaint against the Recording Academy basically claiming that the nomination review process was rigged (she was fired after 5 months on the job).

Quote from Deborah Dugan "Members of the board [of trustees] and the secret committees chose artists with whom they have personal or business relationships... It is not unusual for artists who have relationships with Board members and who ranked at the bottom of the initial 20-artist list to end up receiving nominations."

These review committees can also exploit there power by adding up to two nominees that don't appear on the top 20 list to the final voting ballot (except in the 4 big categories - which watermelon sugar that one wasn't nominated for)

They also have craft committees for like non performance stuff (like album notes, engineering and arranging) that don't even get voted on by the academy voting members

4) After all of that fucked up mess, the grammy's decided is ok, the ballots go back to the voting members for the final vote. Deloitte (an accounting firm) then counts all of them, seals them in envelopes, and delivers them to the Grammy award show.

** The Grammy's just announced this year they're removing the "secret committees" so let's see how things shift in the next couple of years**

So obviously I'm not saying this to discredit Harry's nomination or his win as Fine Line was in the US top 20 albums for the majority of 2020, however, we must acknowledge privilege. Harry has a big name to him and a huge following, and while all of that shouldn't be taken into account, it does. He also has the Azoffs, a very well connected family with friends in lots of places that would be able to put in a good word here and there to get support behind Harry. Harry won best pop solo performance for Watermelon Sugar in a category with Doja Cat, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and Dua Lipa. Look at the names there, the songs (ya'll can try and remember them cause I'm too lazy to write it out) and tell me that those top names with all of the music produced didn't get there through some connections.

Do with all this information what you will and if you are interested in learning more about the entertainment industry on your own Endeavor (owners of WME, a big talent agency like CAA) is hosting a free online program called the Excellence Program to help guide the future generation of industry executives. The program is a-synchronous and starts on July 12th. Highly recommend giving it a go if you're interested!!!

Alright ya'll that's it. Feel free to message me with your thoughts!

Extra Sources if you'd like to read:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdndn/how-grammys-voting-actually-works-and-where-the-alleged-corruption-lies

https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/voting-process

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-11-05/irving-azoff-eagles-manager

https://celebrityaccess.com/caarchive/jeffrey-azoff-exits-caa-to-launch-new-management-company/

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/grammy-awards-secret-committees-945532/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/grammy-awards-eliminate-secret-committees-voting-changes-1163887/

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colloquiumjc-blog · 4 years

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Blog entry: Food!

Blog Entry: Food

The first thing I decided to do for this blog entry was watch Food Inc. I had seen some other documentaries that followed the meat and/or food industry in general, but I had not seen this one so I did enjoy seeing a different documentary. I was intrigued watching this video because although I do still eat meat, I am aware of how the food that I eat is processed and modified, and I try to have one to two nights a week where I don’t eat meat with my meal, that way I am not supporting the meat industry every day of the week. I know that some other people take their actions further than mine and are vegetarians and vegans, and I think that is awesome, for all of my roommates are vegan and/or vegetarian so I have no problem eating some of their foods that they make, and they have no problem with me still eating meat. I think my first “wow” moment from the video was in the beginning when they first talked about the chicken industry. I felt as if I could relate to this industry the most because I work at a major fast food corporation that focuses on selling mainly chicken, Chick-fil-A. I have worked for this company for a total of 5 years now, and we definitely play a huge role in the chicken industry, for I can only imagine how much chicken my store alone sells, and I would probably be really surprised to hear all of the chicken sold throughout the whole corporation as well. From the video, I thought it was intriguing how when they were filming the interview with the Tyson chicken farmer, Vince Edwards, he at first was going to allow Food Inc. to film the inside of his chicken house, but then after talking to Tyson (the company), he decided not to let the crew film the inside of his chicken house. At this point, the thing that stuck out to me the most was that the creators of Food Inc. had reached out to dozens of farmers asking them to film the inside of their chicken house, and only one farmer agreed too. The Purdue farmer, Carole Morison, mentions in her interview how in chicken farming today, the chickens are heavily modified and are grown much faster and bigger than they should be, for the this is how the companies today want their chicken to be grown. In the chicken house, there are graphic videos of Carole walking in the house and describing how dirty, smelly, and dusty it is. Watching this part of the video was really the “wow” moment for me because working at Chick-fil-A, I consume chicken every time that I work, so I just kind of had a “this is how my food is made” moment. I essentially had a personal connection during this point of the film, so I definitely felt my “wow” factor. I was okay to watch it, but I really did come to the realization that an industry like that is so graphic and is not nice at all, for it was only slightly disturbing. I also found a personal connection during this film because it discussed many meat and food industries that are popular and well-known, so the filmmakers really wanted people to know how food they could eat on a day to day basis is processed. I feel like watching this film has really opened my eyes for me to see how all of the food that I eat is processed, in good and bad ways.

I was kind of excited to read this chapter because the food industry is something that really interested me when I got to learn about it in some of my previous classes, and some of the information I had already been introduced to. I also knew that I was going to be learning new things about the food industry as well. One quote that stuck out to me was on page 224, “Since the green revolution, food production in developing countries has increased, doubling or tripling in many places. However, because population has also nearly doubled, the amount of food produced per person has remained nearly unchanged in most parts of the world. At the same time, the green revolution has resulted in damage to soils, waters, and ecosystems, the final costs of which are not known.” One thing I did learn from this quote was the green revolution, which was the introduction of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture, which I knew had to have been introduced at one point, I just didn’t know the year, which was the 1960s and 70. After learning this information about the green revolution, I liked how this quote stated what has happened in the world since then, with some things being positive, and some things being negative as well. I found it interesting that the quote started out positive stating how the green revolution caused food production to rapidly grow in developing countries, but what about the under developed countries? Some underdeveloped countries don’t have the ability to produce food for everyone in their population, and although it is unfortunate, it is almost like a sad truth I thought about while reading this quote. I also found it interesting how the quote ended discussing the bad things that have come out of the green revolution, like major damage to soils, waters, and ecosystems due to pollution. Pollution of many natural resources continues to be an issue in the world today, for if we continue to pollute our waters, air, and ecosystems, we will essentially not be able to survive on the planet anymore. Actions need to be taken now that way we can get ahead of polluting our Earth until it can no longer exist anymore. At the end of this quote, I was able to reflect on the amount of pollution that produced on Earth every single day, so I thought it was a good idea that the author had ended the paragraph that way. As I kept reading, I did find some of the other topics discussed to be interesting, but I did not find another intriguing quote until the last page, 237, “ Food sustains people and communities. Agriculture, the practice of growing food, touches all of us; every person on Earth has a connection to food. Involving learners in growing their own food fosters understanding of the larger, living world and their connection to it. For educators or sustainability professionals looking for ways to reach out to the general public, food can be a positive and engaging vehicle for building socially and economically healthy communities. Community gardens, urban farming, and edible landscapes are part of the transition to community resilience.” After reading this quote, it made me think of how the food industry essentially effects the entire world, no matter where you are or who you are. Without food, human life simply would not be able to exist. I liked how the author decided to end on a note like this, stating how important food is for everyone in the world, not just a few people. This is an industry that is global, and we need to be careful with how we treat it because we could very easily ruin it if we don’t take the right precautions. I liked how the end of the paragraph has ideas for things you could do to support the food industry in a good way, instead of producing too much food waste, which is very easy to do in our country. Growing your own food is also a very good option that was mentioned, or utilizing a community garden if you are not interested in gardening on your own. I overall liked the note that the author left this chapter on, so I thought it would be good to include a quote like this in my blog for this week.

Kenner, R (2008). Food Inc. [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://fgcu.catalog.fcla.edu/gc.jsp?To=1

Thomas , B., Brent Jackson, S., Salmond , J., & Nunes-Zaller, A. J. (2018). A Sustainable Future: Equality, Ecology, and Economy . Dubuque , LA : Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

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