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by Selena Hill
January 26, 2024
The Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason, Jr. spoke completely to BLACK ENTERPRISE in regards to the group’s mission to extend variety and illustration within the music business
The Recording Academy, the group that presents the annual Grammy Awards, is taking one other step in the direction of progress and inclusion with the announcement of its new DREAM Initiative.
DREAM – an acronym for Range Reimagined by Participating All MusicMakers – was created by the Academy’s DEI workforce to help and empower music creators who establish as Black People, girls, LGBTQIA+, Pan-Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, disabled, and/or Gen Z. Along with spotlighting their contributions to the music business, the Recording Academy established member useful resource teams to uplift music professionals in these eight particular communities.
![The Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason, Jr.](https://i0.wp.com/www.blackenterprise.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2024/01/Photo-By-Michael-Kovac-Recording-Academy-scaled.jpeg?ssl=1)
“[It’s] one thing we’re actually happy with,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason, Jr. informed BLACK ENTERPRISE in an unique interview. “The purpose of it’s to ensure that we’re listening, we’re studying, we’re interacting with completely different teams, and…we’re listening to from some those that didn’t all the time have their voice heard.”
Mason says the Academy is dedicated to addressing previous injustices and creating protected areas for underrepresented music creators.
“We’re making an attempt to do a greater job,” he mentioned.
To higher perceive and signify these teams, the 65-year-old group facilitates interactive listening classes to interact with numerous music creators.
“We invite every group to sit down with us and to sit down with the members of the management workforce and the employees on the Academy, and inform us every thing,” says Mason. “Inform us the nice, inform us the dangerous. Inform us the issues we might be doing higher. Inform us the issues we’re lacking,” he added. “We want these teams to drag our coattails slightly bit when there’s issues that we have to take note of.”
Since being appointed CEO, Mason says the group has centered on making certain that every one genres and communities are represented and honored.
“We’ve got sufficient folks feeling overlooked. We’ve got sufficient folks in teams feeling like they’re scratching to get heard. And that’s not the way it’s purported to be. It’s not the way it’s purported to be in something, however particularly round music.”
Mason was tapped to function the interim CEO of the Academy after his predecessor, Deborah Duggan, was suspended in January 2020. In a scathing authorized grievance, the previous president and CEO alleged that members of the Academy engaged in unethical voting practices that favored artists that they’d a private curiosity in. Duggan additionally known as the Academy a “boys membership” dominated by white males. She was terminated in March 2020 for misconduct. She and the Academy settled for an undisclosed quantity in 2021, based on Selection. That very same 12 months, Mason was appointed as everlasting CEO and the Recording Academy eradicated its secret voting committees that existed for practically 30 years.
Underneath Mason’s management, the Academy has made vital efforts to rework in response to longstanding criticism for a scarcity of racial and gender variety.
“Girls, folks of colour, and people of different historically underrepresented communities have joined the Academy in document numbers,” mentioned the org in an announcement to BE, citing a rise in membership amongst folks of colour and ladies. Membership amongst folks of colour has risen from 24% to 38% whereas the share of ladies members jumped from 26% to 30% since 2019. The Recording Academy says it’s on its technique to reaching 2,500 girls Voting Members by 2025. Moreover, 60% of the 2023 – 2024 Board of Trustees are folks of colour and 45% are girls.
Moreover, the Academy has launched dozens of latest initiatives and partnerships together with the Black Music Collective, Girls within the Combine Examine, GLAAD Partnership, and the HBCU Love Tour.
Exterior of main the Recording Academy, Mason is a embellished document producer who’s penned and produced songs for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Elton John. Mason additionally produced the Lebron James film “Extra Than a Sport” and Aretha Franklin’s 2021 biopic “Respect” starring Jennifer Hudson. He says he’s grateful that the Academy permits him to proceed to work on main movie and music tasks whereas operating the celebrated music establishment.