Wyatt Ehr @wyattehr [Staff Writer]

After yesterday’s Billboard Music Awards, many viewers were left angered. It is a growing trend in award shows that there is a lack of respect for many hardworking artists. This was shown last night when they didn’t televise the hip hop oriented awards.

The Billboard awards aren’t the only award show to do this. The Grammy’s are known to do this as well as many other award shows. As of recently it seems that instead of awarding the best music, they award the most popular and radio friendly music. This ruins the integrity of award shows, and doesn’t give the artist the respect they deserve.

There are many instances in the recent past where the award shows have favored the more popular music over the truly great music. An example of this was the 2014 grammys when they chose Macklemore’s The Heist over Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.a.a.d City. Even though Kendrick’s album received rave reviews from critics it still didn’t win due to its lack of radio play.

What needs to be done is a change in the way winners are chosen in awards shows. The people who choose the awards should be knowledgeable on the genre, that way they can make educated decisions, and accurately choose the best album. Awards should be given to the music that is truly the greatest and not just the most popular. That way the best artist will get the credit they deserve.