by Chris Kirika

Created on: February 23, 2010   Last Updated: February 24, 2010

About the Grammy Award Trophy

This article sets out to analyze the Grammy awards trophy as an artefact, which is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the record industry. The Grammy Awards were first known as the Gramophone Awards which overtime became shortened to its current name Grammy. The name 'Grammy' in 'Grammy Awards' is there because a Grammy is a trophy. Therefore the awards are named for the trophy which the winner receives. The trophy is a small glided historical record player statuette of a gramophone. (Grammy, 2009) The recording academy honours excellence in the recording arts and sciences. It is a peer honour awarded by artists to artists and technical professionals for their artistic or technical achievement, not for sales or chart positions.

In addition to the Grammy awards, the recording academy presents other notable honours. These awards recognize contributions and activities of significance to the recording field that fall outside the framework of the Grammy awards categories, and include the lifetime achievement award, the trustee’s award, the technical Grammy award, the Grammy legend award and Grammy hall of fame award. The awards ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the more prominent Grammy awards are presented in a widely-viewed televised ceremony once a year. The Grammys are considered the highest music honours in the U.S. record industry's approximate equivalent to the academy awards or Oscars. Prior to the first live Grammys telecast in 1971, a series of taped annual specials in the 1960’s called the best on record were broadcast. (Weidman, 1970)

Like many around the world I’m an avid fun of the Grammy Awards as well the Oscars. I believe the sound of good music is a luxury to be enjoyed. With a background in product design good music keeps me curiously on edge to deepen my understanding of the musical instruments that produce the sounds. Designers design products and musicians design the sound. Inspired by the aesthetics of the gramophone, it is a significant musical instrument with historical value, yet a trophy and symbol of class in between generations of culture. I am compelled to deeper understanding the artefacts evolutionary growth.

Form and content

The actual Grammy Trophy is manufactured by Billings Artworks in Ridgeway, Colorado, the only manufacturing company with the exclusive right to hand-craft

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