While Millennials and Gen Zs are at odds over skinny jeans and side parts, they have one thing in common: neither generation are likely to tune into the 50th Juno Awards on June 6.
These young audience members are not at fault for their apathy; the Junos lack prestige in the wider music industry.
The award show is the Canadian equivalent of the United States’ Grammy Awards and the United Kingdom’s BRIT awards—a show which presents accolades to musicians and artists. But the ceremony lacks the spectacle and notoriety of its American counterpart, and only focuses on home-grown talent.
Awards show audiences are waning, especially among the younger demographic who lean towards the instant gratification of content offered by streaming services and social networking platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. The median age of Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmy Awards and Grammys viewers is now above 50.
In 2019, the CBC television, radio and online coverage of the Junos attracted an average audience of 1.2 million viewers. This is a small crowd compared to the Grammys and BRIT Awards, which drew a comparative 19.9 million and 4.1 million viewers respectively.
However, declining award show viewership is not only targeting the Junos. This effect has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and has already been observed by the larger awards shows of 2021.
The 2021 Grammys and BRIT Awards saw a steep dip in viewership. The former award show reached a record-low 9.2 million viewers while the latter had 2.9 million viewers.
With the seemingly out-of-touch reputation attributed to award shows, which often feature musicians who are predominantly white and unpopular with younger demographics, the Junos choice of nominees and past winners only contributes to this case.
Elected by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), all eligible Juno nominees must be Canadian artists. While this offers the opportunity to highlight the nation’s best talent, it renders the event a local affair that is of little interest to trend-obsessed, mainstream audiences.
This year, nominations have been doled out to Celine Dion for artist and album of the year despite the singer having released her last album, Courage, in 2019. Dion boasts 20 previous Juno wins.
Thus, the categories seem futile if the Junos recycle nominations to honour acclaimed artists and sprinkle in new or relatively unknown talent, including Tate McRae and Ryland James.
There’s no doubt that the esteemed French-Canadian songstress has churned out popular hits such as her 1997 single My Heart Will Go On, but these days you’d be hard-pressed to find teenagers and young adults opting for Dion’s latest music in their playlists over the newest viral TikTok songs.
What’s more, is that Dion’s many Junos are likely inconsequential to her success.
Though she was a Junos award winner by 1989, Dion’s breakthrough came in 1991 when the Disney theme song for Beauty and the Beast was initially released. Dion subsequently won her first Grammy alongside her duet partner Peabo Bryson in 1993.
Similarly, Torontonian rapper Drake’s four Grammy wins are more prominently publicized than his six Junos. In fact, when searching “Drake award wins” on Google, his Grammys and Billboard Music Awards wins cover his success at the Junos.
A 2019 Variety article dubbed “Drake Doesn’t Care About the Canadian Grammy’s” revealed that Drake’s record label and management did not submit his More Life album and following Scorpion album to CARAS, marking two years of his absence from the Juno Awards after previous snubs.
Scorpion went on to be nominated in the 2019 Grammy Awards’s album of the year category garnering commercial success despite previous mixed reviews from critics.
So, when even the artists themselves don’t care about the Junos, who’s to say the average young Canadian will?
The Junos, in their patriotism, ultimately lose their worth when shows like the Grammy’s present a greater variety of popular artists with international origins. Until the Junos sing to the same tune as the contemporary music industry, the show will remain off-key for the on-the-pulse audiences of 2021.
Featured image from junoawards.ca.
