A week ago the Grammys shocked the world of music when Eminem lost out on Album of the Year and Justin Bieber on Best New Artist. Instead awarding Arcade of Fire for their album Suburbs and Esperanza Spalding as Best New Artist. I know. Right?

2011 Grammy Awards Red Carpet PHOTOS

Eminem, Rihanna, Dr. Dre, and Skylar Grey ROCK 2011 Grammys (Video)

Enter Steve Stoute. He’s a veteran marketing and music executive that was so pissed by the snubs he took out a full-page ad (major ca-ching) in the New York Times chastising the Grammy organization and the National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences (NARA) for basically having their heads up their asses (my words not his, he’s much more eloquent).

Interestingly enough he points out that despite the snubs the two performed on the award show which also happened to set audience records attracting more than 26.7 million viewers. Only it’s highest since 2001. You can bet your butt it had everything to do with Eminem and Bieber performing.

An executive close to the telecast of The Grammys told EW exclusively that although Stoute makes valid points, the show operates independently of the voting process:

“The TV group is tasked to produce a Grammy-branded event for TV,” the executive said. “The voting procedure is done by the NARAS membership which has nothing to do with who produces the TV show.

Do you think Eminem and Justin Bieber got ripped off? I have to say I have Eminem’s latest CD Recovery and I am beyond impressed. I can’t stop listening to it. It really is his best work. And as for Justin Bieber, I know people love to hate him, and it’s usually those over 18, but you can not deny he has done exceptionally well all things considered and before the Grammys last weekend, very few people knew who Esperanza Spalding was. Not that she isn’t worthy, but isn’t Best New Artist supposed to be more of a household name?

What are your thoughts?

To view the entire ad that Mr. Stoute took out (I imagine at great cost to him), you can view it after the break. It’s quite long.

An Open Letter to Neil Portnow, NARAS and the Grammy Awards

Over the course of my 20-year history as an executive in the music business and as the owner of a firm that specializes in in-culture advertising, I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture. My being a music fan has left me with an even greater and deeper sense of dismay — so much so that I feel compelled to write this letter. Where I think that the Grammys fail stems from two key sources: (1) over-zealousness to produce a popular show that is at odds with its own system of voting and (2) fundamental disrespect of cultural shifts as being viable and artistic.

As an institution that celebrates artistic works of musicians, singers, songwriters, producers and technical specialists, we have come to expect that the Grammys upholds all of the values that reflect the very best in music that is born from our culture. Unfortunately, the awards show has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions, leaving me to question why any contemporary popular artist would even participate. How is it possible that in 2001 The Marshall Mathers LP — an album by Eminem that ushered in the Bob Dylan of our time — was beaten out by Steely Dan (no disrespect) for Album Of The Year? While we cannot solely utilize album sales as the barometer, this was certainly not the case.

Not only is Eminem the best-selling artist of the last decade, but The Marshall Mathers LP was a critical and commercial success that sold over 10 million albums in the United States (19 million worldwide), while Steely Dan sold less than 10% of that amount and came and went as quietly as a church mouse. Or consider even that in 2008 at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, after going into the night as the most-nominated artist, Kanye West’s Graduation was beaten out for Album Of The Year by Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters. (This was the first time in 43 years that a jazz album won this category.) While there is no doubt in my mind of the artistic talents of Steely Dan or Herbie Hancock, we must acknowledge the massive cultural impact of Eminem and Kanye West and how their music is shaping, influencing and defining the voice of a generation. It is this same cultural impact that acknowledged the commercial and critical success of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1984.

Just so that I’m not showing partiality to hip-hop artists (although it would be an entirely different letter as to how hip-hop music has been totally diminished as an art form by this organization), how is it that Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist, did not win Best New Artist? Again, his cultural impact and success are even more quantifiable if you factor in his YouTube and Vevo viewership — the fact that he was a talent born entirely of the digital age whose story was crafted in the most humble method of being “discovered” purely for his singing ability (and it should be noted that Justin Bieber plays piano and guitar, as evidenced on his early viral videos).

So while these very artists that the public acknowledges as being worthy of their money and fandom are snubbed year after year at the Grammys, the awards show has absolutely no qualms in inviting these same artists to perform. At first I thought that you were not paying attention to the fact that the mental complexion of the world is becoming tanned, that multiculturalism and poly-ethnicity are driving new meaning as to what is culturally relevant. Interesting that the Grammys understands cultural relevance when it comes to using Eminem’s, Kanye West’s or Justin Bieber’s name in the billing to ensure viewership and to deliver the all-too-important ratings for its advertisers.

What truly inspired the writing of this letter was that this most recent show fed my suspicions. As the show was coming to a close and just prior to presenting the award for Album Of The Year, the band Arcade Fire performed “Month of May” — only to… surprise… win the category and, in a moment of sheer coincidence, happened to be prepared to perform “Ready to Start.”

Does the Grammys intentionally use artists for their celebrity, popularity and cultural appeal when they already know the winners and then program a show against this expectation? Meanwhile the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences hides behind the “peer” voting system to escape culpability for not even rethinking its approach.

And I imagine that next year there will be another televised super-close-up of an astonished front-runner as they come to the realization before a national audience… that he or she was used.

You are being called to task at this very moment, NARAS.

And to all of the artists that attend the Grammys: Stop accepting the invitation to be the upset of the year and demand that this body upholds its mission for advocacy and support of artistry as culture evolves.

Demand that they change this system and truly reflect and truly acknowledge your art.

Steve Stoute