A month after advertising executive Steve Stoute ripped the Grammys as out of touch, he's getting a chance to do something about it.
In a joint statement, Stoute and Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow say they will work together to improve the awards. Stoute complained in a full-page New York Times ad after the awards that the awards had "lost touch with contemporary popular culture."
"The voices of artists and our creative community are at the heart of the missions of the Recording Academy and indeed the music industry itself," Portnow and Stoute said in the statement released Thursday.
"Expanding constructive and positive ways to continue to actively incorporate generational and artistic diversity in the Academy's development and good work serves those important missions. The participation of new and culturally diverse voices has and continues to be a goal which benefits our members, the creative community, and music fans everywhere."
Stoute, founder of the marketing firm Translation, said in his open letter that the show seems to use big-name artists like Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Eminem to draw viewers, and programs the show around the winners. He noted that Arcade Fire performed twice at the latest ceremony, both before and after the band's win for Album of the Year.
The band's manager later called Stoute's letter "a nice piece of self publicity."
