In a new interview with São Paulo, Brazil’s 89 FM A Rádio Rock radio station, THE CULT frontman Ian Astbury addressed the fact that rock music has been underrepresented at the Grammy Awards in recent years, in part due to changing tastes, sales and streaming numbers, and the need to attract viewers. He said: “Well, first of all, THE CULT has never been honored by the Grammys. So it’s an institution. This is an institution — I’m gonna say something controversial — like the church or science or whatever. And they wanna control the cultural narrative for themselves. So they have 15,000 experts on music.

“There is millions and billions of music fans around the world,” he continued. “I’d say ask them. Ask the people who actually buy music, who come to the concerts, who buy the tickets, who work hard. For me, when these people say ‘we respect you’ and ‘we wanna give you an accolade,’ then that is something really special. But when it comes from an institution, there is always some kind of contract, dark contract.

“I mean, I love that the Grammys is trying to diversify, but with rock music, they are making a big mistake,” Astbury added. “And I feel that they are destroying the culture of… Well, they’re an institution. So they’re like a museum. But we are living, breathing, and there’s rock musicians who are 15 to 65, 75. THE [ROLLING] STONES are still playing music. There’s this incredible tradition of diversity in rock music, and there’s so many different aspects of rock music. And they do not acknowledge this.”