Women and the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
The first person to win a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical was Ted Keep for “The Chipmunk Song” in 1959, the year of the inaugural ceremony.
Sound engineering has come a long way since the days when creative usage of variable tape speed was a cutting-edge production technique. The audio engineer, in turn, has become more than just a technician. The quality of production can—and often does—make or break a record. For that reason, the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical is a coveted and prestigious award.
Though audio has made many advancements, women’s representation is still playing at a low volume: Out of 415 nominations in this category, only ten women have ever been counted as nominees.
When we shuffle through the history of recorded music, it’s impossible not to notice that female engineers are mostly unaccounted for. Stories of Delia Derbyshire, Ethel Gabriel, and Cordell Jackson occasionally glimmer through to the surface, but they’re few and far between. Seeing as women have been systematically gatekept from STEM fields, this makes historical sense. Even so, it’s a bit shocking that there was a total absence of women in the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical category for 40 years until Trina Shoemaker was nominated for and won the first award in 1999.
Women only comprise about 3% of studio engineers today. Breaking into and advancing in the studio environment continues to be challenging for women, especially as the competition to get into the room is fierce even among men.
The good news is that our numbers are going up. The past decade has seen more female engineers receiving Grammy nominations than ever before. Women have been consistently represented in Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for the past four years in a row. In 2019, three of the five projects up for the award have featured female tracking, mixing, and/or mastering engineers. Efforts are being made towards inclusivity; the Recording Academy launched a Diversity Task Force and hosted open forums in multiple cities, and a growing number of producers and studio owners have pledged to focus on diversifying their staff.
How’s that for a “step up?”
“BEST ENGINEERED ALBUM, NON-CLASSICAL”
Female Nominees / Winners Timeline
1959
No women nominated.
1960
No women nominated.
1961
No women nominated.
1962
No women nominated.
1963
No women nominated.
1964
No women nominated.
1965
No women nominated.
1966
No women nominated.
1967
No women nominated.
1968
No women nominated.
1969
No women nominated.
1970
No women nominated.
1971
No women nominated.
1972
No women nominated.
1973
No women nominated.
1974
No women nominated.
1975
No women nominated.
1976
No women nominated.
1977
No women nominated.
1978
No women nominated.
1979
No women nominated.
1980
No women nominated.
1981
No women nominated.
1982
No women nominated.
1983
No women nominated.
1984
No women nominated.
1985
No women nominated.
1986
No women nominated.
1987
No women nominated.
1988
No women nominated.
1989
No women nominated.
1990
No women nominated.
1991
No women nominated.
1992
No women nominated.
1993
No women nominated.
1994
No women nominated.
1995
No women nominated.
1996
No women nominated.
1997
No women nominated.
1998
No women nominated.
1999
The Globe Sessions (Sheryl Crow) – Andy Wallace, Tchad Blake & Trina Shoemaker, engineers
***WINNER
2000
No women nominated.
2001
No women nominated.
2002
No women nominated.
2003
C’mon, C’mon (Sheryl Crow) — Trina Shoemaker & Eric Tew, engineers
2004
No women nominated.
2005
No women nominated.
2006
No women nominated.
2007
No women nominated.
2008
No women nominated.
2009
No women nominated.
2010
Ellipse (Imogen Heap) – Imogen Heap
***WINNER
2011
No women nominated.
2012
No women nominated.
2013
No women nominated.
2014
The Blue Room (Madeleine Peyroux) — Helik Hadar & Leslie Ann Jones, engineers; Bernie Grundman, mastering engineer
The Moorings (Andrew Duhon) — Trina Shoemaker, engineer; Eric Conn, mastering engineer
2015
No women nominated.
2016
Recreational Love (The Bird and the Bee) — Greg Kurstin & Alex Pasco, engineers; Emily Lazar, mastering engineer
2017
Dig in Deep (Bonnie Raitt) — Ryan Freeland, engineer; Kim Rosen, mastering engineer
Undercurrent (Sarah Jarosz) — Shani Gandhi & Gary Paczosa, engineers; Paul Blakemore, mastering engineer
2018
Every Where Is Some Where (K. Flay) — Brent Arrowood, Miles Comaskey, JT Daly, Tommy English, Kristine Flaherty, Adam Hawkins, Chad Howat & Tony Maserati, engineers; Joe LaPorta, mastering engineer
No Shape (Perfume Genius) — Shawn Everett & Joseph Lorge, engineers; Patricia Sullivan, mastering engineer
2019
All The Things That I Did And All The Things That I Didn’t Do (The Milk Carton Kids) – Ryan Freeland & Kenneth Pattengale engineers); Kim Rosen (mastering engineer)
Colors (Beck) – Julian Burg, Serban Ghenea, David Greenbaum, John Hanes, Beck Hansen, Greg Kurstin, Florian Lagatta, Cole M.G.N., Alex Pasco, Jesse Shatkin, Darrell Thorp & Cassidy Turbin (engineers); Chris Bellman, Tom Coyne, Emily Lazar & Randy Merrill (mastering engineers)
Head Over Heels (Chromeo) – Nathaniel Alford, Jason Evigan, Chris Galland, Tom Gardner, Patrick “P-Thugg” Gemayel, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Tony Hoffer, Derek Keota, Ian Kirkpatrick, David Macklovitch, Amber Mark, Manny Marroquin, Vaughn Oliver, Chris “TEK” O’Ryan, Morgan Taylor Reid & Gian Stone (engineers); Chris Gehringer & Michelle Mancini (mastering engineers)
* When I was compiling data for this article, scrolling through the years where no women were nominated had a profound impact on me. I felt it was important to include them here. – AE
ROUNDUP:
Trina Shoemaker (Winner)
Imogen Heap (Winner)
Leslie Ann Jones
Emily Lazar
Shani Gandhi
Kim Rosen
Patricia Sullivan
Kristine Flaherty
Michelle Mancini
Amber Mark