With the Association for Mormon Letter conference only a few months away, it’s time to start thinking about the annual awards. Historically, the awards have recognized excellence in standard categories like the novel, short fiction, drama, poetry, film, and criticism. Depending on the year, however, awards have gone to works that fall outside these categories to acknowledge and celebrate the broad scope of Mormon letters and the diversity of talent and creativity that exists among our writers.
To date, however, no song, hymn, or album has ever been awarded an AML award. One explanation for this omission is that music, like visual arts, falls outside the scope of Mormon letters. We could argue, though, that the lyrics of a song, hymn, or album could (and should) merit AML recognition. This year, especially, we have at least three big-name contenders that I know of: Brandon Flowers’ The Desired Effect, Low’s One and Sixes, and Imagine Dragons’ Smoke + Mirrors. I’m sure there are more out there.
For me, recognizing song lyrics isn’t a far step outside of AML’s traditional scope. If literature anthologies can feature the lyrics of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, after all, why can’t we honor our great lyricists?
What are your thoughts? Should we present an lyrics award for a song or album? If so, who would be this year’s contenders? Also, who would be willing to help judge the award? Judges would not have to be a music experts. Rather, they would simply have to be able to assess the song or album from a literary perspective.
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I haven’t read closely the lyrics for any of those three albums you mention, but I will say that both Flowers and Low have put out excellent lyrics in years past. In my opinion, it should be considered any year there seems to be sufficient justification for the consideration. The AML’s never obliged.
Yes, the AML’s never obliged, but this does seem like a good idea and a fitting time for it. I might consider calling such an award “Best Album with Lyrics” rather than “Best Lyrics…”. That of course limits you to considering an entire album and not individual songs, which might be more applicable with new hymns than with rock/popular music and might leave out some of the best lyrics. Would a “Best Song” category also be worthwhile, or do we think it would always go to a song from the same work/artist? Would stage musicals be included for consideration with an LDS librettist, or is that included in the dramatic categories? Also, would there be eligibility limitations for collaborations, where songs/albums are created by LDS/non-LDS teams? (In comparison, for films I believe just an LDS director, producer, or screenwriter is required.) That would be applicable, for instance, for Pearl and the Beard’s album “Beast,” which should be a contender; Emily Hope Price, 1/3 of the group, is Mormon.
Another option would be to simply be an award for “Best Album”, recognizing excellence in both music and lyrics. There used to be a Pearl Award from the Faith-centered Music Association, a Mormon music association, but it has gone into hiatus since 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_music). It is getting far away from what AML has traditionally done, but if no one is doing it, why not?
Okay, one reason why not is that “music” is a huge area in itself, it it would be hard to put classical, experimental, and pop music together in a single category. I assume that there is interest in focusing on pop music for now. We would need to have to have judges with musical background if we did it that way.
Either way (award for lyrics, or larger award for “album”) sounds fun to me.
I think that song lyrics is the kind of thing where it should be awarded if there is an album with lyrics strong enough for judges/nominators to give it a nod. I see it as a subset of the Award for Poetry. Just like there have been Award for Nonfiction: Sermon or Award for Nonfiction: Personal Essay awards in the past when merited.
Award for Poetry: Song Lyrics.