Gary Hoppenstand doesn’t look at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards as just another awards show.

“They are sort of the equivalent of the Academy Awards for the motion picture industry,” the professor of American Thought and Language said. “There are a lot of awards shows, but this one is one of the great traditional award venues.”

The Grammy Awards, hosted by comedian and actor Jon Stewart, will be presented Wednesday and will feature a plethora of performances by artists in a variety of music styles.

And its telecast will reach more than 1.5 billion people in 170 countries.

The awards for the most prestigious honors in the music industry have been drowning in a sea of controversy with the recent uproar involving rapper Eminem and his four nominations.

William L. Schurk, sound recordings archivist at Bowling Green State University, said the awards attract the largest and most dedicated of audiences.

“A lot of the real generators of purchase are from those between 13 to 19 years of age,” he said.

Schurk said the Grammy Awards don’t appeal to an older audience as much with the change of popular music over the years.

“People older than that range, like me, don’t have a great interest because we aren’t familiar with which artist is getting which awards,” he said.

“Using the example of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction I ask how many teenagers know which artists have been accepted or nominated?

“It’s a problem of a generation gap, misinformation and dumbing down.”

Schurk said over the years, he has noticed a change in the way artists are portrayed in the spotlight.

“Undoubtedly the tried and true performers performed more staid performances,” he said. “At the same time, it’s less the music talent and more the performer talent.”

Schurk said a lack of knowledge in the younger audience is why the image of popular music has changed so drastically.

“Those in their late teens and early 20s don’t have a sense of the history of what it’s all about, and they’re perfectly satisfied with what they see on the Grammys,” he said.

“They don’t realize what’s happened to American music or how deep and rich the history is. It’s the cry of the day.”

But Hoppenstand said he has watched the Grammys over the years, off and on, and plans to watch them Wednesday night.

“I think they’ve gotten better because they recognize more musical diversity within the industry with the inclusion of urban music like rap, hip-hop and heavy metal,” he said.

“It has really benefited them and widened their scope.”

He also said the diversity of the live performances have been to the benefit of the Grammy presentation.

“One of the biggest parts of the Grammys is the opportunity to see live performances of your favorite pop stars,” Hoppenstand said.

He said the Grammys are by far the most difficult awards to anticipate, as far as guessing who will become victorious in each category.

“In the motion picture industry you usually get a sense of certain standards within the industry,” he said.

“Sometimes (at the Grammys) people come out of nowhere to win an award and a sequence of awards to make a name for themselves. It’s difficult to pick.”

However, some students, like mechanical engineering freshman Brandon Nolin, don’t agree that the Grammy Awards are all they’re cracked up to be.

“I usually don’t watch them,” he said. “They don’t mean a whole lot to me and it’s nothing that really appeals to me.

“It’s just an awards show like any other thing.”

And while English seniorAmy Ranke enjoys the music of popular culture, she doesn’t look at the awards show as a priority.

“I don’t really care about it that much,” she said. “I like all the music but I probably just have other things to do.”

But Janice Cutting, music education sophomore, doesn’t plan on watching the awards simply because she doesn’t enjoy the music featured.

“I usually don’t listen to the kind of music they give awards for, like pop music,” she said. “There’s too much hype for all the awards shows and I personally think they’re boring.”

But Schurk tends to think the show caters much more to the younger generation.

He said if there was a presentation of the Grammy awards shown in 1958-59, he’d be the first to watch it because the music played to him back then.

“Now it’s just not playing to me,” he said. “I have a lot of reporters calling me up and asking me about the collaboration of Eminem and Elton John, and I don’t know anything about it.”