Hollywood’s most glamorous season is fast approaching: award season. This is a time when all actors, actresses, musicians and other entertainers celebrate their accomplishments from the year.

Viewers crowd their screens, anticipating who will be awarded and who will be robbed. Despite all this, the most important reason that the entertainment industry holds these shows is to celebrate the phenomenal works of art that entertainers have created in the past year. Entertainers have been in the world for a very long time and are very important because they tell stories that regular people are too scared to tell. The only way the world can really thank entertainers is if we commemorate them. They allow people to escape their own hardships; movies encapsulate people in stories that have the ability to inspire and music changes lives.

The Oscars, beginning in 1929, celebrate the most influential and provoking movies of each year. Ever since 1929, The Academy have been paying respect to films that open a door to places that people have never gone before.

The Grammys started in 1958. The best albums and songs were, and still are, being glorified. If people did not have these special and historic nights, the music and entertainment industries would not be very significant in the world.

In addition, award season is a massive paycheck for the entertainment industry. In 2015 the Academy Awards alone brought in a total of $109 million dollars. A huge chunk of money is used for reserving the theater, finding a host, transportation, getting a red carpet and cleaning it out in preparation for the night. The majority of the money is used to fund major companies in the entertainment business. Another chunk of the money earned at award shows is to help the people in the business make more movies and music.

In order to restore award shows to their original glory, people need to stop talking about politics. For example, Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin had a friendly competition to see who could do the best Donald Trump impression during the Oscars in 2016. Many of the acceptance speeches involve politics. That is not okay because award shows are about entertainment, not politics. During the 2017 Oscars, many award recipients made political references; celebrities should not be treating award shows like a Presidential debate. People need to think of award shows as celebrating the entertainment industry instead.

In order to help award shows stay relevant, our society needs to really think about what the main purpose of an award show is about. This modern society needs to realize the difference that entertainers have made in the lives of individuals.