In 1953, E. M. Stuart created the Walk of Fame to celebrate Hollywood by embedding five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars with celebrity names into a stretch of sidewalk. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce asked for the help of major recording industry executives in compiling a list of people in the music business who should be honoured by Walk of Fame stars. The music executives decided that their list of honourees was too long to fit on the Walk of Fame, so they formed the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to focus solely on the recording industry.

In 1958, the academy created an award to honor those in the field of music, named the Grammy, so named after the music listening device invented by Thomas Edison, the Gramophone. The first Grammy awards were held jointly at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York on May 4, 1959. Some of the decade’s biggest music stars, including Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Perry Como, were up for the biggest prizes, but Domenico Modugno took home both Record of the Year and Song of the Year with Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu.

Throughout the years, the Grammys were held in four different cities – New York, LA, Nashville, and Chicago. The ceremony was broadcast on NBC as a series of specials throughout the year, and CBS bought the rights in 1973. In response to losing the Grammys, ABC created the American Music Awards.

The Golden Era of Music from the 1960s to the 1990s is widely recognized as the period from 1968 to 1975. Aretha Franklin won the most consecutive Grammys in the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category from 1968 to 1975.