What object is depicted on a Grammy trophy?

A gramophone is depicted on a Grammy trophy. The gold-plated statuette shows a stylized gramophone, an early sound-recording and playback device whose horn became one of the most recognizable symbols of recorded music.

The trophy’s design also explains the award’s name. When the awards were being developed in the 1950s, “Gramophone Awards” was considered as a possible title. The shorter name “Grammy” eventually became the official nickname, while the gramophone remained on the trophy as a visual link to the history of recording.

Gramophones played records using a needle and an acoustic horn, generally without electrical amplification in their earliest forms. They were especially important during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before radio, magnetic tape, compact discs, and digital audio transformed music distribution.

A turntable is a modern record-playing platform, while a phonograph is a broader historical term for sound-recording and playback machines. Those terms are related, but the object specifically represented on the Grammy statuette is a gramophone. The trophies are made by hand and include engraved details for recipients.