Grammy, Shmammy
My headline for this was originally going to be, “When Did the Grammys Become Irrelevant?” But then I realized that I used that about 20 years ago in a student newspaper.
So the Grammy nominations came out last week. I totally missed it, and when I saw a news item on it, I reminded myself to write a snarky blog post about it. Didn’t even check to see who the nominees were until I started writing this. And once again, Grammy didn’t disappoint me with its disappointing picks.
At least they’ve relegated rap to its own category, but Lil’ Wayne still managed to ooze out and collect himself in the cesspool that is Album of the Year. That God-awful “I Kissed a Girl” song is somehow being considered a Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
As for marginally listenable music, it’s all too predictable: Coldplay, Radiohead, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, ohmygod did James Taylor get nominated for two awards? Is he still recording? I’m sure that if Bonnie Raitt or Santana had released outtakes from a drunken recording session with Alicia Keys, they would have gotten a nomination.
All this is to say the Grammys are a joke. They are irrelevant. According to the L.A. Times, “Though the Grammys have moderately improved in recent years, they”re still a reflection of sales + record label marketing campaigns.” That’s putting it nicely. Where are She & Him? Sigur Ros? Vampire Weekend? At least Death Cab for Cutie got a couple of nods.
Hmph.
Totally agree. It’s almost like I don’t want to own anything hustled by the Grammies because it’s tainted by commercialism and, worse, utter self satisfaction.
The Grammys? Are you serious? They have always been completely irrelevent, except in collateral catigories (like liner notes) or in technical areas. Good heavens, run down the list some time: if you can’t name a better song from a given year, or a better album/cd/whatever, you aren’t any kind of music fan at all.
The full frontal cluelessness of the Grammys hit me many years ago when yours truly actually voted for them. My girlfriend at the time (who knew slightly more about music than I know about basketweaving) was handed a ballot by her boss. Said boss was an attorney and their legal firm did a lot of work with record labels. He had no interest in voting, passed it to her and, after she had voted a straight ticket for her favorite artist that year, she let me finish.
Now that’s scary. I fully trust your judgment, but the fact that someone could just give their ballot to anyone shows that it’s more like, well, the American Music Awards.