Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Grammy Forecast: Cloudy with a Chance of Stupid

I think Ben Greenman makes a good point here, trying please everyone

The Grammy Awards makes no sense and never has. It doesn’t reward the best music of the year, clearly, and it doesn’t even really reward the best-selling music of the year. Jimi Hendrix never won one. Led Zeppelin didn’t either, or the Kinks. (Backpedaling Lifetime Achievement Awards don’t count.) So what exactly is the point of the show, and why do millions of people watch it? These questions will be raised and not quite answered again this Sunday, when the 52nd edition of the awards airs on CBS.

Part of the problem is, and has always been, that pop music is not an entirely adult art form: while there are pop artists who appeal to adults, certainly, most didn’t start out that way. They started out appealing to a younger audience that grew older with them, and that audience usually doesn’t care about the younger pop stars who have replaced their favorite acts. Does U2 matter to most nineteen year-olds? Does Arcade Fire matter to most fifty-year-olds? There are exceptions to this rule, but it’s more conspicuous in pop music than in movies, and the Grammy Awards shows the strain of this division. While movies have the Oscars (for adults) and the MTV Movie Awards (for teens), the Grammys try to serve both masters, honoring both promising newcomers and tested vets, and it never works as well in reality as it does on paper. Remember the Jonas Brothers’ ill-advised duet with Stevie Wonder, which had the probably unintended effect of making both acts look foolish?

This is a symptom of a broader problem, which is that the Grammy Awards is promiscuous in the type of music it rewards, and consequently meaningless. Interested in mainstream country-pop, like Taylor Swift? How about hip-hop? How about classic rock? Jam bands? Come one, come all. The music-awards shows that serve one piece of the pie—the CMAs, say—are considerably easier to watch, even if they don’t have the same star power, because they can be curated in a manner appropriate to their audience. The Grammys have a broad, fragmented audience that is not united by any common taste or opinion, except possibly the opinion that the Grammys satisfy no one.

The problem will no doubt raise its head again this year, with a lineup that includes Lady Gaga, Dave Matthews, Maxwell, Eminem, and Lady Antebellum: all successful artists, and all artists whose audiences have minimal overlap. Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli will duet on “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and the performance will then be released as a benefit single for Haiti. There will be a tribute to Michael Jackson. Chances are the show will be a mess; the only question is whether it will be an enjoyable mess. It’s unlikely.

Every once in a while, of course, the show gets it right, pairing up artists of different ages but similar sensibilities. Below is Prince’s excellent duet set with Beyonce from the 2005 Grammy telecast; the audio has been annoyingly suppressed at Prince’s request.

Source

Posted

Hi:

I only want to see what Lady Gaga wears and sings..otherwise I have no interest in how many awards Beyonce and/or Taylor Swift will get....

Justin Bieber..our Canadian teen heart throb will present an award...ahhh he's so cute!!!

Juliet

Posted

I've reportedly heard that Taylor Swift will perform two songs with Stevie Nicks. One of which will be her own shiteous record; the other, 'Rhiannon'.

I'm a huge Stevie fan, and adore 'Rhiannon', but that is some kind of fuckery.

Posted

Hi all,

I'm planning to watch, but haven't figured out who all is performing/appearing. It's always fun to watch the red carpet stuff on E! :)

Oh Virginia,

Your such,such a female! :P;):D

Last time I watched was when Metallica played "One",how many years ago was that? :unsure:

Most of the mucky-mucks were kind of stunned(wish they played "Master of Puppets") :shifty: Yet, Stevie V. was grooving to 'em! :bravo:

Too bad 'The Nobs' couldn't open the show with "Rock and Roll", at top volume!

KB,aka Johnny

Posted (edited)

Hi all,

Oh Virginia,

Your such,such a female! :P;):D

Last time I watched was when Metallica played "One",how many years ago was that? :unsure:

Most of the mucky-mucks were kind of stunned(wish they played "Master of Puppets") :shifty: Yet, Stevie V. was grooving to 'em! :bravo:

Too bad 'The Nobs' couldn't open the show with "Rock and Roll", at top volume!

KB,aka Johnny

:D

I was pleasantly surprised by the Lady Gaga/Elton John duet; when you strip out all the electronics, she can actually sing :o Who'da thought?

The Taylor Swift/Stevie Nicks duet was pretty cringeworthy. I love Stevie and, well, it just highlighted the difference in their talent.

Pink's high wire thing was really cool; I couldn't tell you what she sang, I was just praying she wouldn't fall out of that contraption :lol:

I actually enjoyed seeing Jennifer Nettles sing with Bon Jovi (although they cut the song short). I really like her; she was having a great time too :)

After DMB sang I went to bed, so hopefully I didn't miss anything good. Actually I did doze off and on for a little while after but don't remember anything after Bon Jovi/DMB.

Edited by Virginia
Posted

Russell Brand said something really funny about it on his Twitter feed:

"Grammies? Is that how much coke you need to stay awake through em? LooOOOOOOoooong! X /via @rustyrockets"

- ha! Glad I did not tune in.

Staci

Posted (edited)

One more thing I noticed was that Ringo looked amazing!

Hi Virginia!

I caught a few snippets of the show as I was channel surfing. I saw the duet with Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks. Taylor really sang off-key and over- shadowed Stevie. It seemed like Stevie was dominated by Taylor, she stood a bit behind Taylor and being much shorter, she seemed to be in the background, even while singing Stevie's song, where Taylor should have been in the back-up singer role on Rhiannon.

And I saw that Jeff Beck won his category. Did they show his award on TV?

I also saw that Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood lost out on both of the awards they were nominated for. That's a travesty!

But, it was the Grammies. This is what is expected. All of that pop, hip-hop, country crap is going to predominate. And, the more ridiculous that one looks and the more sensationalist one's act is, the more awards you are going to win.

Last year was the exception, with good music, a la Robert and Allison, winning out big time. Very well deserved awards for Raising Sand.

Edited by BUCK'EYE' DOC
Posted

Hi Virginia!

I caught a few snippets of the show as I was channel surfing. I saw the duet with Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks. Taylor really sang off-key and over- shadowed Stevie. It seemed like Stevie was dominated by Taylor, she stood a bit behind Taylor and being much shorter, she seemed to be in the background, even while singing Stevie's song, where Taylor should have been in the back-up singer role on Rhiannon.

And I saw that Jeff Beck won his category. Did they show his award on TV?

I also saw that Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood lost out on both of the awards they were nominated for. That's a travesty!

But, it was the Grammies. This is what is expected. All of that pop, hip-hop, country crap is going to predominate. And, the more ridiculous that one looks and the more sensationalist one's act is, the more awards you are going to win.

Last year was the exception, with good music, a la Robert and Allison, winning out big time. Very well deserved awards for Raising Sand.

Doc - they didn't show Jeff's award sadly. Every year they show less and less. I remember watching last year and they had a 1 or 2 hour show streamlined on the internet of most of the awards :lol::blink: Kinda odd to have a televised award show with almost no awards!

Posted

For the 'be careful what you wish for' file: ok so when I said I'd love to see snippets, I didn't think they'd only actually give about 30 seconds combined to Neil and Cohen. And this simply in between announcing the next performances. Pathetic. Couldn't they have at least televised a lifetime achievement award recipient? It seems as if attention is given in inverse proportion to the importance of the occasion.

I did see LC's acceptance speech on Youtube:

"I never thought I'd win a Grammy. I was always touched by the modesty of their interest in my work" - Leonard Cohen

Posted

Doc - they didn't show Jeff's award sadly. Every year they show less and less. I remember watching last year and they had a 1 or 2 hour show streamlined on the internet of most of the awards laugh.gifblink.gif Kinda odd to have a televised award show with almost no awards!

Thanks for the info, ninelives!

I did see Jeff in the crowd when the camera panned the audience. Too bad they didn't have him perform on stage. It would have been great!

I did see the highlights of Pink's performance, and I must say that it was amazing! She is very athletic to do that. I wonder if it is part of her usual act at her concerts? I bet not too many of our forum members have been to a Pink concert, so how would we know? LOL

Posted

Thanks for the info, ninelives!

I did see Jeff in the crowd when the camera panned the audience. Too bad they didn't have him perform on stage. It would have been great!

I did see the highlights of Pink's performance, and I must say that it was amazing! She is very athletic to do that. I wonder if it is part of her usual act at her concerts? I bet not too many of our forum members have been to a Pink concert, so how would we know? LOL

Doc, Beck did perform - he did a rocking tribute to Les Paul with Imelda May.

http://music.aol.com/artist/jeff-beck

Posted (edited)

Doc, Beck did perform - he did a rocking tribute to Les Paul with Imelda May.

http://music.aol.com/artist/jeff-beck

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=UdcUvhq_3do

Thanks for the link, Patrycja! slapface.gif

Like I said, I didn't watch the show, just channel surfed and saw snippets. And none of the reviews that I read mentioned Jeff's performance.

That's great that Les was celebrated, and that it was Jeff that offered the tribute!

Watching the video makes me remember the Les Paul Tribute Concert that I attended in Cleveland in 2008, and how funny Les was then. It's so sad that he is gone. RIP, Les Paul. sad.gif

Edited by BUCK'EYE' DOC
Posted

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=UdcUvhq_3do

Thanks for the link, Patrycja! slapface.gif

Like I said, I didn't watch the show, just channel surfed and saw snippets. And none of the reviews that I read mentioned Jeff's performance.

That's great that Les was celebrated, and that it was Jeff that offered the tribute!

Watching the video makes me remember the Les Paul Tribute Concert that I attended in Cleveland in 2008, and how funny Les was then. It's so sad that he is gone. RIP, Les Paul. sad.gif

Cheers, Doc :) At least you didn't have to sit through it all to see pretty much the best performance of the night. A lot of excellent musicians got paltry acknowledgment so it's no wonder Jeff's performance did not get prominence in reviews.

How wonderful that you got a chance to see the Les Paul tribute! I'm glad Les was there to take in how much people appreciate him. RIP.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...