Time to give a general commentary on the Grammys that took place on Sunday night.
Music to listen to: I Know You Know/Smile Like That by Esperanza Spalding
-Justin Bieber fans need to fall back: Its one thing to want your favorite artist to win an award. Its another thing to hack into the Wikipedia page of the other artist who got the award and leave negative messages towards them.
That's what happened to Esperanza Spalding when she won the Grammy for Best New Artist over Bieber on Sunday.
First, the whole "new artist" concept is flawed. Spalding has released three solo albums. Drake has been featured on songs for at least three years but released his first full length album this past year. Florence & The Machine along with Mumford & Sons have released work as well. Bieber has even had some work that would make him not be considered a "new artist."
What I'm trying to say is that you can't take this award too seriously and the Bieber fans who see him losing the award as a terrible moment need to gain perspective.
-I should have seen Spalding winning from a mile away: I'm a big fan of her work and have been following her work for a few years. I just didn't think she would win but it's not as big of an upset as you would think.
Most of the voters for Grammy awards tend to be "traditionalist" in nature and that's really code for old people. They tend to go for artists who could be defined as true musicians, which means playing your own instruments on stage. They'll throw a bone to an artist like Lady Gaga for things like Pop Vocal but look at other artists that have dominated Grammy awards in the past. Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, etc. You get the idea.
When you look at the New Artists, here's what the majority of voters were thinking.
"I'm not going to vote for Justin Bieber because he's a pop star who dances and the only person who knows who he is may be my daughter. I've heard of Drake but he lacks the musicianship I like in my New Artist. I'm not familiar with Florence & The Machine. I've heard of Mumford & Sons but I've really liked the jazz works of Spalding and think she's a true talent who may be the best prodigy in her genre in a generation. She will get my vote."
That may not have been the thinking of every voter but enough of them had this thought to produce the result.
-Not knowing who the artist is shouldn't be your ultimate judgement on the quality of the work.
I know that I'm the exception to the rule for the majority of people because I know of many musical acts in nearly every genre out there. I've heard of Spalding. I'm very familiar with the work of Lady Antebellum. Heck, if I made a list of the top-10 albums of 2010, The Suburbs by Arcade Fire would have probably made the cut.
However, even if I didn't know who they were, that wouldn't give me the inclination to dismiss their work.
The biggest problem, actually there are two problems that are happening with commercial music today.
-The majority of music airplay on video channels and radio are pop and rap. Actually calling this a problem isn't correct because I'm a fan of Jay-Z, Eminem, Bruno Mars, Usher, Drake and Rihanna, all artists who had a big musical year in 2010 as far as airplay goes. Katy Perry and Lady Gaga are hit or miss for me and as much crap as he gets, Bieber is OK by me. I really don't listen to his music much but its hard to avoid knowing of his songs if you follow music. I do respect his hustle though.
The problem with this is that genres such as alternative rock, country, jazz, dance, electronic, heavy metal, R&B, hard rock, punk, etc. aren't getting as much attention in the mainstream.
That's how you can have an Arcade Fire or Sterling win an award in the most public forum in music, the Grammys, and a majority of people not know who they are.
-We've become an IPod/Pandora society in relation to music. What's happened is that fans of groups such as Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, Minus the Bear, Mars Volta, Maserati, Block Party and other groups of that ilk have said screw it to trying to listen to songs by those artists on the local rock or pop stations in their hometown and going online to get the music.
I can honestly tell you that I listen to 80% of my music from my own collections whether its a burned CD, ITunes downloads, Pandora internet radio, 10% goes to college radio stations and the other 10% goes to traditional radio stations. What this means is that I'm probably going to listen to a Black Angels song before Lady Gaga and I'm not alone.
When I was younger (back in the 1980's and early 1990's), you would listen to a station and literally hear Dr. Dre, Nirvana and Mariah Carey on the same show. Now, those are three different stations, two at the least. That's how I became a fan of all genres of music.
The country music interest came from living in Nashville for seven years. However, I've always argued that I would like country music even if I never lived there but it would be less likely if I stayed in the Northeast where I was born.
What's happening now is that people only seem to stick to their favorite genre or artists and are fiercely loyal to it at the detriment of acknowledging other works.
That's when you get supporters of artists such as Bieber or Lil Wayne who become downright hostile when you suggest that another artist may be better. Those are mainstream examples but I'm sure each of you can think of a musical act, known or not, that have these same supporters.
I'm on record as saying that The Mars Volta is not only my favorite group of the last 10 years but maybe in my lifetime and I'm sure that the majority of you don't know about the band. If I made the same statement about someone like U2, I would get some critiques but in the end you would listen to my argument more because that's a known group. If I make the same case for Volta, you would probably tell me to go back to my mother's basement and keep my indy/emo crap to myself.
What does this all mean?
It means that we're finding less diversification in the music choices of people, especially if there under 25 years old or older than 50 years old.
Therefore, we have things like Sunday night take place.
-Despite all of that, I enjoyed Eminem's album the most of the choices for that category. This doesn't mean that Arcade Fire's album was bad, in fact I liked it also.
-I'm over Will and Jada Smith's kids. I enjoy the acting of Will and Jada but I'm done with their darn kids. I don't want to see them in a movie, telling me what to do with my hair, rapping, all of it. Leave me alone.
-Mick Jagger has been and always will be awesome.
-If anyone should have beef about not winning an award in a category, its Cee-Lo Green. How does Fuck You not win Record of the Year?
-On that accord, how does Love the Way You Lie not win Song of the Year?
OK, those are my thoughts. What are yours?
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