The Grammy’s continue to stay out of the loop
Every single year, the Grammy’s are looked at as the greatest music award show in America. Unfortunately, every single year, I also can’t help but shake my head at how much the Grammy’s get it wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was awesome that The Suburbs won Album of the Year last year…even though Funeral was better. For the most part, however, the Grammy goes to the wrong artists. According to Wikipedia, the folks who put on the Grammy’s are the National Company of Recording Arts and Sciences (NCRAS). Yeah, I don’t know what they’ve done for music either. Year in and year out, all they do is create some bullshit award that doesn’t know what’s really exciting in the music world.
I’ll start by highlighting a huge problem with the Grammy’s: they focus too much on pop music to be considered a true reflection of modern music. When choosing nominees, the NCRAS lets their nominees vote on a number of submitted recordings that year. Therefore, if you’re not a member, you don’t get to vote. Let’s take a look at what the Grammy’s considered to be the “Best Rock Album” over the past few years. The winners of this prestigious award over the past few years have been U2 (fail), Foo Fighters (uber-fail), Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Coldplay (wtf?). All of these bands are way past their prime and make way too much money for albums that are really bad. Do you know how much a ticket for a Coldplay show is? It’s like $50-$300. They shouldn’t be considered a rock act. Rock ‘n’ Roll used to be about sex, terrible government, and drugs. The Black Keys should be there instead of bands like Sum 41, who are nominated this year. Sum-fucking-41. Who still listens to Sum 41?
Another conclusion that we can come to from watching the Grammy’s is that modern pop music is in a state of emergency. The Record of the Year used to be a category that picked artists like Frank Sinatra, Roberta Flack, and Simon & Garfunkel. Nowadays, it picks Adele and Kings of Leon. I’ll straight up say it: Kings of Leon are shitheads. Sidestory: they cancelled a show because their bassist got pooped on by a bird. A show that fans paid good money to see. I don’t care who you are, you don’t cancel a show because of doo-doo. Especially when there are millions who’d give their leg to perform in front of a crowd of that size.
I just do not understand how the Grammy’s are continually praised, when they are so out of touch with the music industry. “Grammy bands” like Foo Fighters, Coldplay, U2, etc. don’t push the envelope as musicians. Maybe they once did, but let’s be real, their music isn’t as exciting as stuff that contemporary musicians are making. When I say contemporary, I’m referring to those like Deerhunter, Wu Lyf, Smith Westerns, Thundercat, Destroyer, Fleet Foxes and hell, even Odd Future. At least these bands create music that isn’t like anything before. I know Bon Iver and Radiohead had nominations this year, but King of Limbs was pretty bad save a few songs and Bon Iver is just too…Tumblr for me. And don’t even get me started on the Dance Music section they added.
So what do you think readers? Do you agree with me? Or am I an elitist idiot? Write into the Union sometime this semester and be heard.
