I’m assuming that when the Grammy’s first started it was during a time there wasn’t too much range in music and most of the artists were legitimate singers and musicians. But today it seems a joke that Taylor Swift, 50 cent and The Black Eyed Peas would be put in for a nominee that would have them with the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan or even more recent Nirvana. But the other night the nominations were presented in prestige fashion the other night with performances by bands who are probably going to be nominated for Song of the Year or even worse the coveted Album of the Year which puts you in the same category as The Beatles Sgt. Peppers and the Lonely Hearts Club and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
The award show was created to give awards to the absolute best and most original work by a group or artist and not a popularity contest of who was played most on the radio. But since the major labels are the one’s who fund and donate very charitable amounts of money to this award show, you won’t see bands like Manchester Orchestra or Kings of Leon for album of the year. I mean how could they possibly be put into this category since they weren’t played every 15 minutes on Hit radio even if they were probably two of the best albums put out this past year. Instead you have progressive important bands such as Beyonce, The Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Swift fighting it off against two other not terrible mentions in Lady Gaga and Dave Matthews Band who actually have some pretty original music. When it all comes down to it the awards have gone from a legitimate award show from it’s start to a what’s popular now contest that doesn’t care about music’s every lasting footprint. If somebody is gonna be nominated for Album of the Year, the album should be an instant classic that will be played 20 years from now still and be an influence on future music. Looking back at the year 2000 I saw Backstreet Boy’s Millenium was nominated and couldn’t even tell you what the hell popular song they had at that time. Congratulations Grammy Awards you get the award for biggest corporate sellout of all time, here is your trophy, it’s a golden statue of a check written by Universal Music Group with Taylor Swift’s name in the memo section.
