I hadn't listened to Mumford & Sons until last night, but my impression was that they were thinking, "Our audience right now > the sum of all our other audiences until now and for the rest of our lives, so we've got to play as hard as we can, subtlety be damned, to try and make as much of an impression as we can."
I will give Lady Gaga credit for espousing a good cause repeatedly, and particularly with the new album. But I don't think she was born with pointy shoulders.
I thought that with all the elaborately made up women they showed all night, the most beautiful woman I saw in the show was, uh, Norah Jones. I was glad my daughter went to bed before Rihanna came on.
Great to see Janelle Monae.
My FB status today: "Maybe it's just me, but I find the name Lady Antebellum objectionable. I can't get into nostalgia for the 'good old days,' when people were able to buy and sell others as if they were livestock. Am I reading too much into it, or missing something?" Part of BrittleBlood's reply: "i'm in the 'objectionable but this is pop-country we're talking about camp.' "
Maybe it's just me, but I find the name Lady Antebellum objectionable. I can't get into nostalgia for the 'good old days,' when people were able to buy and sell others as if they were livestock.
You aren't alone objecting to the soft light it cast on neo-Confederalism.
From today's paper: "Justin Bieber told MTV news he was disappointed by his shocking Grammy loss in the best new artist category to little-known jazz singer Esperanza Spalding."
"Shocking"? "Little known"? And for that matter, "jazz singer"? (Yes, I know she sings, she does a lot of other things too.) I am constantly forgetting, same planet, different worlds...
The reason why Esperanza Spalding won the Best New Artist award over far more popular acts like Justin Bieber or Drake is because Best New Artist is one of those awards that everybody is allowed to vote for. Grammy voters only vote in their areas of expertise, so people from the jazz world typically only vote for the jazz-related categories. But Best New Artist throws the doors open on everybody, and while it creates some great opportunities for unknown artists, it doesn't necessarily reflect the actual year in music (which is theoretically what the Grammys and all awards shows are supposed to do).
OK, the category allows everyone to vote. So what? Don't most people in the music industry produce popular music, not Jazz? Aren't the fortunes of most in the industry tied to the Biebers and Drakes, not the Spaldings?
Aren't the fortunes of most in the industry tied to the Biebers and Drakes, not the Spaldings?
In my darkest fantasies, I like to imagine we live in a world where those fortunes are in precipitous decline and the wasteland we'll inhabit will be populated by people like Spalding. Then I look at my Facebook feed and remember it's only a dream and go back to swirling a low ball of cheap bourbon whilst rolling a bullet between my thumb and forefinger.
Everything I've seen on this so far online is essentially a paraphrase of these words. No debate about the actual music. No debate about quality. Just about whether group X has heard of person Y and therefore deserves the vicarious thrill of getting the target of their emotional identification honored in public to vindicate their group tastes. While I was growing up Joe Dolce, Tight Fit, Musical Youth, and Bucks Fizz were all wildly popular for a while. Where are they now in the annals of music history? That's not to say popularity is not relevant - that would be too simplistic; it's surely plausible to say that part of music's task is to resonate with some group of people and very wide resonance might in theory be a factor worth taking into account. But it's culturally telling how utterly exclusively the discussion I've seen so far seems to be focused on media presence (have we heard of them?) rather than musical production (what do they contribute?). (Funnily enough, since I never listen to hit radio and have children who also tend to shun many of the mainstream musical tastes (see, parenting does count for something :-)), most of the names I see talked about in relation to the public subset of the Grammys are people I've heard of but never actually heard)
I can't help but feel bad for the MTV crowd. It must suck to be the outnumbered underdog all the time. If only the Jazz Juggernaut would give pop music a chance at the spotlight from time to time. Perhaps then I wouldn't have to frivolously waste the precious resource that my sarcasm is.
Really funny point - both Esperanza and Arcade Fire were picked to perform for the President (alright, I think he was still running when AF played), yet the cry is that "Nobody knows who they are".
It is Brit Awards tonight - if it is anything like the Grammy Awards it'll be interesting!!
International nominees are as follows:
International Male Solo Artist
Bruce Springsteen
Cee Lo Green
David Guetta
Eminem
Kanye West
International Female Solo Artist
Alicia Keys
Katy Perry
Kylie Minogue
Rihanna
Robyn
International Breakthrough Act
Bruno Mars
Glee Cast
Justin Bieber
The National
The Temper Trap
International Group
Arcade Fire
Black Eyed Peas
Kings of Leon
The Script
Vampire Weekend
International Album
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
Eminem - Recovery
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Kings Of Leon - Come Around Sundown
There are also a raft of Brtish only awards. Not sure if I'll watch it, though.
The outrage against Arcade Fire's win is more complelling, IMO. The Suburbs was a number one records, so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise that it might win. Yet, it seems that being produced by Merge, just up the street from me in Durham, defines the band's "little known" status. The outrage against Spalding is tragic, mixing misplaced passions with racism, but it is the former that gets to the heart of the problem: reactions within the music industry reflect their particular allegiances rather than their opinions of music itself.
MTV's speculated rationale is bizarre - the idea that increasing the voter pool makes a lesser-known (and JAZZ?) artist more likely to win? That's ass-backwards. I remain curious about the actual reasons this year's awards tended towards the unlikely, but that sure isn't one.
I missed the Grammys, but all these kids in their early 20s at work could talk about was big shoulder pads and Aguilara stumbling. Oh, they thought Gwneth's singing was good - they didn't know she could sing. That was the only mention about music.
I can't help but feel bad for the MTV crowd. It must suck to be the outnumbered underdog all the time. If only the Jazz Juggernaut would give pop music a chance at the spotlight from time to time. Perhaps then I wouldn't have to frivolously waste the precious resource that my sarcasm is.
Well the Brits were not that different from the Grammys. Arcade Fire Best International Group and Best Album; Cee Lo Green Best International Male Singer (beating the Boss - I cannot believe it!!); Rihanna Best International Female Singer and International Breakthrough Act was Justin Bieber. Never knowingly heard Justin Bieber, so I will have to go onto Spotify to try to listen to him just so I know what the hype is all about.
I hate to be all late to the party and all but does anyone have a link to the grammy winners
Or more specifically did Gregory Porter win or did they do the honorable thing and give Freddy Cole the nod on the basis of lifetime achievement. I don't know who the other nominees were but if they gave it to anybody other than these two it is larceny pure and simple.
Also check out the official Grammy nominee page. The winners are moved to the top of their category and a Grammy is displayed on the right. Kind of obnoxiously long, but you can search the page.
Although I like Dee Dee Bridgewater quite a lot and I believe I have heard Denise Donatelli I am not familiar with Loraine Feather (but I wonder if this is as in Leonard Feather) in the immortal words of sports fans all over the world
There's been a fair amount of "Tar Heel Pride" pouring out of the local papers over Grammy wins for Merge and the Carolina Chocolate drops. Over a week later, the Raleigh News and Observer has penned another article celebrating these victories. Maybe it's really just filler for a slow Presidents' Day issue, but I still find it funny.
Anyway, I found this part interesting:
North Carolina's given the world a fair share of musicianship, from the greatest of the beach music groups to James Taylor and Earl Scruggs and so many more. The Grammys signify that perhaps Nashville and Los Angeles should consider moving all operations East. Just a thought.
As a born Angelino, I do tire of the constant berating of Los Angeles as a style-maker--shouldn't New York share the blame too? However, I think it's more than idle pride that NC should look at itself as a media center of sorts. It's hard to argue about the state's durable musical legacy in both traditional and independent music, though I'd put Doc Watson at the forefront of NC's folk legacy for winning the award.
What I do find interesting is that Nashville is included in that list. Since my eyes and ears are always open to the terroir (Heimat for the Germanists; BN: please offer the appropriate Danish word for cultural landscape), I enjoy learning about the culture and history of the state or the Piedmont (central foothills that are part of the urban backbone of the Atlantic South). Sadly, I find that many musicians aren't aware of the complexity of music traditions in the state: the synthesis of Blues, Country, and Old Time that was quite natural until the 1950s.
Outside of Bluegrass, Nashville has largely overwritten people's understanding of traditional music and reoriented their ears almost entirely to Nashville. Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny Terry don't register on most Anglo-Americans radars. African Americans may be more appreciative of the lack of distinction between Blues and Country, but that doesn't manifest itself in crossovers. Though the Carolina Chocolate Drops are well known and well liked, they still look like an African-American string band reviving a lost art form rather than a Carolina string band that is reviving the synthesis of genres--black and white--that once characterized the state's music.
Good point, BT. I recall there are some pertinent releases, I think on the Document label, that mine that vein of music over at eMu. I can't really search it out right now, my antiquated work browser hates the eMu site since it's been "upgraded" - all it can navigate well is browse, and the MB - that tells a lot in itself about the state of those institutions. Will check back in on this when I can.
Nashville is a bit of a contradiction. Several years back when I was regularly hanging out with struggling musicians, the ones who visited Nashville said it was an amazing town for them. The people there truly embraced and supported music and there was a great vibe. However the industry side of it sucks. They only promote a very narrow form of "country" - like froggy said, "bad pop with a twang".
Comments
I hadn't listened to Mumford & Sons until last night, but my impression was that they were thinking, "Our audience right now > the sum of all our other audiences until now and for the rest of our lives, so we've got to play as hard as we can, subtlety be damned, to try and make as much of an impression as we can."
I will give Lady Gaga credit for espousing a good cause repeatedly, and particularly with the new album. But I don't think she was born with pointy shoulders.
I thought that with all the elaborately made up women they showed all night, the most beautiful woman I saw in the show was, uh, Norah Jones. I was glad my daughter went to bed before Rihanna came on.
Great to see Janelle Monae.
My FB status today: "Maybe it's just me, but I find the name Lady Antebellum objectionable. I can't get into nostalgia for the 'good old days,' when people were able to buy and sell others as if they were livestock. Am I reading too much into it, or missing something?" Part of BrittleBlood's reply: "i'm in the 'objectionable but this is pop-country we're talking about camp.' "
"Shocking"? "Little known"? And for that matter, "jazz singer"? (Yes, I know she sings, she does a lot of other things too.) I am constantly forgetting, same planet, different worlds...
Justin goes on to say he'll be back next year.
Really? He thinks that Spalding is somehow less[/] talented? I guess his little outburst at the AMA was more loyalty than taste.
OK, the category allows everyone to vote. So what? Don't most people in the music industry produce popular music, not Jazz? Aren't the fortunes of most in the industry tied to the Biebers and Drakes, not the Spaldings?
International nominees are as follows:
International Male Solo Artist
Bruce Springsteen
Cee Lo Green
David Guetta
Eminem
Kanye West
International Female Solo Artist
Alicia Keys
Katy Perry
Kylie Minogue
Rihanna
Robyn
International Breakthrough Act
Bruno Mars
Glee Cast
Justin Bieber
The National
The Temper Trap
International Group
Arcade Fire
Black Eyed Peas
Kings of Leon
The Script
Vampire Weekend
International Album
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
Eminem - Recovery
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
Kings Of Leon - Come Around Sundown
There are also a raft of Brtish only awards. Not sure if I'll watch it, though.
Classic.
Or more specifically did Gregory Porter win or did they do the honorable thing and give Freddy Cole the nod on the basis of lifetime achievement. I don't know who the other nominees were but if they gave it to anybody other than these two it is larceny pure and simple.
Best Jazz Vocal Album
Winner: Eleanora Fagan (19151959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Dee Dee Bridgewater
Contenders:
Freddy Cole Sings Mr. B Freddy Cole
When Lights Are Low Denise Donatelli
Ages Lorraine Feather
Water Gregory Porter
We was robbed
Anyway, I found this part interesting: As a born Angelino, I do tire of the constant berating of Los Angeles as a style-maker--shouldn't New York share the blame too? However, I think it's more than idle pride that NC should look at itself as a media center of sorts. It's hard to argue about the state's durable musical legacy in both traditional and independent music, though I'd put Doc Watson at the forefront of NC's folk legacy for winning the award.
What I do find interesting is that Nashville is included in that list. Since my eyes and ears are always open to the terroir (Heimat for the Germanists; BN: please offer the appropriate Danish word for cultural landscape), I enjoy learning about the culture and history of the state or the Piedmont (central foothills that are part of the urban backbone of the Atlantic South). Sadly, I find that many musicians aren't aware of the complexity of music traditions in the state: the synthesis of Blues, Country, and Old Time that was quite natural until the 1950s.
Outside of Bluegrass, Nashville has largely overwritten people's understanding of traditional music and reoriented their ears almost entirely to Nashville. Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny Terry don't register on most Anglo-Americans radars. African Americans may be more appreciative of the lack of distinction between Blues and Country, but that doesn't manifest itself in crossovers. Though the Carolina Chocolate Drops are well known and well liked, they still look like an African-American string band reviving a lost art form rather than a Carolina string band that is reviving the synthesis of genres--black and white--that once characterized the state's music.