• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Grammy Disillusionment - When Did it Hit You?

#107
I don't watch award shows but put the Grammys on because someone I know was playing that night. As I was using my laptop computer, I would occasionally look up to see what was happening and to my surprise, I saw a friend's name in the crawl showing that he had won an award for Best Latin Jazz, with Eddie Palmieri. Since we had grown up around the corner from each other, that was actually more cool than seeing the other guy playing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HolmeBass and IMMusicRulz
#108
Basslice said:
Today's thread on Rock vs Pop got me thinking about charts, popular songs, trends, charts, and awards.

I remember there was a time I couldn't wait for the Grammys to see if my favorite song was nominated or won. Then, at some point I became jaded and disillusioned. I attach a list of the Major Grammy winners over time:

Grammy Award | Definition, History, Winners, & Facts

I find recalling excitement from the winners from 1966 to around 1979. I was between 2 and 15. Those prior and after? Meh. As years go on, Meh for later releases has turned into active dislike.

Do others track their love of popular music to a period of their life?
Click to expand...
I quit paying any attention to the Grammys when Taylor Swift starting winning them for making the most God-awful pop music ever recorded. If she wins them they are meaningless.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IMMusicRulz and Basslice
#110
Meh. No harm. It's an industry group celebrating themselves. Realtors do that, like weekly, but for them it's not interesting enough to put on TV.

It's certainly about popularity and current relevance versus quality of the product, but frankly they never said it wasn't. If you don't like it, don't watch it, as many of you don't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Basslice
#111
Everyone is looking for validation.
Sales should determine winners. As for "The Winner for the Best ________", this should be determined by peers, if given at all.
Best, in itself, is subjective. Maybe start with "The Most Popular" (which can also be skewed), but is more fitting for an annual event. I think that`s more of a fit for the Grammy`s.

Sorry. I`m sounding a little sour here but the Entertainment Industry's obsession with self-adulation, along with the whole FB`s "Look at Me" premise has me a bit disenfranchised.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Basslice
#113
I recently read an editorial deriding the “Hollywood” elite” and how their Oscar nominations shape our entertainment preferences. It was a rather ham handed attempt to blame entertainers for what the author described as “an appalling lack of moral values” in American society. I normally just shake my head and move on but the scolding tone and blanket condemnation of both entertainment in general and it’s consumers in particular prompted me to fire off a response. In a nutshell I reminded the author that mainstream for profit entertainment is a reaction to those who consume the many and varied products of that industry, that the industry is shaped by audience demand, not the other way round. I went on to tell him blaming the moral state of our society on decisions made by entertainers in the self congratulatory circle jerks disguised as awards presentations was either born from ignorance of how capitalism works or a deliberate attempt to influence intellectually lazy individuals into scapegoating entertainers for failures rightly attributable to government and organized religion.
I went on to explain that all that self congratulation has little to do with the actual entertainment product produced by those giving, receiving, and voting, on those awards.
 
#114
I never watch awards shows. When Sheryl Crow walked away with everything for her first album I realized it's about album sales and the flavor of the day. Nothing against Sheryl - I love her work and I am a big fan. If they dissected music and the craft that went into creating it and acknowledging it correctly then I would give a crap.

Except when Stevie Ray Vaughan won big - he deserved every accolade he got. Never got enough IMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IMMusicRulz and Basslice
#115
fhm555 said:
I went on to tell him blaming the moral state of our society on decisions made by entertainers in the self congratulatory circle jerks disguised as awards presentations was either born from ignorance of how capitalism works or a deliberate attempt to influence intellectually lazy individuals into scapegoating entertainers for failures rightly attributable to government and organized religion.
Click to expand...

I definitely subscribe to the "deliberate attempt" school. Nicely stated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fhm555
#116
I've always thought that the Grammys were nonsense, but I outraged a couple of years ago when "Bad Guy" won Song of the Year over "Old Town Road". I love Billie Eilish, but if you can't win Song of the Year by keeping a Gay cowboy hip-hop rodeo ditty at #1 for an unprecedented 19 weeks, then what is song of the year even for? Phenomena like that should always be Song of the Year, even when they're the Macarena.

So yes, I'm highly offended by the Grammys.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: HolmeBass and bmusic
#120
Entertainment awards shows, invariably, are more about the industry than the artists. They are total insider events that lionize the status quo power structure and promote genuinely groundbreaking creators and performers only after they are too rich to ignore. It’s an entirely commercial exercise, which isn’t all bad, of course. But it is plain folly to think that artistic legitimacy has much to with it.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back