Mike Rittberg (Warner Brothers Records):

Just so you know and NARAS will confirm – those recording with record company employee’s don’t count. They changed the policy about 2 years ago. So what you described wouldn’t happen

I reprint the above e-mail because the one thing I need to protect is my credibility.

I wish the record companies and NARAS felt the same way.

There is no doubt in my mind that as soon as the loophole was eliminated, some conniving executive concocted a new one, it just hasn’t been found out yet.

I’d hate to think that’s America.  A land where the best cheater wins.  Then again, MIchael Jordan was on "60 Minutes" promoting his book by illustrating how to fake out the refs.

That’s why we love music. All of this pedestrian, corporate bullshit is absent.  What’s on the record is what’s in your heart and brain, subject to your ability to deliver it in musical form.

If we’re going to have a competition amongst musicians, it would be great if it weren’t about sales and stock numbers, but quality.  But, NARAS has a TV show to sell and major labels have albums to sell (isn’t it funny that the noms were right before Christmas).

It was also pointed out to me that when the earlier-mentioned Zomba Christmas CD was made, Neil Portnow was in a top executive position with the company.  So, if you’re looking for change…

Then again, maybe that’s why Neil got the job.  He’s in bed with these guys, he’s someone they can trust, he’s not an uncontrollable outside renegade like Michael Greene.

Based on my inbox, there isn’t one fucking soul who believes in the Grammys or this year’s nominations.  This isn’t like Blondie in the R&RHOF, NOBODY came out in defense of NARAS.  To me, that indicates a problem.

Will it be addressed?  Will it be fixed?

Highly doubtful.  The corruption goes to the core.

We need fewer categories and fewer people in charge, who are hopefully independent.

But the music business has a long history of shadiness.

The only problem is, in the new sunlight-drenched Internet era, this kind of bullshit doesn’t play.  It’s all about truth.  And there’s no truth in the Grammys, none at all.

Who’s gonna watch?

Not the Internet generation.

Not the true music fans.

Only the media itself.  Which will fawn over this travesty like it’s the second coming.

And you wonder why the record companies are loathed.

Used to be that music was the most immediate and honest artistic format extant.

But that was back when the acts had control. When they made the records they wanted and just delivered them.  And, competition was irrelevant and the Grammys were too.

But now the execs think they’ve got the talent.  They’ve built an empty edifice to house their self-adulation.  But that doesn’t mean we should care.

And we don’t.