Have you been catching the Universal bashing by Trent Reznor and Josh Homme? Hell, Homme even mentions Jimmy Iovine by NAME!

Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age may not sell millions of records, but one thing they’ve got is fans. Both acts can tour until their leaders die. The Grammy nominees?

There’s a fiction that the Grammy nominated albums are the best of the bunch, the people’s choice. The TV show celebrates the major labels and everybody’s happy.

But in a world where Top Forty is a ghetto, and MTV plays no music, what makes anyone believe the mainstream is hip?

The biggest hit of the summer, according to mainstream media, is Rihanna’s "Umbrella". But most people have never heard it. Because they pay no attention to the spheres within which it is exposed. They’ve got other choices, and they’re taking them.

Same deal with this Grammy mess.

The Grammys were a joke. Late to the party on rock, more specifically, the Beatles and the Stones, they got no respect.

But then something curious happened. The mainstream merged with the hip. In the eighties, when everybody was glued to MTV. And a mercurial southern boy took over NARAS, and turned the Grammy show into a celebration of the single-minded focus of the American public.

Now, there’s a steward in charge, and no one but the self-congratulatory pricks cares anymore.

You’ve got hitsdailydouble dissecting the nominees. You’ve got multiple articles in the L.A. "Times". Really, does the general public give a shit?

The general public’s been tuning out all of this century. The powers-that-be have lost their hold on America’s consciousness. It’s not about theft, it’s about listeners going their own way, into nooks and crannies, to something more satisfying than the mainstream crap foisted upon them by the major labels.

The star model is history. Burned out by not only vapidity, but choice. People do like music, just not what those who used to be in control want them to like.

How does Universal make it with an act that sells 10,000 copies? Never mind one that does 5,000.

But an individual can live quite handsomely on the same number of albums sold. For he gets all the profits, and unlike the big guys, he keeps the costs down. His fans keep his career going, not Volkswagen, "Grey’s Anatomy" or Top Forty radio. He’s got the tools of production and marketing in his possession, and he’s utilizing them.

The Grammys are a mainstream show for a country that no longer is mainstream. And that’s why they’re irrelevant. The Grammys are about consensus. Whereas arguing with your buds over who’s good is now passe, you just ignore what doesn’t appeal to you and play in your own backyard, which you created.

I guess what I’m saying here is that not only was Doug Morris unprepared for the future, but network television, newspapers and radio too. We’ve seen no adjustment by any of them. Just a holding on to what they had before, however little is left.

Real music fans don’t watch the Grammys. Why would they? The acts they like aren’t on the show. And the production is phonied-up with TV stars and ass-kissing talent. Real music fans believe in their acts. They don’t believe in these people on TV.

So please, enough with the Grammy hysteria. The only people who care are the labels looking for a sales bump and the overpaid NARAS team.

How about covering something important?

Oh, that’s right, the labels and NARAS don’t know what’s important. They’re out of touch, they’ve got no idea what teens and twentysomethings think.

There’s a generation gap as wide as the one in the sixties. Only this time, it’s the boomers who are out of the loop.

There’s something happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

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Trent Reznor:

While the music industry is doing everything they possibly can to go out of business, can we all make sure to rid ourselves of the Grammys, too? Out of touch old men jacking each other off. _ENOUGH! _Have a nice day.

(posted at nin.com on 12/06/07)

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Josh Homme:

Fuck the labels man, they suck. The last thing they’re stripping down is their own expense accounts and shit. I mean, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records takes a private jet or rides first class to tell a band they don’t get tour support. You know what I mean? Fuck that shit, I’m tired of it. And I’m not gonna be quiet because the American label, not Canada, not Europe, but our American label’s fucking us like crazy, so fuck them. Why should I not say anything, what am I afraid of? I’m not afraid of them.

Interscope Sucks My Dick:
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