Grammys-1-Missed Opportunity
I wasn’t going to watch the Grammys.
Until I started checking my e-mail and Twitter feed on my BlackBerry…
I set the DVR. Figured I’d fast-forward through ’em at some later date. But I feel drawn in by the magnetism of a cultural event, I now want to participate, I want to be a member of the club.
That’s why the Grammy ratings went up last year, and I expect them to be good this year too, because in a world where everyone speaks a different language, where we cannot even talk about watching the same TV shows, never mind listen to the same music, it’s fun to be a member of the club, we want to render an opinion, we want to kick the can.
Don’t take this as an endorsement of the awards or the winners. Those are irrelevant, to be forgotten tomorrow. In the Internet age, everyone gets an opinion, everyone is equal, and the haters want to weigh in as well as the lovers. It’s like being a member of a family, you can’t divorce your parents or your siblings, but that doesn’t mean you can’t complain about them.
Unlike the movie industry, music has got it right. It belongs to the people. The Oscars have the imprimatur of importance. The Grammys are a joke. NARAS nominates what the public loves, what’s in the mainstream, no one wants to tune in to see Grizzly Bear. Not even the band itself.
That’s why soon we’re gonna have gazillion selling records*. Not albums, singles. Because just like "Avatar", people want to be included. That’s what music does best, bring us all together. And who knew that the Grammy show was an exponent of that?
It’s got to be broadcast at the same time across the country.
Unfortunately, this is not NARAS’s call, but CBS’s. But if the Oscars can do this, why not the Grammys?
Because I want to e-mail and tweet with my bros on the east coast, watching it now.
I know that Train thanked Howard Stern.
I know that GaGa descended in an egg.
I’ve learned of the faux pas, but I’m left out.
And in the modern world, where everything happens now, this is anathema. Everything’s here today, gone tomorrow. Just like this telecast. Let me play NOW!
* Maybe not sales, but streams. Hell, check the Vevo numbers for GaGa.
