The Brits
Enough with the self-congratulatory backslapping. Despite the stratospheric ratings, the Grammys were positively antiquated, with a ton of duets/medleys and staging that was state of the art ten years ago.
Look at this:
The special effects blow everything at the Grammys away. This performance makes Nicki Minaj look like someone who took a left turn on her way to a high school fashion show.
Last time I checked, music was something that went in the ears. And to see Ed Sheeran perform solo is to be touched, in a way that only music can. How many of these moments did we have at the Grammys? Maybe thirty seconds of the Civil Wars?
Music is healthier in the U.K. Because it’s first and foremost about music. There’s an excitement, show biz is secondary. Can you imagine Adele emanating from the U.S? Hasn’t happened yet.
The U.S. story is how Adele got cut off mid-speech. And I’m not condoning that, but you can see her performance from last night online. If you live in the U.K. of course, it’s region restricted, as if I don’t get e-mail from the U.K. every damn day, as if the Internet ends at the Atlantic Ocean.
There’s a plethora of performances from the Brits online. Very few mashups, just people getting to perform their entire songs, solo. Sometimes less is more.
But even better, you can buy last night’s performances on iTunes already!
You can’t even watch the Grammy performances online, never mind buy them.
Not that you’d want to.
Ever listen to the BBC World Service? The news looks completely different from a British viewpoint.
We’ve been telling ourselves the United States is the greatest country in the world for so long that we refuse to take chances, to innovate, all we can do is self-congratulate.
Compare the Brits website to the Grammys’:
The U.K. site looks like it was designed yesterday.
The Grammy site looks like it was designed by someone’s nephew in 2004.
Music is supposed to be cutting edge.
Cutting edge is not pairing Chris Brown with David Guetta or Dave Grohl with Deadmau5.
We laughed at the Grammys.
I dare you to laugh at Ed Sheeran’s performance above.
