“Morgan Wallen Will Not Submit Latest Album for Grammys Consideration – The country singer became the latest major artist to abandon the awards, declining to enter his chart-topping fourth album, “I’m the Problem,” for the 2026 ceremony.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/arts/music/morgan-wallen-grammys.html

I’ve got a bug up my ass about the Grammys. It seems the only people who take the awards seriously are those who need the accolades to justify their work, so they can put it on their Wikipedia pages so we can be impressed.

I’m not.

What makes me further crazy is when obituaries mention winning or nominations for Grammys. As if that evidences a level of status. Will people think less of Morgan Wallen in the future because he does not have a slew of Grammys?

Now I can understand Black artists complaining about racism. Unfortunately, it’s true. But the kind of person who is motivated to join the organization, who’s got the inclination and the time to vote, tends to be not plugged into the top line of the music business, where Black artists oftentimes dominate. It’s a divide as wide as Beverly Hills and Compton. No one in Beverly Hills even drives through Compton, they’re too scared, and when Comptonites come into Beverly Hills all the whites are on guard, with their hands on their purses and wallets.

As for Morgan Wallen…

This is another reason Trump got elected, under the rubric of free speech. Yes, Wallen employed the N-word, but it was clear that he was drunk and using it in a way evidenced in Black culture, he was imitating the rappers and their videos as opposed to making a racist comment.

I know, I know, you absolutely can’t use the N-word, and I agree, I give Wallen no pass, but does he have to be a pariah forever? Can he never be let out of jail?

Not that Wallen himself probably cares. But when the biggest recording artist in America is snubbed by an award-granting organization…what does that say?

Actually, this is rock star behavior from the old school. From when the Grammys were irrelevant and the musicians showed up for events in their everyday streetwear instead of tuxedos. Now it’s techies who do that. Because the techies believe they’re above the rest of us, whereas the musicians are all subservient…to the organization, to the corporation, to the BUCKS! God, a techie will speak truth before a musician. Ain’t that sad.

I don’t want to defend Wallen the man. Throwing that chair off the roof. But back in the seventies antics like this were celebrated. And you wonder why men are neutered.

Let me try to thread the needle here. There’s no reason Wallen should have thrown that chair, but the constant pressure to behave drives men nuts. They feel neutered. Do you really expect them to vote for Kamala who is in bed with all those strident women?

WHEW! “Strident”?

It’s kind of like the troops in D.C. I don’t believe Trump should have brought in forces, but now even Maureen Dowd has gone on record that there’s a crime problem in D.C. We can’t be so busy being politically correct that we ignore the problem.

And the Grammys are a politically correct organization run by small men drunk with power. It’s like those short men who become policemen. They want to get back at all the bullies, and the Grammy gatekeepers want to get back at all those acts they see as no-talents who get all the money and attention. Who’d want part of that? Not Wallen.

He’s put out one monster album after another and all we hear about is Taylor Swift and the circle jerk of friendship bracelets. But Wallen is more dominant in recordings and sells out stadiums too! But that doesn’t mean anything to the arbiters of decorum. Wallen is on the wrong side. He’s always on the wrong side. Nothing he can do can satiate those who hate him in principle. A hick from nowhere with an accent who dominates all the charts? Screw him, WE’RE GOING TO TEACH HIM A LESSON!

The Grammys are like the school administration, lording it over you. You can’t wait until you graduate and are done with them. God, if I think about all the things teachers said to me in my schooling. They wanted to break me, rub off the rough edges, make me just like them, AND WHO ARE THEY?

Yes, I’ve got a problem with organizations. But when it comes to art…

Then again, we can’t even have a legitimate chart in the music business. They weigh physical more than streams and it’s all ridiculous. And unlike the manipulators of the game, Wallen isn’t releasing endless vinyl variations of his albums to maintain his chart position, in his case, THE MUSIC IS ENOUGH!

Think about that… You don’t see Wallen boasting that he’s number one. He’s going on none of the victory laps seemingly every other successful artist does today. He hasn’t gone Hollywood… No wonder people hate him, he’s not doing it their way!

And let’s say he didn’t utter the N-word and didn’t throw that chair, what are the odds any of his projects would have gotten Album of the Year? ZILCH! We don’t give that to hicks playing that music… We need to give the award to respectable people, like Herbie Hancock.

Now don’t e-mail me trying to justify the Grammys, I don’t care. The bottom line is an artist is an outsider who questions precepts, not someone who drinks the kool-aid to get along. You become an artist because you want to avoid the rules, not play by them!

If the Grammys had balls, and it doesn’t, they would give Wallen a special award during the telecast. Acknowledge the level of his success.

But no, they can’t do that… Once again, there are rules. He didn’t submit, so he’s out.

No, you messed with him and it’s your move. Why don’t you do the right thing? Don’t expect him to show up for the award, don’t even invite him, just do it.

Or maybe we just give Grammys to everybody. That’s another thing that pisses me off about the organization. There are nearly a hundred categories, if you can’t get nominated you don’t make music. The awards become meaningless.

If Michelle Obama can win a Grammy, and Bill Clinton too (well, at least he played the saxophone)… What do the two of them have to do with music, other than having ears to listen?

You could whittle the categories down to just the majors, like the Brits, but then the rank and file would complain, they need to win their Grammys, what about them?

And isn’t that exactly the point???

BritBox trailer:

This would be the talk of the town if it was on Netflix. There’d be features about Rose Ayling-Ellis in all the newspapers and people would be talking about it, but…

It’s on BritBox.

Having said that, it’s number one on BritBox, deservedly so.

The only time I’ve felt this tense watching a TV series was when I viewed “The Bureau.” Not only was I on the edge of my seat during the first three episodes, I actually considered turning it off, my anxiety was just too high.

Now we’d just seen Rose Ayling-Ellis in “Ludwig,” the feel good series on BritBox. At times it’s silly, but it’s ultimately satisfying. What you’ve got is a misanthropic puzzle maker solving murders. I don’t want to tell you much more other than to say one of the murders is of a teacher. And another member of the faculty is Ayling-Ellis. Who when questioned has an interpreter employing sign language to get the words across, even though she can respond in what seems like an almost regular voice.

So I was very surprised to watch “Code of Silence” and find Ayling-Ellis once again hearing challenged. Turns out in real life she’s nearly deaf, she wears hearing aids but relies also on lip-reading and… If you do your research, you’ll see that Ayling-Ellis was awarded an MBE…

But, what we’ve got here is a nearly deaf woman trying to make it in life, just wanting an opportunity, but despite lip service, no one wants to really give her a chance. So she’s relegated to a cleaning job and…

She ends up working for the police, reading lips, but they always keep her at arm’s length and she decides to take matters into her own hands and…

You’re just waiting for her to get into trouble, to be exposed.

Stunningly, the series does not play out as one would expect. The plot twists, not in an unnatural way, but an unexpected one.

There are six episodes forty five minutes in length, it’s not a big commitment, but you do have to sign up for BritBox, which is too heavy a lift for most people. And I get it, it’s like being pecked to death by ducks with all these subscriptions. Apple just raised the price $3?? There’s nothing on the damn channel. They drip out very few shows episode by episode and this discourages me from subscribing and by time the show is over all the hoopla, assuming there is any, is gone, and do I want to pay all that cash just to see one show?

You see Rose Ayling-Ellis making bad choices, but you can also see where she’s coming from. You get what it’s like to be non-hearing in a hearing world.

This is a really great series, I highly recommend it.

Netflix trailer:

This is utterly fantastic. On some level stupendous. This is not your average rock doc…you know, a linear retelling of the band’s career, pure fact with a bit of rearview interpretation by those still alive. RATHER, this is all about the inspiration, this is all about the ARTISTRY!

And we haven’t had that spirit here for a very long time.

If you’re a baby boomer, you will remember. The inspiration of old films, from W.C. Fields to the Marx Brothers to “Inherit the Wind,” which had a profound effect on Mark Mothersbaugh.

Who is inspired by a pamphlet given to him by a teacher which lays out so much of the Devo philosophy long before there even is a band.

You see Gerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh were art students.

You’re laughed at if you study art today. Which is one reason our music is so vapid. It’s paint by numbers, there’s no THINKING involved. And Devo was all about thinking. The thinking came first, audience acceptance second. They were projecting their ethos into the atmosphere, and how people reacted was important. Then again, they believed eventually people would get it, instead we’ve truly devolved. When you see the images from the “Beautiful World” video you know we’ve truly lost the plot. Things are ugly, but if you say so you’re the enemy. We’re all supposed to be mindless winners, in love with society. But what if you look at the dirty underside?

People don’t like it. Those in control. You’ve got to blame the game.

The essence of the music business is revealed when Mark asks the exec why if cassettes are cheaper to make and more profitable to the label that the band gets a lower royalty rate. The response is THAT’S THE WAY IT IS!

Do you accept that?

This film will demonstrate that while youngsters can sing and maybe even play, there’s no artistry involved. As a matter of fact, Devo and this doc are the antithesis of today’s music business. Where having a good voice is considered artistry.

Then again, maybe I’m just a smug baby boomer lifting the curtain on the warts of society.

Don’t confuse me, or Devo, with the boomers in D.C. who won’t let go. As a matter of fact, there’s  lot of anti-Reagan stuff in the flick. Devo are outsiders, like all great artists. They’re reacting to what they see. They’re not a part of it, they wouldn’t deign to be a part of it!

How to explain…

You really can’t.

It’s a sensibility.

It’s the opposite of going to Harvard and going to work in finance. It’s about having an idea and living in squalor believing in the mission, not even knowing if the mission will pay off, only that you need to stay on the path.

These are weirdos. From back when being a weirdo was a badge of honor. When you knew you weren’t cool and didn’t pretend to be. When you laughed at the cheerleaders and football players, meatheads who’d drunk the kool-aid.

Art is about questioning precepts. Why is it that way? Should it be that way? How do I make people aware of the conundrum?

Of course you’ve got some music business lore in this film. Record labels, MTV…but they are subsidiary to the story. I’d like to say they were tools of Devo, but that’s not an accurate description. They unknowingly exposed Devo and its message, unaware of the group’s underlying beliefs, and when they’d had their fill, they abandoned the group.

Timing is everything. If it weren’t for the Ramones and CBGB’s and the new wave, Devo probably never would have broken through. For all I know, they were not the only band on this path. But they stuck with it, and making it is about hard work and luck, and then taking advantage of the opportunity.

Devo never completely sells out. They can see the cognitive dissonance of going on “Merv Griffin” and “American Bandstand,” they stay true to their diffident personalities. Who’s using who?

This is what it used to be like, this is what we’re missing.

Of course Devo can’t be replicated exactly today, for numerous reasons. Then again, the tools of creation and exhibition are cheap and available to all, so if you do have a message you can get the word out. Will it resonate and spread?

There was less competition back then, because fewer acts could get the record label push. Today you do it all yourself, but as referenced above, you can do this, with no interference.

But really this is not about the system, the music business, but the band and its vision.

Where does your inspiration come from? If you just want to be rich and famous, so be it, you’re not going to change the world. You change the world by having a message and getting it out. And when it’s not the mainstream message, you must be subversive.

How do you learn how to do this?

By paying attention to the words of Max Ernst. Seeing films that have more depth than superheroes on parade.

Just watch it. We’d be in a better place, music would be in a better place, if everybody in the food chain watched this film.

Can you question your preconceptions?

Can you speak truth to authority?

These were the values of the baby boomers, before they sold out when Reagan legitimized greed. But some stayed on course, true to their beliefs, like Devo.

I’ve never seen a rock doc like this before. This is a perennial, to be viewed by up and comers of all ages for all time.

I’m stunned that they laid it all out there and got it right.

Then again, to do this you must be in control and do it your way, not compromising for commerciality. Only then do you have a chance of truly resonating and changing the world.

Music did change the world.

Not anymore.

But once upon a time there was an energy, and Devo weren’t the only ones, but they made it and never compromised and are still aware of what they did while having a sense of humor all the while.

WOW!

1

This is my favorite song on the new Ghost album, “Skeletá.”

At this point everybody in the business is familiar with the Swedish “metal” band. But the dirty little secret is the music is really not metal. I’m not saying it’s never heavy, but unlike so much of today’s metal it’s not played at light speed with voices shouting on top of what too often resembles noise. I get it, I get it, the listeners want to kick out the jams. They and their bands are the other, their own separate domain, but really a backwater. Most of the songs that you hear on the Active Rock chart don’t require a second listen. There’s emotion, then again it’s almost a caricature of the genre, akin to the hair band power ballads of the late eighties. But Ghost is different.

Ghost is more akin to “Hysteria.” Maybe even Queensrÿche at times. And Genesis?

Ghost is doing everything right when seemingly everybody else is doing it wrong. They want a cult audience. They know that keeping it somewhat precious only embellishes the act’s image. You have to make an effort to be a fan.

Consider the Yondr pouches. The truth is video helps you. The mystery has been history for years. It’s hard to get noticed, any publicity you receive benefits you.

And yes, Yondr pouches mean that the attendees can’t spend the show on their phones, but it also means there’s a blackout as to what happens on stage. And this only works if your music is good. And Ghost’s is.

Speaking of the hair band era… That’s where all the money was, on MTV, which fed the playlists on the new triumphant Top Forty stations on FM radio. You were either on MTV or you were in the wilderness. There was a great divide, and acts would do almost anything to get on the service. Sing ballads unrepresentative of the rest of their oeuvre and hire stylists for their videos and… One day the public woke up and had had enough, they were aware of the construct, it was just too damn phony.

Yes, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana came along in the early nineties to rescue rock, but those songs were hits everywhere, whereas prior to MTV…

There were two verticals, two roads. AM was Top Forty, FM was album rock. And occasionally tracks from FM crossed over to AM, but some of the best FM acts never had an AM hit, yet got a ton of FM airplay.

FM was the alternative. Not like in R.E.M. and the rest of the alternative acts, no…literally an alternative, the OTHER! Where thinking hard core music fans went and listened, prodigiously. You didn’t need a three minute single to triumph, you just needed a great record, genre wasn’t that important, FM rock was a big tent, at least until the corporate rock of the late seventies that killed the genre.

Ghost is not corporate rock.

So all we hear about is the acts in the Spotify Top 50, veritable brands, covered by mainstream media, even though so much of that music is evanescent junk. All the action is elsewhere. Sans the usual hype, just waiting like a land mine to blow up in your personal headspace.

Now one could argue that the Ghost paradigm was first done by Slipknot. But Slipknot’s music was nowhere near as accessible, really not accessible as all.

But really Ghost is a product of Sweden. Where you can stretch out artistically and be embraced, because radio was never open to all comers, you could go down the road less taken and triumph. Never forget that Max Martin started out in hard rock/metal.

To be Ghost is expensive. To make Ghost work you have to be a thinker, to not only execute but continue to push the envelope forward, coming up with new ideas to wow the audience.

Yes, the gimmick was the band on stage was unknowable. And for a long time, that was true. But it also caused listeners to focus on the music, the music came first.

2

Tobias Forge, the frontman of Ghost, is 44. And the band was formed in 2006 and their first album came out in 2010. This used to be unheard of. But this is what the internet has wrought, age no longer matters, it’s about the music. Are you willing to hang in there that long to make it?

Then you’d better be original, like Ghost.

Sure, there are plenty of acts out on the road with members who are in their fifties and sixties, never mind forties…but almost all of them are running on fumes, they’re selling tickets on the music they cut long ago. If it’s not pure nostalgia, it’s close. But to be 44, in the game for twenty years, and still be doing new, innovative work that resonates with the public? NEVER! Especially today, when it’s no longer about physical and only the hard core buys the new work…which promptly falls off the chart. The new music tends to be a rationalization for the tour.

So…

The great thing about Ghost’s music is it’s not for everybody. They’re not compromising. And it’s working. They sell out arenas and their latest album, “Skeletá,” entered the chart at number one.

And we hear all about the Swifties, but hard rock/metal fans NEVER abandon the act, they’ve got the strongest fanbase extant. To triumph in hard rock/metal…you’ve made it forever. Meaning Ghost is a veritable phenomenon. But they don’t rap, they don’t employ outside songwriters, they’re in the Ghost business, like in the old days where every band was unique.

3

So if you’re listening with your thinking cap on, stop. That’s not how a non-fan new to this music is supposed to listen to this. You’re supposed to crank the tunes and let them wash over you and see if they penetrate.

And many people won’t like Ghost. But unlike their brethren in the Active Rock ghetto, there’s melody and harmony, WHAT A CONCEPT!

This music is not made for a dinner party. Rather this is the kind of music you play when you’re insanely happy or morbidly depressed. It speaks to you in those moods. And when you do listen there are no outside touchpoints, you’re in your own cocoon. And there are guitars…but really, a lot of this stuff is closer to early Queen than Metallica.

So when you drop the needle on a new album and don’t immediately take it off, if you’re inspired to listen all the way through, a song or two might jump out. You’re not expecting it to, it’s not because it’s been promoted as a single, it’s just that it resonates. There have been three radio tracks released from “Skeletá,” and “Guiding Lights” is not one of them. Because it doesn’t really fit the format. The broad rock of the old days? Yes. But “Guiding Lights” is not angry, as a matter of fact you can argue it’s beautiful.

“That the road that leads to nowhere is long

And that those who seek to go there are lost”

This is the magic right here, the anthemic chorus. A veritable hard rock chorus. This is the hook. Not only the choir-like effect of the vocalizations, but the lyricism, there’s a melody you can pick out and sing along to, or at least nod your head to.

And then there’s a twist:

“The guiding lights, they lead you on

And the road that leads to nowhere is long”

Yes, the chorus of “Guiding Lights” makes the track. That’s what stood out, made me take notice, want to play the song again.

The song starts with this riff, it sounds like it’s played on a toy piano.

Then the verse. This is very low key. Like you’re in the forest on a moonless night.

But then the number builds through the pre-chorus:

“There stood my God before me

Do you know what they said?”

This is the change that brings you to the anthemic chorus, that sets you up, it’s the pitcher’s windup before the ball is sent hurtling to the plate.

And this is not Pulitzer prize wordsmithing, but having said that…

“The road that leads to nowhere is long”

This is where so many hard rock listeners believe they’re going…NOWHERE! They’re on a journey, but no one is paying attention to it. They figure if they stay in the wilderness long enough they’ll find their people and a modicum of happiness.

Then again, you can interpret this as a love song. The end of a relationship. The road to ending is long and torturous. At the end there is no prize, there’s nothing. But still, the great thing is the nowhere metaphor works if you’re just alienated too.

And unlike so much hard rock/metal, you can interpret the song on a romantic level, it’s not all devils and dungeons, which is why women are drawn in. Sure, there are misanthropic women into bombastic hard rock/metal, but most want something more. I just Googled “Ghost have female fans” and this is was the top hit, from Reddit:

“Why does this fanbase have so many more women compared to other rock bands?”

And then there’s a specific question:

“First off, it’s a good thing! As a woman, it makes me really happy to see so many other girls that are into rock music.

“I’m just puzzled as to why Ghost has so many more female fans compared to other rock bands. It seems like most other band’s concerts are predominantly male.”

Why does this fanbase have so many more women compared to other rock bands?
byu/firstreformer inGhostbc

It’s the MUSIC!

The other acts have the look, with the leather and the studs…once again, almost a caricature of the scene, but Ghost has thrown that over and is appearing on stage…the band members are wearing robes.

All this means if you like this kind of music, you can come in from the wilderness, someone made a record just for you. They didn’t need to make it so angry and noisy and shouty that it turned off all but the hard core.

And you can be a fan and it delivers more than the music. The show cements the deal.

The road that leads to nowhere may be long, but so is the road to somewhere. Which is why so much of the good, groundbreaking sounds come from people who are older, who have lived a little while. They’ve got perspective, they’ve got something to say.

And in this case, I want to listen to it!