{"id":2645,"date":"2010-02-01T12:21:51","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T20:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2645"},"modified":"2010-02-03T08:14:03","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T16:14:03","slug":"grammys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/01\/grammys\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammys"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was an interesting piece in the "New York Times" asking whether it was more important to win a Grammy or appear on the telecast.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, do you remember who won Album of the Year or do you remember Pink flying high in the sky?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n
Grammys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Weight Is Now Measured in Face Time<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For those expressing displeasure with the Grammy telecast, I remind you that we no longer live in a monoculture.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a very brief period, two decades at most, when mainstream and alternative merged, when MTV dictated the hits and radio fell in line behind.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, you get to choose what you want to listen to from a plethora of choices.\u00c2\u00a0 So if you tune in a telecast like this you’re dumbfounded.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are these people?\u00c2\u00a0 Does anybody really care?<\/p>\n

Beyonce prancing.\u00c2\u00a0 Black Eyed Peas marching.\u00c2\u00a0 Eminem and two guys you’ve never heard of ranting.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this music?\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of hole have we fallen down?<\/p>\n

Relax.\u00c2\u00a0 To say the Grammys are a reflection of music today is akin to saying what airs on NBC defines America.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 People have more passion for niche channels like Discovery than those trying to appeal to everybody networks.<\/p>\n

But there’s a limited channel universe.\u00c2\u00a0 And the networks bought up the niche channels.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s going on in the music business?<\/p>\n

Chaos.<\/p>\n

What’s ironic is that NARAS was the ultimate niche operation.\u00c2\u00a0 What I mean by this was there was a category for every genre, it delved deep into music some were passionate about, but few cared about, which is exactly what’s happening today.\u00c2\u00a0 But the TV show is the opposite of this.\u00c2\u00a0 With fewer awards given and only the most mainstream acts featured.\u00c2\u00a0 Now is the time for NARAS to flourish.\u00c2\u00a0 But beholden to the old major label structure that is crumbling, NARAS is teetering too.\u00c2\u00a0 Overspending while membership is declining.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this like trying to get people to buy albums on CD when you can cherry-pick the desirable singles on Napster?<\/p>\n

But leading would require vision.\u00c2\u00a0 And NARAS has none.<\/p>\n

But who gives a shit about NARAS anyway.<\/p>\n

I’ll say that I was impressed with the Michael Jackson tribute.\u00c2\u00a0 No, not his kids, who certainly aren’t his biologically, and acquitted themselves quite well, but the performances…\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody could sing!\u00c2\u00a0 Could almost make you a Celine Dion fan.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially after experiencing Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n

How awful was she?<\/p>\n

Dreadful.<\/p>\n

"Fearless" deserved to win Album of the Year.\u00c2\u00a0 I was glad it did.\u00c2\u00a0 Scuttlebutt was it was DMB’s year, but to say "GrooGrux" is good is to be a tie-dyed hippie hanging out in the parking lot before a show that features great playing but mediocre material.\u00c2\u00a0 "GrooGrux" sold to a small coterie, most people don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 But Taylor Swift is as mainstream as you can get.\u00c2\u00a0 Triumphing in two formats.\u00c2\u00a0 Speaking her truth to her audience.\u00c2\u00a0 I love "Fearless".\u00c2\u00a0 You can play it from start to finish, again and again, it’s honest.\u00c2\u00a0 But last night’s performance…<\/p>\n

Do you remember Billy Squier’s pink video?\u00c2\u00a0 Which killed his career overnight?\u00c2\u00a0 Take a peek: <\/p>\n

\n
Billy Squier "Rock Me Tonite"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What was a hard rocker doing prancing around in a pink tank top?\u00c2\u00a0 What was a neophyte artist doing sharing a stage with a legend who made it before auto-tune, before studio tricks could make anybody a singer?<\/p>\n

I don’t need to analyze the performance.\u00c2\u00a0 (Hell, what I don’t get is how Taylor rearranged her own hit song.) But what I am interested in is the impact.\u00c2\u00a0 Because now, everybody knows that Taylor Swift can’t sing.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this what they’ll remember?<\/p>\n

Now unlike Billy Squier’s pink video, there won’t be endless repetition on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 And one can question how much of the target audience saw this performance.\u00c2\u00a0 But the cognoscenti did, and to what degree do they now want to distance themselves from Ms. Swift?<\/p>\n

In other words, did Taylor Swift kill her career overnight?<\/p>\n

I’ll argue she did.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, I’m not fully convinced of that, but let’s start from this position.<\/p>\n

She’ll be even further hated in Nashville (and what kind of fucked up world do we live in where the CMAs are better than the Grammys?)\u00c2\u00a0 I’d love to say whored out Top Forty radio stations will ignore her, but this is doubtful, still…<\/p>\n

In one fell swoop, Taylor Swift consigned herself to the dustbin of teen phenoms.\u00c2\u00a0 Who we expect to burn brightly and then fade away.\u00c2\u00a0 From New Kids On The Block to Backstreet Boys to Miley Cyrus.\u00c2\u00a0 A wall is created, stating you can’t come any further.\u00c2\u00a0 Debbie Gibson can appear in shows on Broadway, but she can’t have a hit record, the powers-that-be won’t let it happen.<\/p>\n

Taylor’s too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made.\u00c2\u00a0 And those surrounding her are addicted to cash and are afraid to tell her no.\u00c2\u00a0 But last night Taylor Swift SHOULD have auto-tuned.\u00c2\u00a0 To save her career.<\/p>\n

They say it’s easy to fake it in the twenty first century.<\/p>\n

But one thing we know is the truth will always come out.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to be a singer if you can’t sing.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we want our stars to be genuine.\u00c2\u00a0 Without this credibility, your time atop the charts is brief.<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift shortened her career last night.\u00c2\u00a0 And since she says she calls all her own shots, she has to shoulder the blame.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, her dream came true, she made it, she’s a star, but the real test is longevity.\u00c2\u00a0 Elton John can play with GaGa decades later.\u00c2\u00a0 Will Taylor Swift be duetting with the stars of the 2030s?\u00c2\u00a0 Doubtful.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was an interesting piece in the "New York Times" asking whether it was more important to win a Grammy or appear on the telecast.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, do you remember who won Album of the Year or do you remember Pink flying high in the sky?\u00c2\u00a0 Grammys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Weight Is Now Measured in Face Time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-grammys","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}