or how America learn to stop worrying and embrace mediocre music
I realize I'm a little late to the game on this one. The
grammy nods were released almost 2 months ago and everybody who gives a damn
has already shared their opinion with the unwashed masses of the internet
crowd. So why haven't I weighed in yet?
Like I said, anybody who gives a damn already has and quite
frankly I don't. I stopped caring about the Grammys after I realized most of
the music I loved or respected probably wouldn't win.
Maybe I should have watched last year. I mean the Foo
Fighters kicked ass and they deserved album of the year.
"Will I watch them this year?" you ask.
I can almost guarantee you I won't. I mean there's a new
episode of the Walking Dead out that night and I honestly couldn't be bothered.
My original intent for this entry was to listen to music
from artists in each of the categories and share what I think about what the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences says is
good music this year. (according to Yahoo answers that's who chooses the
winners, and why would Yahoo Answers lie?) (Now type that question into Yahoo
Answers, and see what happens.)
Anyway that plan lasted about twenty minutes,
in which I listened to half a dozen songs, threw a cup of water against the
wall, screamed into a pillow and developed a migraine. I mean how the hell is
that inspirationless Kelly Clarkson song nominated for best record?
In-between bouts of sobbing and black rage
fits of swearing I took a couple of notes. Hear are my favorites:
I hope your ready for an in depth analysis of
each of the categories and their nominees! This should only take
about 5000 words. I'm just kidding mom and my three Facebook friends who aren't
related to me. I wouldn't put you through that.
I am so sick of Taylor Swift's glasses. Taylor, you are a pop star, not a nerd. You've been famous
since you were sixteen and cannot genuinely understand what it means to be a
teenaged girl, no matter how many Molly Ringwald movies you've seen. Oh, I'm
sorry Molly, I meant Mandy Moore movies.
I want to bitch slap the singer from Fun, just once, to see
if he would cry. To be fair I haven't listened to their entire album, but what
I have heard on the radio makes me want to… well make their
singer cry.
Thats about as far as I got before I threw my arms up in
despair and put on some Dylan to save my everlasting soul from pop-star
purgatory, before falling into a deeply troubled sleep.
Never the less when I woke up this morning, I resolved to
finish what I had started I played Frank Ocean's Thinkin Bout You, (He's
nominated for 3 Grammy's), threw up and went to work.
Lucky for my sanity and probably for you the reader as well,
one of my coworkers talked me out of continuing this self abuse.
He said exactly what I said at the beginning of this entry,
anybody who gives a damn has probably already said their piece, what the hell
are you going to add to the discussion. Right there he gave me an out, and I
would have taken it and scrapped the whole article. But then he said something
that made me decide to salvage if only to share his point.
"It's not just that the Grammy's suck because they
don't recognize the music I like," he said. "The whole concept of
deciding for the whole world what music is worthy and what sucks is
ridiculous."
He said some other hippy crap about how we should just
decide what music we like ourselves and be content with that.
Personally I like sharing my views on music. In our overly
PC society, the only times you can be a completely self righteous, sarcastic
bastard are when you're talking about music or sports and sadly neither the
Redskins or Colts made it past the first round this year so I'll stick to music,
it's what I know best anyway. But even better I get to talk about music I love
and musicians I respect, on occasion finding out about a new group from a
friend or sharing a tune my buddies haven't heard before.
Still my co-worker's point is well taken. Hailing one
musician or song above the rest is kind of stupid. The musician is just a
person… probably a pretty talented one, but a person all the same, do we really
need to inflate the egos of rock stars who spend every night getting cheered by
thousands of adoring fans?
I'd say no. And to be honest, I'm pretty excited to see
weather Merle and Daryl can get out of Woodbury without killing each other.
