Now, I originally contemplated writing a little bit about the Grammys, but decided against it. However, after a friend of mine revealed to me the inane flood of bullshit spewing onto the internet about Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" (not The Suburb's "Arcade Fire") winning Album of the Year, I decided I should say a little bit about it.
Why everyone is mad
People are confused and as has been the case with history, people don't like to be confused. No one likes the unknown; no one likes the unfamiliar; no one likes to think they don't know something about anything; no one likes someone they have never heard of winning an award that has a seemingly great deal of importance. I can honestly say that I have been victim of this sort of ignorance. A few years ago before I got into the movie scene, I never liked watching the Oscars because I had never seen any of the movies and I had only heard of some of the actors. If I had ever actually seen one of the movies nominated, it never won, and god knows there isn't an Oscar for Best Comedic Performance, possibly the only award I would have appreciated. However, this year I can satisfyingly say that I have seen nine out of ten of the Best Picture nominees and am eagerly looking forward to the Oscars. The problem with the Grammys is that there is so much to cover: there's tons of genres, artists within those genres, and various produces, labels, etc. For one award show to accurately pick out which albums were the best of a select year is neigh impossible.
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| People were worried about Communism too and that tuned out not to be a big deal. |
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| Communism: it's for free |
The Grammys had a choice to make: either side with the main stream audience (a large percentage of the TV viewing population) or the large underground community of audiophiles who illegally steal billions of albums and songs from the music industry every year. It's safe to say that they sided with the main stream audience. With that being said, these people are unfamiliar with more obscure artists such as Arcade Fire, Esperanza Spalding (both winners from last night), and various others; I wouldn't be surprised if a good number of people said "Bob Dylan, who?" or "Mick Jagger, who?" when they were performing. Therefore, when the artists they know don't win, they get confused and mad. They say the Grammys were rigged; they ask how much The Suburbs paid for their album "Arcade Fire" to win; they ask whose d*** they sucked to best Gaga (in all honesty, I'm curious too; no one tops Katy Perry, let alone Lady Gaga). People are mad because someone they have never heard of (who has an immense amount of musical talent) won something they see as important. You'd be shocked if in this year's Super Bowl the '72 Dolphins won (Who the hell are the '72 Dolphins?! I've never heard of them, so they can't be important).
Why everyone shouldn't be mad, but probably will be anyway
While it's clear that most of America has never heard of Arcade Fire (probably because they're from Canada), that doesn't mean that they aren't deserving of Album of the Year. Okay, maybe who YOU wanted to win didn't win, but that doesn't mean they didn't deserve it. Most of the people who are complaining think they know good music, and to them it may be good music. I'm not going to sit here and say that the rest of the nominees aren't talented: everyone knows I love Eminem and to this day he's still one of my favorite rappers; I hadn't heard of Lady Antebellum before last night, but then again I don't listen to country, so I can't say much; no one can deny the creativity of Lady Gaga; and Katy Perry is "meh" musically, but I will say this, she's a great performer. Arcade Fire had the unfortunate circumstance of being nominated into a huge category with several main stream giants and, although being a complete underdog, actually winning.
While I don't know about Lady Antebellum (although I'm sure they're big among country fans based on how much they won) Eminem, Gaga, and Perry have had numerous Billboard chart toppers. Unfortunately, what people don't realize is that the Billboard charts don't count for actual ratings in terms of reviewers. Billboard ranks its albums and songs based on radio play, record sales, and internet streaming play; in a nutshell, Billboard ranks its albums and songs based on popularity. Whoever sells the most and gets the most air/internet time is going to have the #1 spot. I can think of off hand a song by Eminem, Gaga, and Perry that was at #1 at some point in time in 2010. All this means is that those artists are the ones people have heard of, those are the ones that people want to win. Honestly, I was expecting Lady Antebellum to win with how it was sweeping what seemed like every applicable category. I think that even if Antebellum won less people would be upset because they had already won three awards prior to the announcement for Album of the Year. Unfortunately for Arcade Fire, they were an evidently no name band that hadn't won any awards that night (being nominated for only two others, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Alternative Music Album, losing to the Black Keys on both occasions) and I think it's safe to say that it was a shock to everyone that they won.
What people need to realize is that just because Arcade Fire won doesn't mean the Grammys are rigged or that you should go on strike from the Grammys, if anything, the Grammys are the least credible major award show in terms of actually honoring their communities respective accomplishments. For anyone that reads this and is baffled that Arcade Fire won, go to Metacritic and see how your favorite artist's last album did. Then see how "The Suburbs" did. Then see how many albums scored higher than both your favorite artist's and "The Suburbs;" I promise you it will be a good number of albums. There's a whole world of music out there and not one of us is able to scratch the surface. Do yourself a favor and start listening to something that isn't played on the radio, I promise you that you'll find something you like whether it be rock, hip-hop, pop, or something else. Just remember, just because who YOU wanted to win didn't win doesn't mean that who won wasn't deserving. If anything, out of everyone at the Grammys, Arcade Fire was most deserving of Album of the Year and I for one am glad Taylor Swift didn't win two years in a row. |
| Congrats to Arcade Fire! Win Butler: cut your hair. |
