I watched the Grammys on super fast-forward on Sunday night, before flying to Atlanta yesterday for a theater festival I’m working on at Emory University (my alma mater, y’all!) What with nostalgic campus tours, rehearsal prep, and a visit to the greatest restaurant ever founded by an Indigo Girl, I barely had time to process my disappointment over the results of America’s biggest music award ceremony.
And it’s weird that I should keep getting disappointed, since the most resonant music rarely wins But still… I was irritated that my prediction last December was correct, that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant did win album the year. I was even more irritated that they won in all five of the categories where they were nominated.
And it’s not because their music is bad. I don’t love their album Raising Sand, but it’s quietly accomplished all the same. My frustration is that the choice is so middle-of-the-road, so unexciting. As Sasha Frere-Jones writes at his blog:
I mean, that’s what we want from a Grammy, right? An award that acknowledges whatever dominated the year’s conversation and converted people who don’t care much about pop.
[...]But I doubt very many people under thirty bought [Raising Sand], and I would be surprised to find anyone under twenty with the album on their hard drive. This is the same fight the Grammys fight every year—an aging voting bloc tries to grapple with an industry driven largely by music of, and by, the young.
Too true. By going so traditional… by choosing once again to honor music that’s so divorced from the dominant pop dialogue, the Grammys once again made the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences seem willfully hostile to the present moment.
And I’m not saying they should only give awards to young musicians or that quality doesn’t factor in. It’s just that I prefer the years where the industry of recorded music acknowledges the accomplishments of a more diverse group of people. Or again, acknowledges music that feels urgent and relevant.
At the very least, I prefer the years when the categorizations make sense. But Raising Sand and its tracks won for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. So which is it, Grammys? Is it a folk album, a pop album, or a country album? If Robert Plant had narrated a track, would it have been nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance?
By letting the album be everything, the academy exposes its willingness to play it safe. That’s not what an award like the Grammy is for.
11 responses so far ↓
1 katy // Feb 10, 2009 at 12:40 pm
The most controversial thing you said above was that the Flying Biscuit was the best restaurant ever founded by an Indigo Girl.
http://www.watershedrestaurant.com/
2 karenG // Feb 10, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Hmmmm… I am not following pop music like I used to, and could totally be talking out my arse, but isn’t this kind of the problem with the Academy Awards? And I am not so sure that it has to do so much with an aging voting population… Whoever campaigns the loudest (i.e. spends the most money or, if you are the Golden Globes, has the biggest celebrity) is nominated and/or wins. While small indie jewels are generally left out and the winners are just so bland… And aren’t most of these labeled acts kind of middle of the road, anyway? Who could have won Plant and Krauss’ category that would have been more exciting?
I would love to see someone like NY-based singer/songwriter Alexa Wilding (google her, she’s fierce) with a Grammy nom. And so I wait…
3 Destiny // Feb 10, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Mark, I’m so jealous that you dined at the flying biscuit. I used to live at that place. As for the Grammys, you are spot on. I mean Ne-Yo winning album of the year would have been more interesting. Of course, I was rooting for radiohead (whose performance seemed as if it were broadcast from another planet compared to the bouncy pop, hip hop, and country that dominated most of the proceedings) but I would have been happy with Lil Wayne or even Coldplay winning. Anything but the Steely Dan/ Herbie Hancock/ Ray Charles factor rearing its predictable head. It’s as if the Grammy voters take pride in rewarding irrelevant music.
4 Mark Blankenship // Feb 10, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I agree Destiny. And I think, Karen, that a Lil’ Wayne win would have been genuinely exciting, and that a Ne-Yo or Coldplay win would have felt very in touch with what people like right now. A Radiohead win would’ve been strange and surprising and weirdly cool.
This is one thing that links the Grammys and the Oscars — left-field and/or underground folk often get nominated for big awards (like Melissa Leo for Best Actress or Jazmine Sullivan for best new artist) but they rarely win.
I think your comparison of the two is largely appropriate, because a lot of people claim a conservative/older-voter bias for the Oscars, too. (At least, that’s what I remember when Brokeback lost to [erp] Crash.)
And truthfully, both ceremonies do occasionally award the coolest possible performance/artist/record. Hilary Swank’s win for Boys Don’t Cry, say, or Lauryn Hill’s victory for album of the year.
5 Michelle Kinsey Bruns // Feb 10, 2009 at 11:33 pm
My own personal eternal flame of Decatur dining burns for the late, great Gumbo A-Go-Go.
No Indigo Girls affiliation, to my knowledge, but it being Decatur, you’d practically trip over a pile of folk-singing lesbians trying to get the counter to place your order— so you didn’t feel the lack too much
Topic, hrm. Uh. Raising Sand is… nice? It is. It’s nice.
6 steve // Feb 11, 2009 at 1:11 am
You use the world relevant like you ACTUALLY believe acts like The All American Rejects will be anything but forgotten.
Good music deserves to be rewarded, not crap music that tons of stupid people pretend to like to seem cool.
I’m with KarenG.
Also, I think you guys should start listening to good music.
7 steve // Feb 11, 2009 at 1:20 am
btw, COLDPLAY!?!?! I’m 21, and I would hope a bit more reliable when I say…that isn’t what the youth listens to.
try MGMT, city and colour, joanna newsom, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys, devendra banhart, cold war kids…anything but coldplay. and you MIGHT actually understand what music is and where it is headed.
8 Brooke // Feb 11, 2009 at 2:09 am
I’m 18 and I have the album! Go me!
I think the Grammys picked some really good ones even outside of this with Adele’s two-fer and Duffy’s Best Pop Album.
Don’t get used to it, right?
9 Mark Blankenship // Feb 11, 2009 at 3:47 am
Gumbo-A-Go-Go is closed? Why wasn’t I told? Let me get a black armband. And I just learned Burrito Art is gone from the Emory Village. Sadness.
And Brooke… totally! I should’ve mentioned Adele and Duffy’s wins as rad… because they were. I especially love Adele’s album, which is accomplished, surprising, and just feels *current.*
Clearly, I’m hinting at a lot of assumptions about what I expect from awards shows. I will unpack those later.
10 Deanna // Feb 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Did you people with Atlanta/Decatur connections know that Trackside Tavern burned to the ground a couple of weeks ago?
11 Michelle Kinsey Bruns // Feb 11, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Actually, I should clarify that I only know first-hand that the Gumbo-A-Go-Go location down on Ponce is closed and has been for years. It was after making that sad discovery that I heard a rumor that the entire mini-chain had been run into the ground by new owners, so it seemed safe to assume that they were all closed. If you discover otherwise while you are back in the 404, for the love of god please let me know, because I will for real road trip all 800 miles down there to get me some gourmet lunch in a plastic tub.
Deanna: wow, no joke. I didn’t know, but Google says you’re right. I also read that The Standard in Grant Park is giving some shifts to some of the Trackside staff—crazy awesome of them; hope the community’s doing a little extra drinking there to show their support.
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