Some of you will begin this article by asking, “Just who is C. Michael Greene?”
Most of you have already had an informal introduction to one of the biggest egomaniacs the music world has ever seen. In an entirely different category than someone like Fred Durst, you will remember Greene as the goateed, arrogant, little (insert colorful noun here) who took the stage at the Grammies this past year and attempted to give the audience and fans at home a lecture (albeit a very, very late lecture) on the evils of downloading music.
To industry insiders and music geeks, Greene was the president of NARAS, the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences. The key word here is “was.” Greene was forcibly removed from his position this past Saturday, when the board of directors, numbering 38, flew in from 12 chapters across the country to unceremoniously force the music industry’s equivalent of excrement into retiring. The meeting and resignation were called for amidst a pile of accusations against Greene, including sexual harassment of female employees and financial misconduct.
Greene, who has always maintained his innocence, had a hard time explaining why he had Grammy trustees pay a former female staffer $650,000. Greene cited the payout as a means of avoiding a legal battle that would drag NARAS through the mud. Keep in mind that NARAS is a nonprofit organization, and that in the real world, most innocent people don’t pay other people nearly three-quarters of a million dollars to avoid a lawsuit.
“This illegal file-sharing and ripping of music is pervasive, out of control, and it’s oh, so criminal,” Greene said during the Grammy telecast. He continued by saying, “Songwriters, singers, musicians, labels, publishers — the entire music food chain is at serious risk.” This was coming from a man who raked in $2 million a year as the head of a nonprofit organization — the highest salary of any nonprofit exec in the country.
While some honorable people earned less than 1/20 of his wage to actually help people who were really in need, Greene received a membership to the Bel-Air Country Club and a leased Mercedes, and he recently signed $20-million annual contract extension with the Grammies.
His main job? Besides being a jerk, no one really knows. Sure, public relations will tell you that he was “critical in raising Grammy ratings.” He was also critical in pissing off millions of Grammy viewers with the watered-down, Matchbox 20-safe tactics the program employed during its epic, sleep-inducing telecasts. Greene then had the gall to lecture that same audience with his “anti-piracy” speech while he lined his pockets with cash. Oh yeah, the Grammies had their lowest ratings in a decade this past year.
It’s not that I am against struggling musicians getting their money, because they should; rather, I am against Greene because he represents everything that is wrong with the music world.
Under Greene’s direction, NARAS has been accused of misallocating funds for such groups as MusicCares, one of the charity-based operations the organization runs. Tax records indicate the organization has spent three times more on administrative and fundraising tasks (rounds of golf and steak lunches) than it actually has on giving money to the needy.
Greene is an overpaid joke that has been dispensed of. Those unfortunate souls who watch the Grammies next year (myself included) will hopefully be spared a lecture from a guy who needs to get in the ring with Stone Cold Steve Austin before ever talking again.
