The television network CBS, for the second time in as many weeks, has telecasted another mediocre showing of entertainment and gave its best shot to ruin a national tradition. Fortunately, the events at hand pulled through with highly engaging performances and survived their trite and unoriginal means of communication.
As another year of Grammy coverage concludes, America was once again refused access to today’s most intriguing and innovative musicians by the country’s mainstream media outlets. The Grammy television special, which was run with a five-minute tape delay in fear and paranoia of a subsequent flash of silicone or perhaps of someone breaking new ground by exposing other flesh best associated with stag films, stayed true to form by ignoring musical acts that don’t appeal to white suburbia and giving all the face time to acts that make their living off physical appearance. If you were interested in original music and projects that required more talent than publicity, then you were stuck staring at the bottom of the TV screen to read the award winners of the pre-show presentation.
While CBS had good intentions of honoring the Beatles on the anniversary of their arrival in the states forty years ago, the entire tribute was overly scripted and left you with a feeling of dryness. They also failed to properly acknowledge other deceased award winners such as Johnny and June Carter Cash and Warren Zevon, who were given little or no recognition other than being another name on the award winner’s list. The fact that Justin Timberlake received more recognition as a musician than Johnny Cash is absolutely putrid and serves as an embarrassing but valid metaphor of today’s music media coverage.
Other categories of music that continue to remain on the unnoticed cutting edge were jazz, blues, international music, gospel, and several technical awards for production and composition. Al Franken’s spoken word album winner “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right,” fell under the radar perhaps for exposing the type of corporate debauchery and media control that companies like CBS make money off of. Film mogul Martin Scorsese’s brilliant musical film project, “Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey,” picked up two Grammys but received no exposure in the telecast. The blues as a musical genre in general is underrated, and, when someone as influential as Scorsese sheds light on an under-appreciated element of pop culture, America deserves the chance to listen.
Another interesting story that remained anonymous was Richard Marx (the ’80s crooner who made it acceptable to have a mullet and be sensitive) and the fact that he is not only still alive but actually won a Grammy. Marx’ ability to overcome his singing career (which consisted of hitting high notes in choruses for 8-12 seconds at a time and primo music video close-ups of his curly mullet resting on his faded denim jacket), and win a Grammy in 2004 is quite a feat.
However, the Grammy Awards was not without its positive elements, the largest being a creative hip-hop act winning the most heralded award, the album of the year. Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” won the prestigious award, and the occasion was a landmark in urban music and also significant for African-American musicians in general. Although truly not an “Outkast” album (the double album consists of two albums, one from Andre and one from Big Boi), the concept album pioneered new sounds by experimenting with a combination of jazz and soul while maintaining its rap roots. The Grammys also held some sense of dignity by ignoring chart sales and not recognizing acts such as Britney Spears and the obscurity train that is “American Idol.”
While the Grammys do not completely lose focus of all the variety and originality that music can create, they do not give it the attention and accolades it deserves. Just by having over a hundred categories, they are doing more for music than most media outlets; but, the fact is, it is not enough and they are capable of much more. The tradition of recognizing talented artists on the awards list and later completely ignoring them when it comes to the telecast should be put to rest. Whatever distant year this happens, that will be the year that commercial music and the media’s coverage of music will finally take a step in the right direction.
