The 52nd Annual Grammy Popularity Contest

It’s been several years since I went on a rant about the Grammy awards, given out by the NARAS.  Normally I ignore the annual spectacle and go on with life.  But something this year clued me in that there was a painful moment or two, namely, the fact that something (or someone) named Taylor Swift won a Grammy for “Album Of The Year”.  And that it had performed live.

That something: social media.  Facebook.  “Trending topic” indeed.  One of my good friends wrote, “After seeing Taylor Swift win the Album Of The Year Grammy, I think they should give Milli Vanilli their Grammy back!”  Another friend, the wife of a well-known jazz musician, wrote that Swift’s performance reminded her of an old phonograph winding down in speed.  So, why the rant?

I’ve long held the belief that the Grammy awards are nothing but a popularity contest.  This time out, it occurred to me that the whole process itself is dishonest.  When you think of a Grammy award, you think of the prestige that goes with it.  When you win a Grammy, you have “arrived” in the music business.  The implied thought is that the award is tied to some level of artistic merit.

In reality, however, the nomination and voting process is nothing more than industry peers voting for each other.  So for each popular Top 40 artist that most of the nominating NARAS members (peers) have heard of, there are countless other artists that barely make a blip on these members’ radars.  (And I have a story about Sting to back it up.)  So in essence, even among peers, it is nothing more than a popularity contest.

Where does dishonesty come into play?  Consider this.  The whole Grammy process carries the air of the award being tied to artistic achievement, greatness, etc., when it is just an industry-member popularity contest.  When Billboard hosted award shows, you knew what to expect.  Billboard reports on sales and airplay.  Billboards awards were based on sales and airplay.  A people’s choice award is just that: a popularity contest by the people.

Even a critic’s choice award is basically honest: it’s true that critics’ views are their own opinions and we don’t necessarily agree with them, but you know this going into it.  In addition, any type of critics’ award or poll tends to champion all of those fine recordings that fall outside the mainstream, bringing them to our attention, and letting us share our enthusiasm with the critics’ choices.

With the Grammys, I just feel deceived when I see the nominations, and the final winners.  Year after year, plenty of truly noteworthy recordings slip past their radar, and yet the most popular keep on winning.

The year I quit watching the Grammy awards was 1986, the year that Sting, fresh out of The Police, was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance for the title track from Dream of The Blue Turtles.  I felt he never should have been nominated for that song.  Even Sting himself felt he never should have been nominated, and was even a bit embarassed.  The award rightfully went to someone else.

The title track is nothing more than a brief minute-and-a-half jazz jam with Sting and his band (which featured jazz musicians Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Darryl Jones and Omar Hakim).  In essence, just a quick little interlude recorded for fun.  As near as anyone could figure, Sting was nominated only because he was hot, he was popular, and he was “new” as a solo artist.

Popularity contest.

So if we travel back to 2010, we can only surmise that this year’s Album Of The Year trainwreck was due to a popularity contest, or perhaps compenation for some half-wit named Kanye West who reportedly rained on Swift’s parade at last year’s awards show.  (No, I don’t follow the Grammys or the tabloid pop stars who inhabit their world.)  Whatever.  Just about everyone complained about Swift’s badly off-key duo with Stevie Nicks, and reinforcing it with a Grammy win.  Something just reeks about it.

And so, I go another year boycotting the Grammy awards, and what they stand for.  If Milli Vannilli can’t get their Grammy back, it would be interesting to see several artists return their Grammy awards in protest.  Then we’d all have something new to talk about!