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Pop goes the Grammy
Cover design by Nicholas Weir
The ol’ Grammys just aren’t what they used to be. Musicians who have won and lost weigh in on the meaning of the Grammy Awards in a digital age.
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Published: February 5, 2009
Updated: 02/04/2009 06:35 pm
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences -- NARAS, for short -- is the organization that gets the credit -- or the blame -- for the Grammy Awards, which will be celebrating its 51st anniversary at 8 p.m.Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
It will televised live on CBS.
Consider yourself warned.
The increasingly irrelevant Grammys seem oblivious to a new generation that is making, listening to and acquiring music in ways that break with the Old Guard. Innovative music is now being made in bedroom studios and, as digital MP3 files, finding exposure and buzz through the barking chain of the Internet.
Grammy history is one of ignoring great musicians. Soul singer Bettye LaVette, long compared to a young Aretha Franklin, stubbornly survived a luckless 40-year career to find boisterous acclaim in 2005. Her album, The Scene of the Crime, brought her a 2008 Grammy nomination for best blues or R&B singer.
She seemed a lock to win. She lost.
"I will never again go to the Grammys and sit there as someone tries to tell me that Eric Clapton (who won) is a better R&B singer than me," LaVette said by phone from Detroit. "Now, I don't blame Eric. He probably doesn't even know he won. It's nothing to him.
"But it was a groove to hear them say my name, even if they did blow it. Eric Clapton? ... It was just one of those many Grammy moments that make no sense."
To many people, the Grammy ceremony is a clueless popularity contest. As digital sales obliterate the CD, the notion of a celebrity receiving an award in the shape of a Gramophone even seems anachronistic.
"I've never been too interested in it all," said Craig Smith, a professional banjo player from Winston-Salem who tours with bluegrass star Laurie Lewis. Smith won a 1997 Grammy for his role in the album True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe.
He was nominated that same year for best bluegrass instrumental for his performance of Monroe's "Rawhide." He lost, without complaint, to Chet Atkins.
Smith never got his Grammy statue -- he was mired in personal crisis, and awards were not on his mind. He said he could probably get one now, but he's not really interested.
He said he appreciates the significance that a Grammy Award holds for many people, but such things are not germane to his life. "I'm just a banjo teacher or the guy playing in the back," he said, laughing. "It's nice to appreciated, But I've just got enough stuff lying around that's already dusty."
The Academy consists of 7,000 music-industry movers and shakers who vote for the musician, band, songwriter, producer or singer who will be nominated for a Grammy. They vote again to decide who wins a Grammy. The Academy states that sales figures, popularity or outside influences play no part in the selection of a Grammy winner.
Feel free to titter. Everyone else is.
The purpose of the Grammy award, according to NARAS, is to improve the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its makers. The Academy does much to promote arts in schools. And the award does impact careers.
Singer and songwriter Kathy Mattea has won two Grammy awards over a nearly 30-year career marked by 15 Top 10 hits. She is nominated this year for her album Coal, which was not recorded for a major label. It is nominated in the traditional folk category.
"It is a big ol' deal in my life to have crossed that line to ‘Grammy winner,'" she wrote by e-mail while on tour in Europe. "This year, it's very sweet to be nominated. It's been 15 years since my last nomination, and this is a very personal record. The difference today is that the scope of my life is much bigger than in the past My career is only one facet. Win or lose, my life will still be there."
Kevin Gordon said that winning a Grammy can be a validating experience. "I suppose that, in terms of a broad swath of public awareness, a Grammy is a validation of something," said Gordon, a much-revered Americana singer-songwriter. "As a kid, I remember watching Tom Jones, and thinking he was pretty good. After 10 minutes, I lost interest, and I've never regained it.
"Winning a Grammy really doesn't seem to represent what it is supposed to represent."
A song Gordon wrote, "Flowers," was on soul singer Irma Thomas' album, After The Rain, which won a 2007 Grammy. "I didn't get an award -- maybe they had the wrong mailing address," Gordon said, laughing. "I do wonder what will happen with the Grammy Awards as music seems headed for a digital world with no tangible products."
Steve Knopper, the author of the new book, Appetite For Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, has has been covering the music industry since 1996. He understands the meaning the Grammys hold for many people in the music business. "Musicians like making fun of the process," he said. "I don't watch them. Still, the Grammys are all right. They will always serve a purpose."
Knopper believes the Grammy Awards will survive the coming changes in the music business.
"There will always be some form of a major label, and there will always be a Beyonce or Britney, and those are the people to whom the Grammys are important," he said.
"There are still times that the Grammys are absolutely representative of its time. I think Lil Wayne will win big this year, a reflection of hip-hop's societal influence and creativity, and an unintended nod to the fact that much of Lil Wayne's popularity stems from digital mix-tapes that are only available online."
Peter Holsapple, a native of Winston-Salem, has toured with twoGrammy-winning bands (R.E.M. and Hootie & The Blowfish). He agrees with Knopper.
"It really is a case of, ‘Here's my new record. You'll love it when you see it,' because it's now not real until people see it on TV," he said. "Back when I worked in record stores, people would come in after the Grammys and want to ‘buy the song I saw last night.'"
He paused. "The Grammys are, in theory, a really good thing, because it nice to be recognized for an accomplishment by your peers. But a lot of people also want to see just how bad the Academy blows it. In a sad way, there are so many totally meaningless awards that a Grammy is now just another award.
"The Grammys are sort of like the Miss America pageant -- it's now just another bad reality show."
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