Sandy Carter
Every
year when the National Academy Of Recording Arts and Sciences celebrates its
Grammy Awards, I gag at the notion that any of this music industry pomp and
propaganda honors the best music of the past year. Although all of the big time
entertainment awards cater to money and power, the Grammy ceremony offers up a
particularly shameless brand of groveling. This year’s 42nd annual Grammy Awards
(February 23rd) was more of the same.
To
begin with the obvious, the Grammy Awards are selected by established industry
big wigs (writers, producers, musicians and other industry professionals) whose
tastes and loyalties are bonded to the commercial successes of major label music
companies. Accordingly, all of the show’s big winners come from the rosters of
music industry conglomerates and most enjoy blockbuster record sales (upwards of
a million units sold).
No
surprise then when the January 4 nomination announcements included giant
commercial acts such as the Backstreet Boys, TLC, Ricky Martin, the Dixie
Chicks, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Santana dominating all the major
awards categories (Album Of The Year, Best New Artist, Male Pop Vocal
Performance, Female Pop Vocal Performance, Rock Album Of The Year).
In
the non-mainstream music categories such as blues, folk, bluegrass, gospel, jazz
and world, the Grammys approach credibility. Less manipulated by the sway of
commercial arm twisting, nominations in these categories include artists from
small labels and generally tend to appreciate music not aimed at a mass market.
Although even here older and established performers are favored over younger and
less conventional musicians, nominations do at least draw attention to strong to
respectable releases from the past year.
This
year’s bluegrass nominations, for example, presented a solid group of albums by
the legendary Ralph Stanley, Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band, Ricky Skaggs,
and David Grisman and friends. Blues and folk categories shined a light on
worthy works by B. B. King, Robert Cray, Pinetop Perkins, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott,
John Prine and Doc Watson. And in even more obscure categories such as Tejano,
Polka, Latin Jazz, Classical and Opera, the Grammys recognized musical riches
well beyond the popular music mainstream.
The
catch is none of these small market music awards get the spotlight of the prime
time Grammy telecast. Handing out these "lesser" awards early and off
camera, the Grammys reinforce the marginalization of all the non-mainstream
sounds already excluded from virtually all visibility in the mass media. For its
gala self-congratulatory event of the year, the music industry worships only at
the alter of the almighty dollar.
So
it is that most of the awards are predictable. The real action and suspense of
the Grammy evening comes in the parade of the rich and famous flouting fashion,
cool and cleavage. Punctuating the ceremony with glitzy, overproduced
performances from the year’s nominees, the show only underscores how little the
proceedings have to do with musical excellence. Backslapping and self-promotion
is the name of the game.
This
is not to say that all the Grammy winners stink. Here and there are commercially
successful artists whose music is exciting, emotional, and provocative in ways
that shed light on the human condition. The ten nominations and eight awards
going to guitarist Carlos Santana for his six million selling
"comeback" album Supernatural gives one of the pioneers of Latin-rock
deserving recognition. For a fine tribute album to western swing giant Bob
Wills, country veterans Asleep At The Wheel (with five nominations and one
award) also earned due praise. Other respectable high profile winners included
the Roots and Erykah Badu (Rap Performance By Group) and Diane Krall (Jazz Vocal
Performance).
These
triumphs (and a few others could be added), however, made it into the winner’s
circle with the commercial clout assistance of major labels. Other winners in
the major categories (TLC, Sting, Lenny Kravitz, the Dixie Chicks, Christina
Aguilera, Shania Twain) also predictably greased their path to victory with
mammoth record sales and major label promotion campaigns. And as expected, it
was a huge night for Santana.
With
a record-tying eight Grammys, Santana managed to hold off teen-pop hit makers
such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Ricky Martin and ‘N Sync for the
year’s biggest honors (Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year).
Due respect to Santana’s elegant and passionate guitar artistry, but the fact is
the competition was dismal.
In
a very bad year for pop music, Santana’s Supernatural album grabbed ears not
just because it was good, but because nearly every track featured happening
rock-pop guests. Hitch that scheme to the year’s latin music craze and you’ve
got a far more compelling product than the party and dance offerings of Cher and
Ricky Martin.
But
judged against the full range of the year’s popular music and without any heavy
allegiances to the music industry, Santana’s Supernatural gains a more realistic
appraisal. In the Village Voice’s year end nationwide critics poll, Supernatural
ranked in at No. 40. The other four Grammy nominees for best album finished as
follows: TLC’s FanMail No. 31, Dixie Chick’s Fly No. 41, the Backstreet Boy’s
Millennium No. 133 and Diane Krall’s When I Look In Your Eyes No. 265.
The
real surprises, and exceptions, on the nominations list were the unclassifiable
and independent label based Tom Waits and Ani DiFranco. Some portion of the
Academy voters had to really like these small market artists to garner each of
them three nominations. And for Waits to land the Grammy for Best Contemporary
Folk Album was the evening’s most pleasant shock.
Given
the rigid categories of music industry marketing, the Academy wound up labeling
Waits’ singing on the tune "Hold On" a Male Rock Vocal Performance
while his album Mule Variations was lumped in the hodge podge Contemporary Folk
category to compete with John Prine’s country duets collection In Spite Of
Ourselves, Beauseoleil’s cajun rooted Cajunization, Ani Difranco and Utah
Phillips’ Fellow Workers and Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt’s Tucson
Sessions. Naturally no chance in the big time Male Rock Vocal category, but in
this odd little niche, with one of the most acclaimed records of the year, Waits
came out on top.
Aside
from a few small breakthroughs, however, most of the Grammys continued to follow
the money. Maximizing investments in Santana, the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain,
the music industry doled out awards corresponding to commerce and giving one
final commercial surge to the year’s already big winners.