Musical Excellence? A 2011 Grammy Wrap Up

Musical Excellence?: A Grammy Wrap Up

Remember that scene from Waiting To Exhale when Angela Bassett’s character went on this tirade at the party, and then all of a sudden she looked up confused and innocently and asked, “What happened to music, I thought this was supposed to be a party?” That is the way I felt the other day when I watched the 53^rd annual Grammy Telecast.

That is exactly what I want to know. What happened to all the music at the Grammy’s? The Grammy’s used to be about celebrating musical excellence in all fields: gospel, rock, rhythm and blues, and bluegrass, country, jazz. I did not see hardly any of that the other day. Instead what I saw was a painful reminder of what has happened to the music industry today.

Think back to the Grammy’s of just a few years ago, when you saw performances that represented each genre of music. You had gospel performances, rock performances, and even sometimes (although as I child I could not appreciate it as much as I do now as an adult) opera and classical music. The show seemed to celebrate celebrity more than musical excellence on Sunday. Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, and Katie Perry dominated Grammy show. Performances were pretty much limited to who is hot at the time. There were not that many high points of this year’s show. There were a few highlights of this year’s telecast, but other than that most of this year’s telecast was painful reminder of how much the music industry has changed. Remember when the show honored such greats as Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Mariah Carey, and The Beatles? In recent years future legends such as Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Lauryn Hill, Nora Jones, and John Legend dominated the award show. There is something wrong with this: Marvin Gaye in his lifetime only won 2 Grammy’s. Diana Ross, whose contribution to the music industry cannot be ignored, has won a whopping total of zero awards yet Lady Gaga can win five in one night? There is something very wrong with this picture.

From what I have seen on facebook, and various other media outlets, this years Grammy’s were not well received. Reports indicate that this year’s telecast was the highest rated that is has been in the last 10 years. I do not see that happening next year if they repeat the same mistakes they did this year. Here is what the Grammy’s got right and what they got so terribly wrong:

Grammy High Points:

The Aretha Franklin Tribute:

What a way to start the show! You cannot go wrong paying tribute to the Queen of Soul. The video montage of the Queen winning her 18 Grammy’s and performing numerous times shows us all what true artistry and music is supposed to look like. Having great artists like Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilara (who redeemed herself from her Super Bowl fiasco), Yolanda Adams, Martina McBride, and Florence from Florence and The Machine pay tribute was the right touch. Then the queen herself making a videotaped appearance from her home in Detroit calmed everyone’s concerns about her health. She looked great! This tribute had me believe that the rest of the show was going to be the same way.

Bruno Mars/Janelle Monee.

A great performance all around! Bruno delivered. He reminded me of a cross between Al Green and Joe Crocker. He has the skills to last more than 15 minutes. Now I may be biased being a fellow Kansas City Kansan and DOTTER but Janelle Monee represented KCK in a major way. She was not trying to do a lot of this or that to be noticed. She is a true performer and has such a charisma and chemistry about her on stage. She connects with the audience very well.

Unfortunately, that is about ALL of the positive I have for this show. The rest of the telecast fell into the

LOW POINTS OR WTH (WHAT THA HELL?) Moments:

Lady Gaga:

I am really, really, really not a fan. Yes she inspires kids to be different, blah, blah, blah.  I am really not impressed with that. It is really like she is doing all of these antics to take away from the fact that her singing ability is average at best. I am not trying to be mean, but I do not understand all of the hype that surrounds her. Her song “Born This Way” as many, many others have said was a direct replica of Madonna’s “Express Yourself. “ She thrives on just being weird. The entire performance was awkward and head scratching at best. Lady Gaga represents what is wrong with the industry today: Do anything to take away from the fact that you really do not have the best singing voice.  I think about some of our other young artist out there such as Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Kem, and Taylor Swift who do not have to resort to these types of tactics to get noticed. The focus is solely on their voices their natural talent. I am over the Lady Gaga craze. Then her acceptance speech saying she thanks Whitney Houston cause she envisioned Whitney Houston singing that song, I think we all know what Whitney have said to that.

Lack of Awards:

98 of 108 awards were handed out before the Grammy telecast. I think a big reason why people tune into the show is to see the “best of the best” represent in their fields of music. I am not an idiot to not understand that there is simply not enough time to have each award given out and still have performances, but they definitely could have had each genre represented on stage. R&B awards were all but eliminated from the live telecast as was bluegrass, gospel, and jazz.

Justin Beiber/Usher:

The performance was average. Justin Beiber has a lot of potential. But I think he is definitely overexposed at this point. Usher, I expected a lot more from. He is one that I would call a future legend. His performance mirrored Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation”. I am going to give Usher the benefit of the doubt and say that he was trying to let his protégé shine on that night. Usher is capable of giving us so much more. There needs to be a definite game plan to give Beiber some longevity and not just focus on being so commercial and pop.

Lady Antebellum Tribute to Teddy Pendergrass:

This is kind of a catch 22. If it was Lady Antebellum who decided to do the tribute it was honorable to try, but if the Grammy’s decided to just have some random group pay tribute then it was an insult to Teddy’s legacy when you had John Legend, and other soulful crooners in the audience who would have given TP much more justice and give him the kind of tribute that he truly deserved.

Lifetime Achievement Award Rush:

Normally the Grammy’s will give a little bit more of a tribute to the lifetime achievement award recipients than just saying all of their names at once like they did last night. Usually, presenters would recognize all of the recipients before they present an award or that would just be their sole focus. For all of those artists who have paid their dues to get this type of award and them to just get some random 2-second call out to me was an insult to their musical contributions. The Dolly Parton tribute with John Mayer, Keith Urban, and Nora Jones was awkward too. Not because of the three talented artists giving it, but because it was rushed to a point that it was just uncomfortable. It was totally devaluing the talents of Ms. Parton and the three talented presenters. If time is an issue, maybe the Grammy’s should do like the other musical award shows like Soul Train Awards, Oscars, Golden Globe and focus on giving ONE Lifetime Achievement Award a year.

Rhianna:

I am really not trying to be viscous or mean, but is Rhianna the ONLY one that rappers can find to do musical collaborations with. I am not a fan of hers as well. She is all over the place. Her voice is just not doing anything for me. Its very nasally and whiny.

The Ezperanza Spalding/ Justin Beiber New Artist Controversy:

I believe the award is called Best New ARTIST. Artist is somebody that has really made a splash on the music industry because of his or her raw showmanship, artistry, and gift of song. I have to admit I was surprised that Spalding got it, but not upset. She truly deserved it. Beiber needs more time to develop. He is a teen artist/icon but his musical showmanship is not there yet. He is not a young Michael Jackson or Little Stevie Wonder. Rarely is a the New Artist award given to someone so young. Beiber fans were not being too tactful or gracious by being rude to Ms. Spalding while she was accepting her award. That was in bad taste. That was her moment. If Beiber develops himself as a musician a little more and really develops that and not just focus on being so commercial, he will have more time in the future to win awards.

In The Middle: Not Sure How I Feel Moments:

Cee-Lo Green Performance:
I am going to give Cee-Lo an A for effort. He was trying to do something different. However, I found it as a cross between Toucan Sam, Elton John, and George Clinton. It was just maybe too different for me. I do like the song and I appreciate Cee-Lo’s humor, I just do not know if I would call this the best performance of the evening. I am still not fully understanding the Gwenyth Paltrow portion and why she came out to sing on the song.