To Grammy, or Not to Grammy...

Tonight, if you choose, you may watch the 2017 Grammy Awards, the 59th such undertaking. It’s proclaimed as “Music’s Biggest Night!” Since 1959, The Grammy Awards, originally called the Gramophone Awards, are awards awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. It is to HONOR those accomplishing outstanding achievement. The category may be writing, producing, recording, groups, duos, solos, on and on and on. “Music’s Biggest Night” honors a lot of folks. 

The King of Pop. Not on the Top 12 list of Grammy Winners. 

"The process begins with members and record companies submitting entries, which are then screened for eligibility and category placement. The Academy's voting members, all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording, then participate in (1) the nominating process that determines the five finalists in each category; and (2) the final voting process which determines the GRAMMY winners."

Like most “award” shows, the Grammys have become about politics and money. Remember, releasing your work doesn't receive an entry to win. It has to be submitted. Winning is expensive. Winning is also often based on timing. I remember one year (I don’t recall the exact year), that Stevie Wonder was recognized by the “Album of the Year” recipient for not releasing an album that year. Stevie Wonder used to clean up. The “politics” participation has changed over the years. Formally, it was the politics of the music world. Now it includes actual politics of the governmental type.

The Eagles have 6 Grammy Awards. None for this album.

5 time Grammy Award winners.

This year there are 87 categories represented. Some make sense. Best Rock. Best R&B, Best Country. Best Single. Record of the Year. Best Spoken Word. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have all won Spoken Word Award Grammy trophies. Maybe if President Clinton had stuck with the saxophone, he could have won a Jazz Album of the Year Award. There is a Best Boxed or Limited Edition Package Grammy this year. Why? While it may include a new song or three, boxed sets are able to introduce music to a new generation, allow us old geezers to possible restore our old collection with a new format (i.e., originally albums, now on a CD or just a digital download) and, more importantly, make the record company and the artist more money. Sometimes, the artist(s) aren’t even involved in these “boxed set” compilations. They were originally more commonly known as “Greatest Hits” projects. For example, the Eagles “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)” was, according to Don Felder, a way for the record company to crank up profits with no additional expense. THAT was a great one. “Their Greatest Hits” is the best selling U.S. album for the 20th Century. 

Maybe there should be a Best Stolen Music Album award for the artists who prefer to “sample” the hard work of others and use it for their own benefit. We called it plagiarizing. It generally ended with the reward of going to see a principal. Now they put you on national television and you get to give an acceptance speech. Or how about a category for "No Auto-Tune." That might eliminate a lot of folks.

"If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal." -Alice Cooper 

“There is no such thing as bad publicity.” -P.T. Barnum

Odds are good there will be some “political” rantings going on. I alluded to that earlier, These folks are entertainers. Many exploit any and every opportunity to draw attention to themselves. It doesn’t have to be good publicity, just publicity. You can bet at least one artist, and I’ll speak up and say four of them, will skip thanking those who made their award possible and go off on a tangent, offending part of their fan base, but getting their name out in the public for misusing a perfectly good music forum. Those artists who “successfully” use the platform to rant politically will get additional headlines tomorrow. Which says a lot about what’s important in our news world.

During tonight’s Grammy broadcast, there will be tributes to Prince and George Michael. I like Prince and George Michael (post Wham!) and would probably enjoy those segments. Thank goodness for Youtube. Short of trying to catch a specific artist performing, I just haven’t been able to stomach Awards Shows for a long time. It started with the political thing. There were just times the winners didn’t make sense. And of course, as Ann & Nancy Wilson proclaimed, “We're getting older the world's getting colder…” 

I'm proud to say I have as many Grammy Awards as Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dog and Tupac! -Randy

Let me end with this. I’m not disrespecting the talent of any artist. Some of these folks have chops. Serious chops. But for the most part, today’s music just isn’t what I like. It seldom turns my head, and then there is that Justin Bieber thing. I’m never going to understand that. Twenty years from now, will “Classic” radio stations be playing today’s music? Hell, twenty years from now, will there be radio stations? Maybe a video can sum up best why I hate award shows. These guys won a Grammy, an award voted on by folks “in the business.” Not fans, not record store owners, not radio station program director. PEOPLE IN THE RECORDING/MUSIC BUSINESS. And these guys...Never. Sang. A. Note.

Factoid: Most Grammys Won:

Rank	Artist	Awards
1	Georg Solti	31
2	Quincy Jones	27
	Alison Krauss
4	Pierre Boulez	26
5	Vladimir Horowitz	25
6	U2	22
	John Williams
	Stevie Wonder
	Chick Corea
10	Kanye West	21
	Jay Z
12	Vince Gill	20
	Henry Mancini
	Pat Metheny
	Bruce Springsteen
	Al Schmitt
	Beyoncé