Music Grammit

The king is dead, long live the queen! On January 31, the American Academy of Sound Recording for the 52nd time distributed Grammy figurines for the most outstanding achievements in the field of musical industry. Although the awards reflect yesterday’s success rather than real trends in modern music, the main events of 2009 Academics noted: the triumph of singer Beyoncé, the death of the king of pop music Michael Jackson and the appearance of the new queen-Lady Gaga
To keep abreast of the main trends in American cinema, it is enough to watch the Oscar ceremony once a year. Once Grammy also performed the same function for music, but the last ten years the award of the Academy of Recording only demonstrates how much the concepts of “modern music” and “musical industry” are very different today.

Grammy ate the network

Only those who managed to get into the highest lines of sales ratings have the chances of getting the Golden Gramophone

The concept of the award never changed, the case in the industry itself, which ended up in a deep crisis. The fault is the Internet. It is not only about network piracy, which reduced several times income from sales of albums. A much greater effect was exerted thanks to the internetization of the opportunity to find and choose idols themselves, not paying attention to store shelves and broadcasting of radio stations. The space of the network is not unlimited and by no one is engaged, the superstars here find themselves on equal terms with talented amateurs and often lose it - the industry was not ready for such a situation. Hence there are two trends: the rise of musicians who produce records on independent labels (that is, the largest corporations Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal), and the gradual disappearance of large artists who are not included in the “big four”. After all, when you can choose between dozens of different and in their own way of interesting musicians, it makes no sense to distinguish someone alone.

Meanwhile, members of the American Academy of Sound Recording are tightly connected with the "Big Four", and many academicians participating in the vote are employees of these corporations. Their view of music is the point of view of executive directors: they first see graphs and sales numbers, and only then evaluate talent. Actually, the current president of the Academy Neil Portnou used to be in senior positions in different departments of the Big Four.

House of veterans
Hence the main problem of Grammy: she awards yesterday’s success, not noticing new names and new trends. The reward itself is a symbolic - a gold gramophone, a device from the last century. With the same success, academicians could give out golden canes or wheelchairs. Among the dozens of nominations, only the “best new artist” is addressed to the young, and here academics are lagging behind reality: MGMT and The Ting Tings have already managed to get a dozen other awards in 2008, and Silversun Pickups singles fell on high lines of the hit parades back in 2007.

Meanwhile, last week, on the first line of the leading American hit parade, Billboard was a plate Contra pop-rock band Vampire Weekend, which has already been very highly appreciated by critics and public, including such authorities as the musicians of the ColdPlay group, the owners of five Grammy statuishes. And at the same time, Vampire Weekend is one of the hundreds of groups that the Academy of Sound Recording at its ceremonies ignores.

Thus, Grammy ceremonies are increasingly similar to meetings in the houses of veterans. Sorrow is inherent in these meetings - time is leaving, the ranks are thinning, but also greatness - it is impressive when so many grandiose and significant personalities are collected in one place. So at the 52nd ceremony, one of the main events was Tribes-musical dedication to Michael Jackson with the participation of first-class stars like Selin Dion and with Michael himself, recreated in 3D.

An alternative to reality
To understand how limited to academicians is limited, it is enough to turn to the most objective resource on the Internet - the Metacritic portal (www.metacritic.com). Its objectivity is based on the fact that the editors of the site do not express their own opinions in any way, but perform a purely mechanical work: dozens of leading English -language paper and online publications, reviews of new albums and calculate the average assessment. No taste is only statistics. At the end of each year, Metacritic compiles lists of works with the highest average score, and as for music, the list is strikingly different from the nominations of academics.

"Big Musical Night" in Los Angeles preceded a grandiose concert

representations of the nominees that Ringo Starr and Smoki Robinson

For example, of all the 2009 hip-hop stores, the last album of the rapper Raekwon, not presented at Grammy in any of the nominations, liked the most critics. Academician nominees in the “Best Metal Song” category in the genre style can cause only a crooked grin: all these artists (Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth) were relevant at best about ten years ago, and the absolute favorites of critics, the Barones and Sunn O teams did not receive the attention of academicians. The nomination “Best Alternative Album” is also funny-here were groups whose singles occupy high lines in frankly “pop” charts. It is not clear what and how they are alternative. Leaving aside the real musical trends last year, the 52nd ceremony determined its own-a return to the roots. In the most significant nominations (such as “Best Song” and “Best Album”), artists who were closest to the root “black” and “white” American cultures were represented, namely: rhythm-n-Blue, Soul (transition genre between the state gospel and the rhythm-n-blouse) and hip-hop, on the one hand, and country and classical rock-on the other hand. African American culture was almost solely personified by singer Beyoncé with ten nominations. On its last record-I am ... sasha fierce-there is a classic soul and modern rhythm-n-blouse. And her duet with Raper Kanye West also enters the territory of hip-hop. As for the exemplary “white” American music, there were four favorites: young country-performers Taylor Swift and Kit Urban, and rockers Bruce Springstin and Kings of Leon.

Crown Lady Gaga

The star of the ceremony was Lady Gaga. Her career began just a year ago, and during this year she managed to become the best -selling new performer and the most commonly mentioned hero of both the secular chronicle and the yellow press. Stefani Joan Angelina Jermanotta appeared in the year when the king of pop music died, and Queen Madonna became too old to hold the throne.
Comparisons with Madonna suggest by itself, and the point is not only in long Italian names covered with short pseudonyms. Unlike other applicants for the throne, like Britney Spears, Jermanotta understands the main principles of pop music well: she knows how to turn good taste into vulgarity, and vulgarity into a product of mass consumption. The music and appearance of Lady Gaga are so trivial that the first impression of it often turns into a set of unprintable words, among which the “limiter” is the most harmless. This is an ingenuous bit, catchy outfits, sets of primitive short musical phrases and texts, as if composed by a teenager. At the same time, all these techniques are so reliable that the hit parades cannot resist. But the main thing is that behind them is not inherent in the massive pop music, but the bottomless sea of ​​cultural references and hints. The last single Lady Gaga, Bad Romance, at first glance - an elementary song about jealousy, which was provided with a video clip made in the style of cheap shocking. But after listening and looking closely, you can understand that everything is not so simple here: in the text the singer cunningly juggles to Alfred Hitchcock, and in the video to the genius of the video art of Matthew Barney (the author of the Kremaster series). Both in the words and in the picture there is a clear quote from the avant -garde play by Peter Weiss “Marat and the Marquis de Sad”, and Jermanotta’s seemingly tasteless outfits turn out to be highly appreciated in the world of fashion for first -class designers like Alexander Maccuin. In general, this is pop art in exactly the same view as its founder Andy Warhol: the ability to saturate with meaning and turn into art something frankly vulgar and mass. In modern music, only two performers were able to successfully realize such ideas in life: Madonna and Lady Gaga. For the Musyzdustry in general and for Grammy, in particular, the phenomenon of Lady Gaga is like a manna of heaven, without it the ceremony would look like the next Michael Jackson Panchid, and the celebration of Beyoncé, and that has already earned nine gold gramophones over the past ten years, would only emphasize the despondency of the situation.

The show continues

No matter how conservatively and boring Grammy may not look according to the lists of nominees, the number of spectators does not decrease from year to year. Probably, interested readers have already managed to see the best fragments of the ceremony on the Internet and are unlikely to be disappointed. It was interesting to observe Michael Jackson's tribute, the Lady Gaga provocateur acted effectively, Beyoncé choreography was, as always, at an altitude, the blond canter-player Taylor Swift was touching, and the Bon Jovi hard-rock group was authentically recreated at the atmosphere of the 80s. Who received what is the tenth business. The past ceremony noted the already well -known and obvious facts: Beyoncé is talented, the king died, Lady Gaga is a star. This is enough. Those who are interested in relevant music can follow the Billboard or Mercury Prize bonuses, but Grammy is primarily a show. In the end, years later, these gramophones turn out to be meaningless trinkets of dusting on the shelves. And real music remains.

Grammy winners in the main nominations: “Record of the Year” - Use Somebody, Kings of Leon group

"Album of the year" - Fearless, Taylor Swift

"Song of the Year" - Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it), Beyoncé

"Debut of the year" - ZAC Brown Band

"Best Album in the style of popular music" - The end, Black Eyed Peas

"The best female performance of a song in the style of popular music" - Halo, Beyoncé

“The best male performance of a song in the style of popular music” - Make it Mine, Jason Mraz

"Best Album in the style of rock and roll"-21st Century Breakdown, Green Day

"Best Song in the style of rock and roll"-Use Somebody, Kings of Leon

"Best Album in the R&B style" - Blacksummers'night, Maxwell

"Best Song in the R&B style" - Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it), Beyoncé

"The best album in the style of rap" - Relapse, emin

“Best REP Song”-Run this Town, Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kenny West

“The best performance of a song in the style of rap”-Run This Town, Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kenny West

"Best Country Style" - Fearless, Taylor Swift

"The best female performance of a country style" - White horse, Taylor Swift

"Best male performance of a country style" - Sweet Thing, Keat Urban

"Best Latin American Album" - Sin Frenos, La Quinta Estacion

“Best Jazz Album” - 75, Joe was spinning (posthumously) and The Zawinul Syndicate

"Best Dance Record" - Poker Face, Lady Gaga

"Best Dance Album" - The Fame, Lady Gaga

"Best Alternative Album" - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix