Frankly, I haven’t experienced such scripted boredom since my classes in Organic Chemistry thirty-something years ago.
So much was so wrong about last night’s broadcast that I shan’t dignify any of it with a comment.
Except that I feel constrained to lament the way digital voice enhancements are doing to music what digital image enhancements are doing to pictures. This is why so many singers sound as ugly as so many selfies look without those enhancements, respectively.
Most performers apparently think the key to success is looking and behaving in a way off stage that makes what they do on stage seem almost irrelevant: Exhibits A and B: Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj.
By sterling contrast, Adele not only sings like an angel, she might just be the music industry’s saving grace. Unfortunately, this [industry has] so little to do with musical talent these days that Adele performing [on any music awards show is] rather like Andrea Bocelli performing on So You Think You Can Dance.
(“2011 MTV Video Music Awards,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 30, 2011)
But this is just the most glaring reason The Grammys show has finally jumped the shark.
Alas, in these days of Twitter and Instagram, (mostly female) singers seem more interested in attracting followers than in selling records. In this sense, they aspire to be more the queen of social media than the queen of pop, soul, or hip-hop. Imagine the fate of a culture that celebrates Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian above Aretha Franklin/Adele….