<quote>
Dear Vocalisters:
I watched the Grammys tonight. I would be interested in the comments
of members of this list. It might all of us an indication of the
basic attitudes of our members toward singing in general. No stones
will be thrown. This is an open family discussion. I hope!
--
Lloyd W. Hanson
<End Quote>
*sigh* It just so happens I have come downstairs to the computer instead of
sharing the event with my 17y.o daughter, as 15 minutes of the Grammies was more
than I could stomach. I will say I do have very strong views about it, but that
I am and always have been a firm believer of he view that just because I don't
like something it is perfectly fine if someone else does so please don't be
offended by what I have to say if you hold a contrary view. To each his own.
I honestly thought the Grammies were appalling. I was actually sickened by the
fact that the so-called musical world that it supposedly represents has truly
descended to the lowest common denomenator. I had to ask my daughter who people
were. Avril Lavagne, I had heard of her but never heard the child perform
before. Is this what it's come to? Some seemingly barely pubescent teen,
intoning a three note dirge in a dull, lifeless unexceptional voice, her hair
obscuring all of her face save a pair of eyes so caked with black you could be
forgiven for thinking she was a three year old playing with her mummy's makeup
kit. And this is slickly packaged and pushed at our kids and called music? THIS
is what all the fuss is about? How pathetically sad. As much as I LOATHE and
detest the genre of music Christina Aguilera performs, one can at least say the
girl has a voice. And who was it a few years back instead of Avril? Some other
17 year old who is now long forgotten. Where is Macy Gray these days? The only
thing I ever heard her do I laughed till I cried at the sad assumption that what
she had was a voice or talent.
Next up I think was an African American boy with a girls name. Nelly. I had
heard of him also, Avril and he are supposed to be amongst the current "big
things" if I'm not mistaken, yes? I've never thought of myself as a prude but
hell's bells what was with those so-called backing dancers? That's dance? They
looked like street corner prostitutes trying to teeter on too-high stilletos.
Where was the talent, choreography, the message, the MUSIC in any of that? And
what was he saying? I guess I'll never know, can't understand a word he mumbled.
I turned to my daughter not long after that and told her I felt truly sorry for
her generation. They've been so cheated. All these pasty little white girls
whining and pouting or complaining about teenage angst or thrusting it in your
face in boring, lifeless, barely-there voices backed by boys who bang away at
their instruments like rabid animals with epilepsy. African-American girls who
feel compelled to present themselves as the lowest of crack whores and tramps.
African-American boys who wear clothes that make them look like cartoon
characters and garble unintelligently down a microphone. Do they really think
they look handsome or sexy in that gear? And all the while, she (my daughter and
her mates/generation) have this crap,( I'm sorry but "Emporer's New Clothes"
time here, the vast majority of it is totally disposable, instantly forgettable
CRAP), is marketed at them with all the aggression of Blitzkrieg until they are
made to feel there is something wrong with them if they don't comply.
I finally fled the room after Bruce Springsteen took the stage. Like Mick Jagger
he should have had the good sense to give the game away a long time ago. What is
wrong with that man's mouth? He looks like he is in agony!
If the little I saw of it was any indication then the Grammies are an sickening
self agrandising, over-indulgent tribute to all that is disposable, plastic,
mass produced and incomprehensible. They weren't about the music industry or if
they were, then God help us all, for there is no art or artistry or pride left
in it anymore. Do the Grammies really represent the state of modern music in
America?
I have been patiently waiting for the last decade, plus a few years, for all the
fin de siecle retro crap to dissipate and music to finally find fresh direction,
for the talent to out and show the way, for the new breed to take to the stage
and lead us to the promised land. If these Grammies are anything to go by then
I'm bitterly disappointed because the clear message is that the music is
suffocating in it's own filth and mire and gulped down while it drowns in it,
till it's reguritated and served up to an unsuspecting new load of newbies who
wouldn't recognise a melody even if it turned into a Rottwieler and went for
their jugular. Is it that the baby boomers are on to a formula for ripping off
each subsequent generation and have the money and power to tell them what they
want to hear? Or have all the bright young things and independent new thinking
been killed off by the drug culture?
Please, please, I'm totally open to be convinced otherwise. I would seriously
love for any or all of you to be able to prove to me that I'm just old, crusty,
jaded and out of touch. I desperately want to be convinced I'm missing out on
something, that there are masses of talented performers out there, writing
music, performing, (yes even SINGING, dare I hope for it) making CD's that I
simply MUST have and am just too poor to buy. But if what my students bring to
me, what I hear on the radio, what was represented by roughly 15 minutes of an
"award show" (and the adverts with that other disposable flavour-of-the-month
young thing Norah Jones) is anything to go by I'm not holding out much hope.
Please prove to me I'm totally wrong. I'd be so relieved. However, the future of
contemporary singing looks very bleak indeed from my vantage point unless a
grass roots revolution can overtake the Sony-esque empire builders. Even then
the expectations are so lowered now as to what a good voice sounds like and what
singing actually is I wonder if we can ever find the way back. (Whatever
happened to lyrics? Whatever happened to lyrics with more than a five word
chorus repeated for two of the strict three minute limit?)
Sorry to rant. I am feeling just a little shell shocked at what passed for the
creme de la creme of the music world in America tonight. It feels like a death
knell. Thank goodness for all that isn't represented at the Grammies. May the
Luddites endure.
Michelle
Reality is just a figment of your imagination.
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