I'm not watching the Grammys, and who cares. Of course I tuned in for the lame opening. I heard it was going to be "I Love L.A.," but I expected the man himself, Randy Newman, instead of Dawes and a coterie of the half-dead. Either do it right or don't do it at all!
Oh, you're such a hater, don't you like anything?
That's the thing about art. You're shooting for the bullseye. Assuming you're an artist yourself. The rest is commerce. But when you nail it, it feels so good and it resonates. One of the reasons "I Love L.A." works is because of Randy Newman's delivery, the sneer. And you only need him and his piano. Simplicity is frequently better than complication. Today's records are crammed with junk, steel wool in goggles that obscures the truth.
So we've got Brittany Howard who can't write a hit song to save her life. Brad Paisley, great guitarist, what in the hell is he doing here. Ditto on John Legend. As for Sheryl Crow...she made a deal with the devil eons ago, to be the token female at every high profile music event.
And the public doesn't care. The ratings went down. The audience dropped 9% to 15.4 million. A drop in the bucket to Mr. Beast and the rest of the influencers, but they're capturing the zeitgeist, testing limits.
And the Grammys are congratulating themselves on what has been hailed as the best show in eons...
Assuming you're only reading traditional media. Assuming you're not on TikTok. Where the backlash is DEAFENING!
I wasn't looking for it, it found me. People are up in arms about Beyoncé winning Best Country Album. Video after video.
And they're right.
And you wonder why these people voted for Trump.
Have you seen that video wherein James Carville says we ran our 7th string quarterback for President?
shorturl.at/d00Oe
Everything is so massaged, you can no longer speak the truth. I hate DOGE and self-appointed president Elon Musk, but the orthodoxy of the Democrats drives me wild.
This is just evidence that the Grammys have lost touch with the public. The public doesn't care about the hits as much as they used to. They're a turn-off. They hate Taylor Swift, shrug at BTS, but if you say this out loud you're a pariah!
"Cowboy Carter" is not a country album. Beyoncé even said so, she called it a "Beyoncé album." But after the manufactured backlash stating that country radio racially dismissed Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road," the industry and the media were afraid to blow the whistle on Beyoncé.
This is even worse than Jethro Tull winning for best metal album. At least there's a thread, however thin, between Tull and Metallica. But Beyoncé and today's country? Just because you say something is country, that does not make it so. All you're doing is sh*tting on country fans. The same fans who elected Donald Trump, by the way.
Morgan Wallen is a pariah in leftist circles, for being drunk and using the n-word as a term of endearment like he's heard in so many rap records. Dumb, but now he's been canceled by people who think they know better, who never made a mistake in their lives themselves. Meanwhile, Wallen is the biggest act in America, bigger than Taylor Swift, the Weeknd and Beyoncé. He sells out stadiums, has his own festival that went clean, but we keep reading about friendship bracelets.
Hell, if you watched the Grammys you'd think men didn't make music. If it's macho it doesn't play. All those people listening to metal, going to see the Insane Clown Posse, attending jam band shows, focusing on people who can play their instruments as opposed to selling out to become stars...they were absent. In a kumbaya celebration wherein everybody was friends on the arena's floor and bogus awards were handed out.
You can't quantify art. That's tech. And no one goes home and listens to a Sam Altman record.
Then again, Steve Jobs did no market research and had a hard edge in pursuit of excellence. And if you know any of the legendary artists...so many are just like him.
Even Jon Stewart was stunned that Beyoncé won the country award.
But the story is most prevalent on social media.
If you want to read one tech story, read this one from last Saturday's "Wall Street Journal":
"Stop Panicking Over Teens and Social Media - Modern life is digital. Adults need to help young people navigate the costs and benefits, not launch bans and hope for the best."
Free link: rb.gy/ugz17a
The research showing the harm of smartphone use on the young doesn't exist. But that didn't keep the "New York Times" from printing two anti-smartphone articles this weekend.
If you read the "Times," you'd think the Grammys were a triumph.
If you went on TikTok you'd think they were a disaster.
Did you see John Rich's tweet?
"Beyonce slammed by country legend over Grammy win amid DEI push to make awards more diverse"
shorturl.at/6ejbd
You're rolling your eyes and saying John Rich is a right wing crank. But you're wrong, he's a hero to those people who believe they're being pissed on by those who believe they know better. And Rich revealed block voting by labels and...the truth almost doesn't matter, if Beyoncé wins the country album award the Grammys must be fixed, untrustworthy, because how can this BE?
You're telling people who love their music that an interloper knows how to do it better. You're telling them their taste is bad. You're telling them they have to create a big tent just to satisfy a group that doesn't listen to their music anyway!
And you wonder how the Democrats lost the election.
As for Beyoncé winning Album of the Year... I don't know about you, but the first thing I thought was that Grammy voters were browbeaten into giving it to her. If you asked me, I'd say to abolish the Grammys. Or turn it into a party more like the Brits, with few awards, most of which are not taken that seriously.
When it comes to music, the experts always get it wrong and the public gets it right.
The Beatles win almost no awards.
Led Zeppelin is a pariah.
You can pooh-pooh the public's taste ,but the people have consistently been more right than the Grammys. A self-congratulatory navel-gazing back-slapping organization that is so busy kvelling for honoring Beyoncé while asking us to overlook the fact that a woman who wanted change was squeezed out and it's still a boys club.
But I don't give a sh*t about the Grammys.
But I do care about the pulse of America. And right now that's on social media. In podcasts. While the Democrats keep playing to traditional media with one hand behind its back. Can't people admit it went too far? If Beyoncé wins for Best Country Album... Isn't this like trans swimmers jumping into the pool and beating biological females? You can intellectualize it all you want, but it doesn't sit right emotionally, people think it's not fair.
So I grew up in the holler. I learned how to pick. I moved to Nashville. I paid my dues. And some Top 40 superstar comes along and wins my award? I topped country radio and she was barely heard (and when she was, it was a DEI spin).
Oh, now I'm the enemy.
If wrote anything negative about Kamala people thought I was voting for Trump. Of course not. But I've got common sense when they don't.
Common sense says "Cowboy Carter" was not a country record. She was entitled to make it, people were entitled to stream it, but you can't convince country fans that it's part of their world.
And when you make a mistake like this the credibility of your entire organization comes into question.
Are you voting for what you believe or what others tell you to?
This is groupthink, of the worst order.
They keep telling us the Spotify Top 50 rule music. They keep telling us a limited number of superstars dominate. They keep telling us they know better.
But they don't.
The Grammys have lost touch with the culture. And the major labels too.
Maybe we need a holiday wherein we force everybody to go on TikTok for 24 hours.
But the Chinese will get my data! I will be exposed to falsehoods!
Live in a bubble if you want, live in fear.
But on TikTok Beyoncé lost.
And the audience is on TikTok, not even paying attention to traditional media.
If you don't know we live in a bottom up world...
You're on top and think you know better.
But you don't.
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