As Zach's post, "Pop Eats Itself," points out, there is a healthy undercurrent of mutual influence among popular musicians new and old. What's more, this process occurs in spite of the GRAMMY's failed attempts to force collaboration on stage.
I am always interested to see "who they put together this year" for these awards shows. Announcements of the cross generational and cross genre duets at the GRAMMYs many times evoke a dispassionate "huh?" from my gut. And the actual performances end up being hit or miss for me. Granted, these kinds of on-stage duets/trios, etc., with little rehearsal time and (overly) complicated stage production, are incredibly difficult to pull off. It's not always the performer's fault. Precisely because of this, however, the event provides a display of the true quality of each "performer," whether abundant or sorely lacking.
This year was no exception. Sadly, failed attempts outweighed successful ones. Top disappointments included the Little Richard/Jerry Lee Lewis/Dan Fogerty Rock n' Roll Tribute; and the one I was most eager to hear: the Alicia Keys/John Mayer collaboration. I waited through the whole song to see Mayer's role, and when he finally came out for the last 30 seconds, his guitar could barely be heard.
The performances I was pleasantly surprised by were Beyonce/Tina Turner (incidentally, I think Beyonce is one of the most talented vocalists/performers in pop music today); and Aretha Franklin/Bebe Wynans, along with the entire Gospel montage.
Forced collaboration is great, and I certainly think the GRAMMYs should continue to be creative in their choices. But I can't promise that I won't change the channel (or fast forward the TiVo) in pained embarrassment when the collaboration crashes and burns.
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5 comments:
Let us not forget the Foo Fighters' performance. One of the easiest ways to spot a Los Angelino is the sheer onslaught of name-dropping they spew. The Foo Fighters spectacle was no different. Oh, let's host a talent contest for a SOLOIST to play, inaudibly, with an ORCHESTRA fronted by John Paul Jones. The performance was sloppy and passionless, a big disappointment to me.
You couldn't be more right ruxton. The "My Grammy Moment" was pitiful. The young lady who won the contest didn't even have a chance to shine or fail. Not only was her playing unheard, as you mentioned—it seems that even if her mic had been functioning correctly, the performance would have been unaffected. They apparently hadn't planned anything more than a 10 second spot for her anyway!
I think they should experiment with wildly cross-genre collaborations, like Shania Twain and Kanye West doing a duet over large ensemble jazz (a strange category - how many players does it take to be "large"?). This might stir things up a bit. And it would most certainly offer surprises. As it is right now, I feel like they do all this stuff to pander to every group imaginable while actually just alienating everyone. The lowest common denominator doesn't hook anyone.
Zach, you should have seen the last CMT awards—Rascal Flatts and Jamie Foxx comes pretty close to your suggestion.
Wasn't there one year where Eminem did a performance with Elton John and everyone assumed they're going to kiss at the end? This is just to say, some of these pairs seem to be more of a publicity stunt than anything else. Let's put some opposites in a room together and see if they can force chemistry, or what groups will get offended and decide to protest. I wish the music industry was about performing music instead of acting the character of the rock band or the gangsta rapper.
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