Grammy Groan

I've just been reading through the horror, angst, and disgust registered by a zillion music fans over the results of the Grammy Awards. Jeez, what do people want? You give them the American Music Awards, you give them the People's Choice Awards, and you think that their hunger to have a recognized opinion would be sated. Nope. Fans want to co-opt everything. Grammy Awards are voted on by musicians and others actually involved in doing the work of making music, trying to sell it to a fickle public who thinks they should have it for free, and hanging their very survival on the outcome. Fans sit on their asses and watch and listen. They don't write songs. They don't play. They don't have the guts to walk out onto a stage and face a crowd. They don't dedicate themselves to years of study and practice. They just demand. Now they're demanding that their opinion matters with respect to the Grammys. Wouldn't you think that at some point, some untrained person might turn to a musician and say, "You're a musician. What do you think?" No. That's not happening. They'll ask an accountant about an investment. They'll ask a doctor about a medicine. They'll ask their gardener about which brand of weed-n-feed is best. They'll ask a mechanic THEY DON'T EVEN TRUST about what to do with their car. Ask a musician about the quality of music? Forget it. Popular music has become vaudeville lately, with "dance numbers" taking the place of the actual playing of instruments. Maybe this devolution is the ultimate fate of the masses. Maybe the masses will never appreciate music for music's sake. The masses are drawn to flashing lights, jumbo video screens, abbreviated clothing and pre-show baby-oiled skin, and, just like in the movies, explosions. Explosions are VERY big. Just ask Michael Jackson. Oh, right, never mind. Anyway, if the fans can't grasp the value of an opportunity to find out what actual musicians think, then maybe that explains what "stars" that have NOTHING to do with music are doing taking up the seats at the awards program. Kim Kardashian? SNOOKI? I'm still having trouble understanding why these two are even famous in the first place! Eva Longoria? When was HER last recording released? Never mind. The Grammy Awards remain, at least for the time being, a chance to pick the brains of actual musicians, producers, engineers, and others in the business of making music (all of whom get to hear more unheard-of stuff than you can imagine) and wind up with an earful of what the professionals think. I'd think that that would be deemed a thing of value. It should be protected from the ratings-crazed demands of television. Television, after all, could screw up a junkyard. More later.