2011 Grammy Awards: When Did Mediocrity and Banality Become Something to Strive For?

[janneppi]

Yes, I'm indeed like everyone else. But I said in my posts that these things I was saying were my opinion, meaning that there existed a high level of subjectivity in what I said. I'm not saying anything of these things are the truth and nothing but the truth, but based off personal experience, I felt that I could validate my opinions to make good points about what I said.

They are indeed your opinions and you are more than welcome to have them and express them.
Just that they sound rather elitist to someone like me who likes to listen to the radio, or play Guitar Hero. It's not uncommon though, most people are a bit snobbish on a subject they practice or feel close to. On a bicycling forum I read bicycling there are occasional rants about people buying crap 500 Eur mountain bikes when in reality they should spent at least 1500-3000 Eur to get a proper bike.

[A.F.F.]

Grammy Awards... the only show were everybody gets a trophy.

[ICWS]

They are indeed your opinions and you are more than welcome to have them and express them.
Just that they sound rather elitist to someone like me who likes to listen to the radio, or play Guitar Hero. It's not uncommon though, most people are a bit snobbish on a subject they practice or feel close to. On a bicycling forum I read bicycling there are occasional rants about people buying crap 500 Eur mountain bikes when in reality they should spent at least 1500-3000 Eur to get a proper bike.

My apologies for mentioning Guitar Hero in a negative way. I was trying to say that from what I've seen, Guitar Hero/DJ Hero/Rock Band, etc. is as far as these listeners of those Grammy musicians go as far as taking up an instrument themselves. Once again, that's based off my personal experience of being around people who listen to that kind of music.

And yes, I'm a rather snobbish person when it comes to music. You aren't the first person that has told me that before. But I'm snobbish for the reason that you pointed out: that I practice/am close to music myself and so I feel that I have a strong passion for music in regards of determining whether a professional musician's music is good or not, and whether it's detrimental or not to the notion that it is an art.

I've come across snobby people in other fields in my life as well. For example, I also like to play sports (tennis, basketball, weight training, etc.), and have met very snobbish people in those hobbies. Tennis and weight training are the worse in this regard: the tennis players I've played with before think they are "the sh*t" simply because they practice with a private instructor and have Federer's or Nadal's retail racket. While these people are pretty good, I do get turned off by some of their elitist beliefs about what equipment is better, the best way to hold the racket, best way to practice, etc. It's a guilty pleasure of mine to play and beat these guys when we play due to that elitism they display. Weight training people are even worse, especially when discussing how many sets/repetitions you should do, what's the best supplements, how often you should train, what exercises to do, etc. I've learned it's bad to go to a gym with competitive friends, because they quickly starting working out in a way to lift more weight than each other, oftentimes compromising form and injuring themselves.

So yeah, I understand why you think I'm being snobbish and elitist when it comes to this discussion. But once again, I'm speaking on personal experience and I feel that I've met enough people in my life who listen to the the types of music I've been praising or criticizing in this thread, so I think that it's reasonable for me to think that my viewpoints are valid.

[ICWS]

Let me clarify somthing else...

It really doesn't bother me that people listen to Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, etc. People can certainly listen to whatever music they choose to listen to. But the point of this thread I started is that I don't think these people's music are as high in originality and in artistic integrity and quality in comparison to a lot of musicians who were not nominated for Grammy Awards, and thus shouldn't be awarded or even praised.

Call me crazy if you will, but I thought the point of giving awards out in a particular field is to show respect and honor those who did the best work in that field in that particular year, regardless if they are popular to the masses or not. David Beckham may have sold more jerseys than any other player in football, but that doesn't automatically make him the best player in the world. FIFA knows that charisma and popularity doesn't make a football player the best, it is the quality of their skills and what they do with them that determines whether they're the best or not.

Clearly, to me, that isn't what the Grammys and other music awards shows, for the most part, try to do. To them, album sales is what makes musicians the best, regardless if the art they're producing is of the highest quality possible.

Once again, I think there is an obvious distinction between creating art (music in this case) for the primary purpose of appealing to your own and possibly others' senses, emotions and intellect, and creating art for the purpose of commerce and commercialism. And in my opinion, an artist should be awarded for doing the best they can do with the skills they have at hand and how well they use those skills to craft and appeal to their own senses, emotions and intellect in the most creative and entertaining way possible, and express that experience to others who choose to listen, read or view it.

I realize that music, film, and other mediums of art have come a long way thanks to technological advancements, so it's unreasonable to expect and force all art go back to simpler times. But I'm disappointed and offended when these mediums are being dumbed down and whored by big corporations for the purpose of making lots of money, and then get praised and awarded for being something they really aren't. This just creates lower quality art in general as the more true artists, because of this, may face becoming bankrupt and may be forced to either sell-out and dumb down their art in order to make a living, or stop creating art all together and be forced to take up a different job or career that may be unsatisfying to them and/or below their dignity in order to survive.