Record companies are getting their employees to sing on Christmas albums, so they might qualify to vote for Grammys the LA Times reports.
I say we release a six song Blogcritics charity album with no xmas music (maybe we could call it 'We are the Blogcritics'), so we can vote in an attempt to keep so many crappy songs from winning.
Jeff Leeds writes:
Ever since Warner Bros. Records rounded up more than 100 employees to spend a hot summer day crooning Christmas carols, rivals have been buzzing about an alleged conspiracy to deck the company's halls with Grammy Awards by qualifying scores of insiders to vote for the coveted music prizes.
Warner's carolers insist they're just singing for charity — and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences says label employees trying to crack the voter ranks will have to do more than warble about a partridge in a pear tree.
Still, some suspect that the recording session was just the latest example of a tactic used by record labels to boost their chances of snaring a Grammy. In the last few years, employees of Universal Records and Zomba Music have recorded holiday albums of their own.
"This has been a thorn in the side of the organization" for some time, said industry veteran Joe Smith, a former president of the Capitol and Warner Bros. labels who served as the academy's first full-time president in the late 1980s. "It is easy to manipulate voting by enrolling members of the academy who have no business being in it."
Success at the Grammys has become a bigger priority for many music executives over the years...
Critics of the annual music telecast have long ridiculed the program's credibility, saying Grammy voters have appeared to favor mainstream bestsellers over true artistic breakthroughs. But until now, few had suggested that record labels themselves might be stuffing the ballot box for financial gain.
Under the rules of the Santa Monica-based academy, any member who has technical or creative credit on six commercially released songs — from vocalists to liner note writers — can be eligible to cast his or her ballot in the competition...
Article comments
1 - John Mudd
I love that idea about making a Blogcritics album and donating the proceeds to charity. It could help the needy and get publicity for Blogcritics all at the same time. I would be happy to sing for it, and help Eric coordinate publicizing it. If anyone else is interested in doing this, let's talk. They could download it live from Blogcritics, and maybe Amazon would help us distribute it.
2 - TDavid
Charity raising? Right on. I'd be willing to consider contributing original music to a blogcritics album, but I think another blogcritic would need to sing the main vocals ;)
3 - TDavid
doh! forgot to add this: maybe John you and I should collaborate on a tune or two ;)
4 - John Mudd
That would be very cool, but be forewarned, my vocal style is a combination of Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder and Robert Plant.