Watching the Grammy Awards is always a mixed bag for me. I want to see the performances and the presenters, but the thing drags out too long and sometimes the host makes or breaks the deal. Last night LL Cool J handled the task well enough, actually starting off the show with the appropriate decorum and respect for the late Whitney Houston, whom he referred to as a "fallen sister." He asked the crowd to join him in prayer, and that was without question a great Grammy moment.
The rest of the show came off to me as a pastiche of performances, with some hits and misses, and I didn't like noticing that some of these "live" performers were moving away from a microphone and their singing voices carried on without them. Whether this is double tracking or whatever other thing that is done during a show like this, it comes off as a disingenuous musical moment. No wonder why Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters made a big deal in his acceptance speech of making music in his garage for this latest album. As he rightly pointed out, music should be what is in the heart and mind and not about what's pumping out of computers. Alas, Auto-Tune is a reality that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.
The oddest thing of the night was the parade of older stars (some looking better than others). While I enjoyed seeing musical vets Bruce Springsteen, Glen Campbell, Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, and the Beach Boys on the stage, I was watching it with my tween daughter who did not appreciate their presence. Not only was she baffled by them being "old and singing bad," she also didn't know why the show devoted so much time to honor Whitney Houston. Of course, this is coming from a girl who watched the Super Bowl with me last week and asked, "Who is she?" when Madonna came out to sing. When I tried to explain she said, "Yeah, but they should have had a really big star." Okay, where is Lady Gaga when you need her?
I guess I was taken aback by the head-on crash between my reverence for these cultural icons and my daughter's disdain for them. I sat quietly as Paul McCartney performed a new love ballad (admittedly slow moving), while my daughter kept saying, "Boring!" It reminded me of when he used to sing "Yesterday" on stage accompanied only by his guitar, but my daughter didn't know anything about that and for that matter didn't care. She only wanted Rihanna, Taylor, Adele and company – proving once again that youth reigns supreme in the minds of many watching these broadcasts.
Article comments
1 - Jon Sobel
Her "singing bad" comment is the one that bothered me in your article. Kids are so used to computer-assisted vocal perfection because of AutoTune etc. (watch Glee and it's ridiculously obvious) that natural singing sounds bad to them. It's sad.
2 - Igor
Pop singers don't age well. The fact is that most of their appeal was to people their own age anyhow, and they just didn't perform music to last the ages. And, of course, for people who didn't even like them much in their prime, the Grammies are worthless.