Countless articles have been written on how bad the Grammy’s have gotten in the past few years and while I like the topic many of these pieces have touched on, I often think they are missing the main reason as to why music’s biggest night often feels like a 3 and a half hour snoozefest - the Recording Academy is old and they are completely out of touch with today’s music scene.
19 performances took place on Sunday night, 1 maybe 2 featured the three most popular genres at the moment, Rap, Rock & Dance Music. Chance The Rapper was the best new artist and his gospel infused performance was entertaining, but lacked a great song. Metallica had to share the stage with Lady Gaga, because apparently Metallica on their own isn’t good enough - oh and their mic didn’t work. And that was it. I am not counting the Prince tribute in this category, as I am focusing on artists making an impact with new music today.
How does this happen? Twenty One Pilots have dominated the charts and sold out every arena they have played in for the past year, why didn’t they perform? Oh, they also won a Grammy on Sunday...
Elle King was in the crowd, she would have been an excellent addition to the performances. Same can be said about Nathaniel Rateliff, The XX, Father John Misty, Gallant...etc I can go on for days.
Instead, we were treated to atrocious performances by Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran Adele, Beyonce and the list goes on and on. No offense to any of those artists, but ‘Shape of You,’ is wildly mediocre, we have heard ‘Hello,’ 6 trillion times at this point and Beyonce’s act is one of the more insufferable things to sit through.
Kanye West, Justin Bieiber and Drake had chart topping albums/hits last year and they didn’t even bother to show up. You can put down dance music all you want, but let’s face the facts and realize that it produced more chart toppers than any other genre last year. No one is asking to see another Chainsmokers performance, but let’s give some of the up and coming stars a chance to strut their live sets on the big stage.
Moral of the story, yes the Grammy’s suck - but they suck because we sit through the same shit year in and year out without getting anything of what is pushing the music scene to reach new heights. The academy is safe with their choices and do what is comfortable to them. Adele is a household name who will be a neutral performer/winner - great let’s do it. Whereas the thinking should be, Twenty One Pilots is nearing 3 billion Spotify streams, is headlining festivals and sells out every arena date with a wildly entertaining two man act - let’s get those guys up there!
C2S
