One again, Paul's post is not showing here. What I'm going for and the guy who made the protest seems to be going for is not that the Grammys supports "art" over "commerce" or vice versa, but that when given the choice between someone new or relatively new that's popular with the kids that supposedly still buy most of the music, even if it's from iTunes, and someone that's familiar or plays familiar music, they'll go for the familiar. Hence, Esperanza Spaulding over Justin Bieber, since Spaulding plays "old people's music" while Bieber's a (highly commercialized) hip-hop guy. The thoroughly conventional Lady Antebellum over sneering Detroit white rapper Eminem. Jethro Tull over Metallica. And back in the 70s, the clean-cut pop quartet (and two married couples!) over the long- haired prog rockers (even if the prog rockers turned out to be much more commercially successful and have more staying power than the clean-cut pop quartet) and the symbol of a trend that the old farts at NARAS wanted to support over two New Wavers (and, ironcially, the ultimate soulless session musician band). In that case, while Taste of Honey had exactly one hit record (and not until a few years after DJs coast-to-coast started imitating Steve Dahl), the Cars were a hit machine in the 80s, while Elvis Costello wasn't. Today, he and Mrs. Costello are exactly the symbols of what NARAS likes to support: The totally familiar. And if you had told him that in 1979, his response would be "bollocks."
Which is why the Arcade Fire win was such a surprise. But even then, following that great tradition in indie rock, the hipster gatekeepers are now taking away the band's indie cred and calling them the love of middle-brow NPR-listening (as in WFUV, KCRW, XPN, the Current) yuppie sellouts. You can't win with the hipsters. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
