Pop Goes The Music

It’s not about what’s good, it’s about what’s popular.  At least, I think that’s what the Grammy Awards are all about, although I’m not really sure anymore.  That’s because the relationship between what’s good and what’s popular has all but disappeared from the American music scene.

I admit here and now that I can’t stand most rap.  Hate it.   With no melody or harmony it doesn’t qualify as music.  It’s street poetry,  much of it angry shouting, accompanied by a heavy backbeat.  That’s not music.  It shouldn’t even be considered for the Grammy Awards.  It wouldn’t be, except that the American music marketing machine sold it to an unsuspecting and naive group of young consumers out looking for something they could call their own and now we’re all stuck with it, although the wave of Rap that swept over America seems to be subsiding, at least somewhat.  One can only hope.  There are too many real musicians around who can’t get their stuff played or even noticed as Rap continues it’s angry march through the annals of American pop culture.

I knew we were in trouble in the mid-80’s, when outstanding artists like Lionel Richie were getting bumped from the radio by the rappers.   Music was being replaced by hip-hop pop culture street poets because it was something new the marketing machine could easily sell as a youth-culture phenomenon via radio, the web, texting and MTV.

I decided to sit through the Grammy Awards show anyway.  “Gotta give these things a chance,” I told myself.  Thing is, you keep thinking that maybe it’s just you.   With so many people having an appreciation for a style of poetry and percussion, maybe you’re missing something.  So you’ve gotta give it a chance.  I saw and heard nothing to change my mind.  Rock n’ Roll will never die.  Rap, eventually and mercifully, will.   And so, I put all the Rap numbers in one category and the actual musical numbers in another.  Then Taylor Swift came out and attempted to sing with Stevie Nicks, and I needed a third category.  Music for teenage girls ( aka: the stuff advertisers like to buy).

Taylor Swift, is a beautiful young woman.  Stunning.   She won an armful of awards, including  Album of The Year. However, in the future, for God’s sake, don’t pair her up with someone with the talent and experience of Stevie Nicks.  It only points out how limited Swift’s range is.   Paired up with Nicks, she came across like a first round contestant on “American Idol” about to be bumped from the stage by a sneering and impatient Simon Cowell.

If teenage girls (who appear to represent her fan base) want to worship her in their “Hannah Montana” idol worshiping fashion, then so be it.  But don’t put her next to a legend like Stevie Nicks.  I felt sorry for Ms. Nicks, who was obviously holding back so as not to blow the kid off the stage.  I felt sorry for the kid when she went all pitchy attempting to sing “Rhiannon.”

This was the second time I felt sorry for Taylor Swift.   The first time was during the VMA Awards, when Kanye West jumped up on the stage to protest Swift winning the award for Best Female Video.  Now I understand what he was complaining about.   He shouldn’t have done it (and he later apologized), but now I understand.  Musically, Beyonce’ has it all over Taylor Swift.

I never thought “How High The Moon” could supply such blessed relief from an evening of  a few incredible highs and mostly “valley of death” lows.  But then, it’s not about what’s good, it’s about what’s popular.   Over the years the gap between the two has become increasingly chasmatic.

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An afterthought:  Rap, may truly be a case of art imitating life since about one-third of the nation’s young people currently do not graduate from high school.   Nobody talks about it all that much anymore but the “dumbing down” of America continues to be frightening.

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