[HANASHIR:13616] Re: What About Musical Fairness?

[Eric Komar <ekomar...>]

Chevrei -

I for one did *not* watch the Grammys for reasons so eloquently put by Jack. As 
far as I'm concerned, truly musical music in the industry has been absent for 
years. Sholom does make a good point about the non-correlation between Grammy 
awards and what most of us would consider real artists. His observation 
indicates that, if the Grammy's are any reliable standard, don't bother looking 
for a reverse trend anytime soon. In the entertainment industry style will 
forever trump substance. Borrowing a line from Dennis Miller on the same topic, 
one day our grandchildren will be sitting in a dentist's chair while on the 
Muzak station the Ray Conniff singers are crooning "It's getting hot in here 
..."

We can only hope that people will get sick of Eminem and the like, and it will 
be their careers we'll be saying kaddish for. There are many such pop icons who 
are considered the hottest thing sinced sliced challah, and then three years 
later kids have no clue who they are. (Anyone remember the New Kids on the 
Block? Me neither.) 

- Eric

P.S. While John Mayer looks like he's in high school and writes songs about it, 
he's 25 and actually quite well-spoken. True he's no James Taylor, but I 
personally enjoy much of his compositions.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jbielan 
  To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org 
  Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 12:29 PM
  Subject: [HANASHIR:13612] What About Musical Fairness?


  As I watched the Grammy Awards last night, I often felt like someone should 
be saying Kaddish for the music industry.  

  I've always prided myself on trying to keep aware of contemporary musical 
trends, and I realize that just because something isn't suited to my particular 
tastes, it may certainly still have musical validity if it rings true for 
others.  Whether I agree with the with the platform of vulgarity on which he 
seems to lean, I suspect that Eminem truly does have some real artistic 
ability.  

  However, I just couldn't help thinking that, no matter how you slice it, dice 
it, clothe (or mostly unclothe)
  it or promote it: mediocrity is still mediocrity.  Alongside the blossoming 
talent of kids like Norah Jones,
  somehow - at least in my humble opinion - most of the industry is about image 
and promotion - musical validity be damned. 

  To my ears, I think so much of rap music is just unoriginal tripe trying to 
pass itself off as contemporary groove music.  My God, the original Temptations 
and Marvin Gaye must be rolling over in their graves. Add as much softcore 
pornography as they can get away with, plus nauseatingly inflated, entirely 
unjustified egos - and you've got at least seventy percent of what's out there.

  And maybe it's because I worked on James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James" album - 
but to my eyes, that 16-year-old kid John Mayer doesn't even resemble an artist 
who's reached the kind of maturity which garners this much attention. Hopefully 
he's got a bright future, but he looks and sounds like a high school kid right 
now - regardless of how many records "the machine" has managed to push.

  How striking to see James alongside cello virtuoso Yo Yo Ma - then having to 
endure that  talentless, spazmatic-appearing fool from Coldplay (who, to my 
ears, wouldn't know a melody or a metronome if they smacked him in the face) 
accompanied by a renown New York orchestra.

  And certainly most glaring of all: awards given to musicians of every 
category, including Native Americans and all kinds of foreign ethnicities... 
and not one single solitary acknowledgement of Jewish music.  Let's see... 
what's the name of the new Grammy president?  Funny... "Portnow" sounds like a 
Jewish name to me.

  Hey Neil: instead of cow-towing to all the mediocre, 
gang/pornography-oriented, young so-called "artists" who've ruined the music 
industry - just so you can appear to be racially and politically correct - how 
about having the guts to simply judge artists on their true artistic merits? 

  Is it only me - one of three or four white guys who used to write for Jobete 
Music (formerly Motown Records' giant publishing subsidiary) - or does it 
appear to anyone else that much of the recording industry is being held hostage 
by a bunch of hoods who stuff their talentless junk down our throats while 
holding the guns of "if you don't like us, you're a racist" to our heads?

  You don't become a bigot because you tell Ja Rule he can't use four-letter 
words on national television.  You don't become a Ku Klux Klan member because 
you tell Nelly (who, by the way, offered up the single most laughingly 
tasteless edits of two songs which I've ever heard) that his "act" is obscene 
and not suitable for national television 

  Relax, Neil - it's O.K. ... just as long as you recognize that true genius 
has no color barriers.  Just ask Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, Luther Vandross, 
Patti LaBelle, India.Arie, Joe and so many of the other true artists who've 
brought their inestimable contributions to our musical lives (virtually all of 
whom, behind closed doors, will share their dismay over the current state of 
the recording industry).

  Call me crazy, but I just have to think that many of the gifted artists who 
participate in this forum have made musical statements which are... at the very 
least...  of equal validity to "It's Gettin' Hot In Here". 

  Where's the real equality? 

  Thank you for letting me share.