The Grammy Awards

The other night I purchased Grammy Nominees 2007 on CD, mainly because it had many of the hit songs from the past year where I wanted the single but not the album. Grammy Nominees 2007 (2007) is an effective sampler of the best middle of the road music available. The disc highlights the trend of the last ten years or so, which is producer heavy dance pop mixed with a touch of adult contemporary to keep things from getting too wild. Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback" and Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" all are featured. These tunes are offset by sappy ballads like James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" and Pussycat Doll's "Stickwitu". The new trend is a welcome move to more old school R&B with Mary J Blige's "Be Without You", Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man" and John Legend's "Save Room". Elsewhere, some alternative / indie music shows up here and there with Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Dani California", Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" and The Fray's "Over My Head". In all, the twenty five tracks give a great snapshot of where pop music was at in 2007... very enjoyable.

The renewed focus on music that had a strong melody, old school influences and vaguely edgy values carried over to the telecast. The Dixie Chicks, a country group that was shunned by their fans after making anti war comments in 2003, took all of the major awards with the song "Not Ready To Make Nice" and the album Take The Long Way Home (2006). I felt a little mixed about their sweep, not because I have anything against the Dixie Chicks (I enjoyed their cover of Stevie Nick's "Landslide" and that "Goodbye Earl" song) but because I couldn't tell if they won for their music or making a political statement.

While the song "Not Ready To Make Nice" is good and I have played it since buying the Grammy CD, it isn't exactly a mind blowing song. While the song's content is unique in stating their autobiographical view of the past few years, the music itself is just a pleasant ballad. In terms of bringing its message across, I thought the song was a little heavy handed. While I like the Dixie Chicks well enough and an album dominating the Grammy's usually results in big sales, their victories seemed more like the record business trying to rebuild a star act and make a political statement of its own than awarding the actual best music of the year. The Chicks even won Country Album of the year though their Country fans abandoned them and the Dixie Chicks no longer consider themselves Country. What should have been a music awards show felt like an attempt to force the public to listen to music solely for it's political bent. I consider that no better than if Toby Keith had won strictly on his political opinions (hey, maybe he had as I really can't remember). The awards should go to the best music of the year, regardless of politics.

To me, the song of the year should have been "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. It's a song that is both catchy and original, a mash up of pop and hip hop with a terrific falsetto vocal and an insistent, thumping beat. But enough crying about the unfairness of awards shows, as I'll never forget that Shakepeare In Love beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture in 1998. The record business is saying "Listen to the Dixie Chicks! Damn you for leaving them!!" It will be interesting to see if America listens and re-embraces this once chart topping act.

A few other notes, The Police reunion was awesome and John Mayer finally proved his guitarwork is equal to his hype. Christina Aguilera tore it up with her fantastically overblown vocal style on James Brown's "It's A Mans World". And the Red Hot Chili Peppers won Rock Album of the year for Stadium Arcadium. Plus, that red stage was the best set design I have ever seen for the Grammys. The only real disappointment...No Prince Purple Rain medley. Oh well, I guess that's what the Super Bowl was for.