So, the 53rd annual Grammy awards are tonight. I am very excited to watch for a few reasons. First, I enjoy all of the performances and collaborations that occur throughout the night, I really want to see who wins best alternative rock album, and I want to know who isn't going to be televised.
In case you didn't know, many of the awards are not televised. This is because there simply isn't enough time in the show to televise them, and that not as many people would be interested in "best engineered album" as opposed to "best new artist".
I did a little bit of research on last year's winners that weren't televised, and I found some pretty interesting things. We all know that most of the show is based around pop music, so it wasn't much of a surprise to me that many of the non-televised awards were for best albums in rock, jazz, bluegrass, and gospel. However, I am not completely sure why this is so. Throughout the year in AIS, we have been discussing the media's "secret messages" and how everything has some sort of implication or meaning. I wonder if it means something that people are assumed to not care about categories like "best traditional folk album" or "best historical album", in the same sense that MTV only plays music by Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Ke$ha. It makes me wonder if this censorship is purposefully done.
So when I watch the Grammy's tonight, I know that I won't get to see Wolfgang Gartner win an award for best remix (how many of you guys actually knew he was nominated?), and I won't get to see Deadmau5, or any major electronic producer, even nominated for best electronic album (how does that happen?!?!). It seems as if the Grammy's are sending us secret messages.
Jon,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. I think that the Grammy's are definitely sending us secret messages. Another thing I found interesting is who they chose to present the awards. Some were musicians, but others were celebrities like Eva Longoria and Jason Segel. Segel was chosen because he stars in "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS, so they used it as almost an advertisement, playing the theme song as he walked on stage.
Soifer, I'm going to be honest, I didn't even know there was a category for best electronic album and best remix. However, now that I do I am quite upset that they didn't broadcast those awards. Those genres are some of my favorite and they could definitely use the media exposure. I understand that the network neglected to broadcast those awards because of a lack of popularity, but I feel like if they were more widely broadcasted they would become more popular.
ReplyDeleteFantastic connection to what we have been emphasizing all year long: the bias of selection. More embedded media and links, please!
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