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The Grammy Awards, which celebrates its 50th anniversary today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, isn't perfect by a long shot. But there simply isn't any other awards fete honoring music that is nearly as meaningful or prestigious. And no other comes close to matching the Grammys for sheer ambition, depth and stylistic diversity.
Or, as U2 singer Bono writes in the foreword to the new book “At the Grammys” by longtime Grammys telecast producer Ken Ehrlich: “The Grammys invited jazz, rock, country, soul and classical into the same hall. No regard for demographic studies of what would deliver ratings, no radio call-out research – a mad amalgam of the profound and the absurd and the creeping realization that one man's Mozart is another man's Vegas.”
That eclecticism also extends to everything from blues, polka and gospel to Latin, Hawaiian and Native American music. All told, there are 110 Grammy categories, or at least 95 more than on most other music awards shows.
“It was awesome when we won the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy in 2003,” said Chris Thile, 26, the mandolinist in San Diego bluegrass-and-beyond band Nickel Creek.
“We ran and jumped to the stage and everybody laughed at us because we were so excited. It's funny how large a percentage of the Grammys is made up of artists like us, who are not household names.”
It is precisely because of its breadth and depth that I admire the Grammys, even though the jazz and classical performances usually appear shoehorned in as gratuitous afterthoughts during the annual telecast.
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The 50th annual Grammy Awards
Featuring Beyoncé, Foo Fighters, Aretha Franklin, Feist and others
When: 8 tonight
Where: KFMB/Channel 8
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But no other awards show has featured one-time-only live performances that teamed Eminem and Elton John (2001), or the hard-rocking Foo Fighters and jazz great Chick Corea (2004), or piano legends Ray Charles, Count Basie, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis (back in 1983).
Tonight's telecast continues that tradition. The Foo Fighters will perform with an orchestra conducted by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Aretha Franklin heads up an all-star gospel-music tribute, and Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley and Feist will collaborate with members of the casts of the film “Across the Universe” and “The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil” stage show. The results may be fab, or a prime-time train wreck, but no other music awards show would even attempt something so ambitious.
Similarly, no other show has enough clout to fuel a reunion performance by Simon & Garfunkel (2003) or to bring together Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Elvis Costello, Little Steven and No Doubt's Tony Kanal to pay rousing tribute to deceased punk-rock pioneer Joe Strummer (also in 2003).
Even in this histrionic era of “American Idol,” which in recent years has drawn a larger viewing audience, the impact of performing on the Grammys is enormous. Just ask the Dixie Chicks, whose album sales went up by more than 700 percent after last year's telecast.
But the Grammys, at its best, transcends mere commercial considerations. That's why no other awards show is held in such esteem by so many of the artists it honors, young, old, and in between.
“It's the highest level of accolade,” said hip-hop maverick Lupe Fiasco, 25, who earned three nominations last year and another this year.
“So I hold it higher than other awards, because nothing holds a light to it. If you look at the list of the people who won in prior years, just to be nominated in that group is the ultimate honor.”
Veteran producer and recording engineer Phil Ramone won his first Grammy in 1964 for his work on Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto's Album of the Year-winning “Getz/Gilberto,” which helped launch a Brazilian bossa-nova craze in the United States. He has since won 13 more Grammys, the most recent last year, for his work on albums by Paul Simon, Tony Bennett and others.
“To be nominated really is an honor,” said Ramone, 68, who chronicles his Grammy victories and his 1973 Emmy win in “Making Records,” his recent autobiography. “But winning a Grammy is like winning an Oscar, a Tony or an Emmy. For something that's been around for 50 years, it's amazing how meaningful it still is.”
Compared to the numbing banality of “The American Music Awards,” “The People's Choice Awards” and “The MTV Video Music Awards,” the Grammys are a radiant font of light in an increasingly dimwitted world.
The dubious voting procedures for the “American Music Awards” and shows of its ilk are beyond questionable. Want to find out who makes the nominations, and who casts the votes, for those shows? Good luck.
The Recording Academy – under whose auspices the Grammys are presented – is unquestionably legitimate, no matter how illogical or infuriating some of the winning votes may seem.
The academy boasts more than 12,000 voting members, all of whom are industry professionals. They range from performers, producers and songwriters to audio engineers, studio musicians and record industry executives.
Moreover, the Grammy Awards is only one part – albeit the most publicized – of the academy's year-round work. Its endeavors range from providing medical and financial assistance to musicians in need to a host of educational and outreach programs designed to promote a variety of musical genres to young people at a time of draconian funding cuts for all arts in public schools.
So, make fun of the Grammys if you like. For all its flaws, in an imperfect but constantly expanding world of music it's still the best awards show going.
