638 Chapter 638

Grammy (Grammy), the name comes from the English gramophone (Gramophone) variant homophony. This music award named after the English homophony has been awarded since 1958, and this year has been carried out to the thirty-sixth session, and the shape of the trophy is also an old-fashioned gramophone.

Although the Grammy Music Awards is an award in the American recording industry, it has now become one of the most influential music awards in the world.

Generally speaking, the world's entertainment centers are based on the United States, Europe, and Japan, but among them, the United States' entertainment status is in a detached position. Whether it is movies or music, the United States always easily leads the global popularity pace. The Grammys in the music industry are like the Oscars in the film industry. Although there is no doubt that they are stamped with American culture, as an award with wide influence all over the world, it is also an award in the United States, one of the world's entertainment centers. , its significance is naturally extraordinary, and most musicians around the world are still proud to be able to hold this old gramophone.

For any award to win affirmation, there must be several indispensable factors. The reason why the Grammys can be talked about by the world's musicians is due to all these factors. In addition to the fact that the United States has always been the center of global pop music and represents the high level of popular music, Grammys are also authoritative, impartial and widely influential, thus being recognized by the world.

The Grammys are awarded by the Recording Academy of America. People who do not have real talents and practical learning and lack persistent pursuit of music career generally cannot enter the recording society. The jury, made up of many senior professionals, deserves the trust of music lovers. In addition, the selection of the Grammy Music Awards has a set of very strict systems and procedures, which effectively ensure the fairness of the selection.

The influence of the Grammy Awards in the world is not inferior to the influence of the Oscars in the world film industry. watch. This brought the Grammy Awards to the world and contributed to the Grammy Music Awards becoming an award widely accepted by musicians around the world.

Grammy-winning works are certainly not the result of relying on the hype of a few people, or the self-promotion of record companies. In fact, each gramophone is awarded, it will be selected by experts and strict procedures. The high quality of these works themselves and the rendering of TV have made the winners popular and the albums sold well, and at the same time, they have also played a role in leading the music trend. On the other hand, judges are also consumers, and they are naturally influenced by the market. Of course, hot-selling records, popular singers, and popular movie songs are also the easiest to enter into their field of vision.

Therefore, unlike the US Billboard Music Awards and the American Music Awards, the Grammy Music Awards not only focus on authority and quality, but also give enough respect to the public. That's a big reason why the Grammys are so aloof in the music world.

But it is precisely because of the global attention that the Grammys have received, their attention to mainstream music in the market is naturally indispensable. This is true of any awards ceremony. The balance between artistry and commerciality is not easy to grasp. Just as "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings 3" swept the major awards in the two years of the Oscars, the two highest-rated ceremonies in history, the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival to show favor to Hollywood. There are more audiences than the high and low Berlin films.

The same is true of Grammys. Of course, they will guarantee the detachment of music, but with the gradual expansion of the market, Grammys must also consider audience feedback such as sales and popularity in order to select the most suitable award-winning works. This is most vividly reflected in the development of the Grammys. With the emergence of digital music in 2002 as a watershed, the balance of artistry and commerciality of the Grammys has obviously changed.

Before the advent of digital music, that is, before the Internet was fully ubiquitous, the authority of the Grammys also came from their recommendations for music. Trapped in the narrow channel of information, many music lovers watch Grammys every year to understand the trend of the music market, and then choose their favorite music, which makes the authority of Grammys remain high; Popularity, the emergence of digital music, people are more accustomed to finding music by themselves, the awards selected by the Grammys are either too market-oriented or too niche, and it is always difficult to meet the needs of the audience, which also makes the Grammys The authority of beauty continues to decline, and the loss of audience has led to it having to compromise with the market—increasing commerciality and reducing artistry, thus forming a vicious circle.

This is also a new crisis that Grammys are facing in the 21st century, but the same situation can already be seen in the 1990s.

The 1990s can be said to be an era of big music explosions, with the explosion of various types of music such as rhythm and blues, pop, hip-hop, rock, etc., and each type of music can find masterpieces that are called classics, which also makes the market. The mainstream has always been in a state of change. Under such circumstances, the Grammys established the Alternative Music Awards in 1991. The original starting point was to further reward the types of music that were not recognized by the market, but the problem is that the Grammys are pedantic. The stubborn judges simply don't know how to define the term "alternative," so much so that the department has become a joke that remains confusing until two decades later.

In fact, the word alternative itself is very ambiguous. It is unclear, the most important thing is the alternative standard, is it musicality or sales? If it is musicality, does it mean to innovate a musical form or style, or does it mean that it is out of tune with the current mainstream market; if it is sales, then it is all about commerciality, and albums with poor sales are an alternative? This is obviously not convincing.

Rolling Eyes Band, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, these singers who have been on the music scene for decades and have sold more than 10 million yuan, have all won the "Alternative Music Award" at the Grammy Awards after 2000. ", and interestingly, they're also nominated in popular categories like pop, rock, etc., which is a Grammy paradox.

In fact, the term "alternative" comes from the campus music radio stations that started in the early 1980s, referring to those artist groups who were influenced by rock music and lived under independent labels, but Nirvana broke through the alternative constraints in 1992 and evolved grunge. Once mainstream, the word "alternative" no longer has the connotation of a real alternative.

Ironically, Nirvana's epoch-making album "Never Mind" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, only to lose out to Fast Rolling Eyes, which has already established itself in the mainstream market. "Out. Of. Time", which is really shocking: who is the alternative?

Grammy's blurred definition of alternative is essentially an ambiguity between artistry and commerciality. On the one hand, they want to reward outstanding music like Nirvana that roams outside the mainstream market; on the other hand, they leave commercial sales behind. have a crush.

If the Grammys mustered up the courage, for example, the definition of alternative is the outstanding albums with sales of less than one million or half a million, these are outstanding works that have not been recognized by the market, and then the Grammys will give them enough Certainly; another example is to define alternative as an album released by an independent label, to distinguish it from major music labels, and to promote independent music in the United States; another example is to define alternative as an emerging music trend style, such as Nirvana in 1991. music that encourages musical diversity...

No matter what kind of definition it is, as long as the Grammys are determined and then clearly divided, it may achieve satisfactory results, but Grammy's vague attitude between business and art makes the "alternative" Vocabulary has become a neutral word that is neither positive nor negative, which makes people wonder whether to laugh or cry.

However, in the 1990s, outstanding music emerged in an endless stream, and the occlusion and slowness of people's information also diluted the blurred boundaries of the Grammys to some extent, allowing them to achieve a detached position of authority; after entering the 21st century, this kind of The shortcomings were gradually brought out by the complicated information on the Internet, which led to a significant decline in the attention of the Grammys.

"Near Fame" to the death of glory is a victim of this attitude of the Grammys.

"Almost Famous" is generally regarded by public opinion as the most representative alternative rock after Nirvana's "Never Mind". Now that grunge is already mainstream music, such impactful music as Glory to Death can be considered as Alternative rock.

Looking back on the entire musical journey of 1993, although Pearl Jam, Aerosmith and other bands performed very well, there is no doubt that alternative rock is the protagonist of this year, and the entire old world order of rock has undergone tremendous changes.

The appearance of Smashed Pumpkin, Cadbury, Björk, Radiohead, Goatskin, Stain, Shen Yun, Tools, and Death to Glory undoubtedly brought a violent impact to the entire rock industry. Goatskin The British rock force represented by the band and others and the new metal rock force represented by the Glory to Death and others have lit up the music market throughout the year. There is absolutely no controversy to classify these bands as alternative rock.

But the question is, "Almost Famous" went platinum over a million, so is it alternative or mainstream? If it is mainstream music, what kind of music should it be classified as? Grammy conservative academics are unable to sort out a clear idea, and they even have arguments about musicians such as Nirvana, U2, and Rolling Eyes that the society has already decided.

At present, it is generally believed that Nirvana, U2, and Kuaishouyan are mainstream music, because they are already an important part of the mainstream market music, and their music style has also been unanimously recognized by music critics and listeners; relatively speaking , a band like Glory to Death is an alternative.

In this context, Grammy questioned the music style of Glory to Death. They could not define "almost famous". Glory to Death is likely to be disqualified from the selection due to the inability to determine the music style. The entire public opinion circle was in an uproar.