Does seeing what music came from and what it has become make anyone else as sad as it does me.
I know people have the right to listen to what they want but I get worried most people do not even have the chance to listen to anything but crap. O well I guess I will blow my blues instead of type them...
Did you see the Beach Boys? The tributes to them? The Foo Fighters? Paul McCartney with Joe Walsh? The Boss? Adele??? ****STEVIE PLAYING CHROMATIC? In a time where pop music is done almost entirely in studio with computers, I am amazed at how many "real" acts have been on doing it live.
Tons of great LIVE music. Heck, Bruno Mars was loads of fun to see...and I think it was all pretty much live. Excuse my ignorance, but there was a duo that played a very bluesy tune as well.
So far, the only lame performances have been Chris Brown and Katy Perry. Dave Grohl's speech was excellent too. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Last Edited by on Feb 12, 2012 7:13 PM
The Civil Wars? And a great speech from Grohl? Drat, maybe I should have DVR'd it. I love Barton's Hollow. I keep telling our lead singer we should bring in a guest female vocalist and cover it.
I'll second HarpNinja. I've never seen so much great live music on one TV show. Bruno Mars and his band had me hopping up and down. Superb! Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt was--well, Bonnie Raitt can sing the blues as well as any woman alive, and she doesn't have to sweat. Stevie did the line from "Love Me Do," didn't he? That little bit of harmonica playing, live, was spectacular.
Jason Aldean's mic f''ed up and he got very self-conscious, pissed off, and he looked moony later, in his seat, retreating to the space under his hat. Even the pros have mic malfunctions.
I'd never seen Adele live, just heard a lot about her. She definitely had some magic. She missed five or six notes and it didn't really matter. When a performer fills the space they occupy without straining to be more than they are (or subconsciously allowing themselves to be less than they are), that comes through. She's got her own sound.
Katy Perry was the one joke, Nick. I agree: that was silly--as is Lady Gaga's mesh-stocking full-face getup. But Carrie Underwood sang jazz, fer chrissake, next to Tony Bennett. Who knew she could do that?
And Paul McCartney debut a new song and HE sang jazz--and the song was an instant classic.
Unbelievably good. Heck, Taylor Swift looked and sounded great in that deep-country song she did. Yeah, she'll never be young Loretta Lynn, but then nobody is.
I was trying to peg Adele's accent. Cockney?
Last Edited by on Feb 12, 2012 8:11 PM
Was that Adele's first appearance since vocal surgery? I think she sang that song a 1/2 step down or something.
Dave Grohl is my hero...
"To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of making music is what's most important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do. It's not about being perfect. It's not about sounding absolutely correct. It's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in (your heart) and it's about what goes on in (your head)." - Dave Grohl ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Yes, Adele was born in Tottenham, North London and you are spot on!
Wikepedia states:
In recent years, there has been a move away from Cockney in the inner-city areas of London towards Multicultural London English whereas the eastern outskirts of Greater London have more speakers of Cockney dialect. Today cockney areas are situated in Dagenham, Barking, Romford, Chigwell, Harlow, Tottenham, Enfield, Basildon, Thurrock, Cheshunt, Bexley, Sidcup, Islington and Brimsdown.[18][19]
What's sad--to agree with the OP--is the fact that there was only one Grammy awarded for a blues artist (down from two: best traditional and best contemporary), four out of five nominated were white (really? I guess Af-Am artists just...weren't making albums last year), and while blues was being shafted like this, jazz got four grammys--best solo, best vocal performance, best big emsemble, and recording of the year. That doesn't seem fair.
An ABC music commentator felt the old generation totally upstaged the younger. He made a comment that I've thought about myself many times,where are the next McCartney, Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder, Glenn Campbell. Maybe this is the end of times. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
I tend to disagree with the ABC guy. Without writing a novel on this, there is more access to music than ever, which tends to fragment things.
There is more great music now than at any other time in history...there is also more crap than at any other time in history.
It is impossible to really tell what is going to stick and be remembered a generation from now. That being said, with the exception of Stevie (who didn't really perform), all those guys were upstaged.
IMO, even the tributes to the Beach Boys were better performances than what the old guard gave (did Brian Wilson even want to be there?). What the old guard did have, though, was clout and history on their side. While maybe they would have "won" in their prime, I don't see how the more contemporary performers were upstaged.
Let me clarify that in their hey-day the Beach Boys were better at what they did than anyone. Whitney Houston performed, "I Will Always Love You" at the Grammy's, I think, and it was live...sounded less pitchy than Adele and was amazing. In otherwords, I am just comparing the different generations in isolation - just with what I heard yesterday.
Adele and Bruno Mars totally killed it last night. Kelly Clarkson sounded great too. Taylor Swift sounded great, especially since she usually sounds HORRIBLE live. The Foo Fighters were stellar...Dave didn't sing as well as I've heard from him live (and he is 43 and firmly established as a rock god), but the PERFORMANCE was very powerful.
What about Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt???? Just a keyboard and guitar...stunning stuff.
That Manaj chick and the Rhinna/Coldplay thing was the only stuff that really turned me off in addition to Katy Perry (who, like Lady Gaga, has tremendous talent often obscured by schitkc) and Chris Brown.
I missed some of the middle performances as I was busy working on stuff, but I was back for the last hour or so...the jam at the end was fun.
If the fact Adele and the Foo Fighters cleaned house last night isn't at the very least a glimmer of hope for commercial music, than I don't know what is.
Regarding the award for best blues ablum...that one through me a bit too. It was pretty much all the Allman Bros most recent projects against each other. That is great for me as I love all those guys - and am obsessed with Derek Trucks - but I wouldn't call any of that blues.
Coincidentally, I was listening to the 2010 Crossroads DVD earlier in the day. There was a bunch with Tedeschi-Trucks Band including sit-ins by Warren Hayes. The between song interviews talked about Mad Dog and Englishman, Derek and the Dominoes, Delaney and Bonnie....Those guys are a great sorta 60's rock revival band...totally not blues.
I've seen them live, and it was literally a revival, lol. Derek did a lot of jazz-blues with his band, and a lot of blues-rock with the Allmans, and his band with his wife is the furthest he has gotten from blues, IMO.
FWIW, I don't give a rat @$$ about the races represented in any category. Had they gone a more straight blues route, I bet it still would have been represented by mostly white men. It makes total sense in my mind.
It's all bullshit-todays pop/rap/soul music sucks-period. The Grammys are all about the music INDUSTRY-not the singers and musicians. It is all about the show,as witnessed by Lady Gaga,Niki Manaj and all the blow hards with blue hair and shitty costumes. Clive Davis was a client of mine for a long time-I learned a lot about the music industry-it is nothing less than a money making machine,set up for the big recording companies to make most of the profit,with the musician taking a small amount. The highlight of the awards for me were The Beach Boys,Glen Campbell,Sir Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett. The rest sucked-. The Grammys are not staged for blues music-that is why we various blues music awards programs specifically geared towards blues.
Last Edited by on Feb 13, 2012 7:22 AM
Adele, who will be performing for the first time since undergoing vocal-cord surgery last fall
Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson
The Beach Boys, who will be reuniting for their first appearance in two decades, with Foster The People and Maroon 5
Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood
Chris Brown
Glen Campbell with the Band Perry and Blake Shelton
The Civil Wars
Coldplay and Rihanna
Dance/electronica segment featuring Chris Brown, Deadmau5, Foo Fighters, David Guetta, and Lil Wayne
Foo Fighters
Jennifer Hudson, who will pay tribute to the late Whitney Houston
Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt
Diana Krall
Bruno Mars
Paul McCartney
Nicki Minaj
Maceo Parker
Katy Perry
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band
Taylor Swift
Joe Walsh
That's a very well-rounded list of performers and genres for a pop show. They could have easily slanted it more towards Top 40 music has they wanted to.
While I can't argue at all against the music industry being set on making money, the model of big record companies making the most profits are long gone. The Foo Fighters only sold about 600,000 copies of their latest album, which is a huge number. By contrast, even in the 90's, Blues Traveler sold over 5 million copies of Four (they only had two songs on that album chart, neither of which made it to #1). I think Adele is over 12 million, but if you throw her out of the conversation, you again see bands continually under the 1 million mark selling the most records.
Right now, the major acts make their money touring, which has always been the case, but the record companies are dropping like flies. It used to be that bands could be groomed for success - they could stay a couple of years on a major label before hitting. Heck Blues Traveler had to put out four albums and wait for Run Around to hit after initial sales were slow before "making it".
Nowadays, you have to come to the companies as a sure thing and produce instantly. Most bands DON'T need the support of a major label to go viral. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireflies_%28song%29
This guy lived 45min from me and made a song in his basement that ended up selling over 4 million copies.
As Adam stated Blues is well getting the blues (or dieing a slow death). I'm not a country fan, but Country music has it's stuff together. Nashville is just pumping good music out left and right. If a city would embrace Blues music and had a banner musician. Blues music would be doing a little better than one Grammy. What is the grammy for blues? Last man standing!
I bet there is more blues being played for money now than at any other time in history. I bet there are more blues bands, learning materials, books, recordings, festivals, videos, etc.
Country music does not have its stuff together compared to blues...now Country-Rock or Pop-Country, that's another story.
Here is the current Top 40 in country...not so country by traditional country standards...http://www.billboard.com/charts/country-songs#/charts/country-songs
The success of the contemporary country artist hinges on crossover appeal and meeting pop music half way...similar to how acts like Johnny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepard did a while back.
The number one band on the rock charts right this minute has an album full of Junior Kimbrough covers in their discography.
I am sure this exists in the country world too, but in the blues world, if you get too popular you get flamed like crazy by your peers. Blues is, in some ways, its own worst enemy. Its contemporaries tend to focus on all the things that won't help a band crossover.
What fascinates me about country rock and pop is the stellar musicianship by the backing bands and the amount or restraint they play with...it is more like radio-friendly classic rock than anything else.
The music is fun, melody driven, and the musicians serve the song. The lyrics fit with the times and there is a marketable image that appeals to the in crowd...people can associate with it easily.
In my not-so-expert opinion, country is following the same path blues did with the revival in the 80's. I doubt it will last forever, but people are doing a great job cashing in.
I am too lazy to look it up, but it'd be interesting to compare the country top 40 from today to 20-30 years ago. I bet it is night and day in sound.
If you look up blues on iTunes, At Last is always top of the charts, lol.
Harp Ninja I'm not an expert on Country music eithter, but I did live there for awhile and got to know alot people in the country machine. OK you are absolutly correct about country not being so country. You see you know very little about country, but even you noticed that. That is not an accident. It is by design! About 20 or so years ago Country music was dieing and the upper music executives in Nashville joined forces and came up with a game plan to make country more apealing to young people. I lived there and alot of country fans did not like 10 15 years ago. So that is point! Country does have act together and if you think people playing blues are making anywhere near as much money as people in the country industry then you really don't know what your talking about! As I said I'm not a country fan, but well I guess I know alot more about it then I thought. Honestly is there anyone that thinks Blues muic is even close to Country right now? I wish I was wrong, but I know I'm not!
@kudzurunner You are right that there should be more than 1 blues catagory.
Are you really surprised that only 4 out of 5 were white? Thats seems pretty obvious to me. If you havent noticed, most of the young af/am performers are interested in hip hop, r&b, rap, & pop nowadays.
The only white performer that I noticed in any of the many rap catagories was eminem and that was a colaboration with Dr Dre.
Times have changed. young af/am's are interested in football, basketball, hip hop. young white kids are interested in hockey, baseball, rock, and blues.
The one thing they will always have in common is video games! LOL
The powers that be in the blues world seem to intentionally not take the country music approach.
For example, take Joe Bonamassa:
" best selling blues artist of the decade.. 0 Grammy nominations and 0 Blues music awards.. Yet I sell out 2500 t0 5000 seat venues.. I am so disappointed that none of my 9 consecutive #1 records get any freaking attention at all.. Rejected isn't strong enough of a word to describe the way I feel yet again.. 12 years in a ****ing row.. You think I think one of my records deserves a nomination"
The Black Keys started out as a hill country blues band and I don't recall them getting any loves from the blues world either. I am actually surprised at the love Derek Trucks gets from the blues world.
IME, the vast majority of the people into blues with any money or power in the States are middle-aged conservative white men. This goes for both the players, listeners, and so forth. I can't think of a group of people who can be less progressive about things.
Go ahead and stereotype the typical blues, rock, top 40, and country act...
My point is is that if we are discussing either underground or commercial success, there has to at the very foundation something that appeals to a large mass of people. There needs to be a balance of progressive, middle of the road, and traditionalists. Those groups need to support each other - not attack each other.
Blues continues to be its biggest enemy. I also find it ironic that people want the masses to like something totally driven by ego. By this, I mean blues musicians get frustrated with others not loving their self indulgery - my way or the highway. There are countless threads on this board where all people care about is them.
You either are married to fans or are dating them. When we play blues, we are almost always dating them, but we act like we're married.
Like you said, commercial country was embraced by heavy hitters of country...makes sense...much like how someone like SRV helped people like Albert King get new fans.
