Did I Watch The Same Grammy's As Everyone Else?

The last few months this blog has been full of stuff about how I am (or am not) ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). I was going to write something about how, you as a webmaster for a celebrity site, need to pay attention to the Grammy Awards as well as the rest of the shows during this awards season. However, after reading a few reviews of the Grammys, I was wondering if I saw the same show as the rest of them.

First off, one writer puts that the night sometimes "it seemed more like the Grannies than the Grammies." That was what prompted me to write my own review. It may be my age showing, but it was those "old" artists that made the night for me. In one set of "R&B" songs by three different artists, it began with Smokey Robinson singng "Tracks of My Tears" followed by Lionel Richie. Both singing their classics with little accompanyment. This was immediately followed by Chris Brown, who brought out all the bells and whistles with some big production number that included many backup dancers, masks, slides, lights and kids - and from my TV set, could not even hold a candle to his two predecesors -- I do not even remember what song he sang. I will admit, he has some pretty good songs on his debut album, but his "performance" was about the glitz and not the music. The Grammys are supposed to be about the music.

To repeat that sentiment, "The Grammys are supposed to be about the music" why were there so many actors/actresses presenting and in the audience? What was up with that? They did not belong their. They mentioned that Scarlett Johansson was going to record something, but has not as of yet -- I can only imagine what favors were being called in to get her to present a top award. And what was the lame banter between her and Don Henley? She asks him for advice and he say's "no." If it was a joke, I completely missed it.

The one thing that I do agree with most of the other reviews out there is that the show was not extremely entertaining. The Justin Timberlake performance with the unkown girl was kind of stupid and after a few seconds I stopped listening (although she was kind of cute). I was happy to see Mary J. Blige get an award, although I am not sure she deserved three - at least in that category. To me she has become more "pop" than R&B. In my opinion, her live performance was lacking. If I was only able to purchase one ticket to a performance by any of the performers last night, it would have to be Christina Aguilera. I said "wow" to myself after hearing her sing her powerful rendition of "It's A Man's World" (by the late great James Brown). She put all of the other performers to shame. It was good to see the Police together, and they sounded good (I hope I can get tickets to their upcoming concert), John Mayer was not bad either. Although I am not a big fan of country, the Dixie Chicks put up a strong performance as well.

The most talked about performance of last night was about the music, but about the performance. You could have watched Shakira without the sound on and got the same effect. She looked good -- really good. She does have a good voice, but it is her body and sexy videos/performances that will sell the albums. If Britney Spears was 30 pound overweight when she began recording, do you think she would have made it to the superstar diva level she had attained a few years ago?

The one thing I wanted to see the most last night was Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennet do a duet. Unfortunately, no such luck.

Why did the Dixie Chicks win so many awards? It is either because they are so head and tails above everyone else that they deserve the awards, or, it is because their is really no competition out there. I would argue for the later point. The talent pool out their is thin. More groups want to grab the spotlight with a lot of splash and bling-bling and forgot about the music. If you went to any of the early rap and hip-hop concerts in the 1980s (now I am really dating myself), you had guys like Run DMC, LL Cool J, and even the Beasty Boys that sang their hearts out and cared about what they sang, not how much it would make. Even groups like Public Enemy had a message in their songs. There seems to be no feeling in the work of today's artists singing bubble-gum type of music, but because it is given a dance beat or rapped, the masses eat it up. Well I guess you cannot really blame the musicians if the buying public can't distinguish between music and garbage.

Well, I guess when I very rarely watch music videos, and only listen to music on CDs, music only IPod or Radio, I miss all of that glam that goes into the whole image thing. Well, maybe it is just my taste, but when an artist of any genre is good, they are good, but there are too many out there that are surviving on everything but talent.