I want to complain about the Grammy's, but I fear that will nose-dive this post directly into the grounds of clichéd, nose-in-the-air hipsterisms. I will proceed anyway, with caution and the hopes that there is an audience out there that agrees with me.
I am not extremely educated on the music industry, but if the Grammy nominations are a reflection of individuals' successes in the industry, then what I'm seeing doesn't sit well with my stomach. The country music section of the show? Oh god, country music has roamed so far from any semblance of what it was when it represented something dignified, I don't even want to go down that road...
Before I go roaming off into a million unidentifiable directions that completely obscure my right to claim having a grounded opinion, lemme pick one point to focus on: Carly Rae Jepson? Sorry girl. What are you doing writing and releasing a song like "Call Me Maybe" and then listing your biggest musical influences as Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, and Van Halen? I can hear them all punching themselves in the face. Learning how to play the guitar and growing up listening to some of the greatest music you can get your hands on does not qualify you to claim them as your "influences" in all of your sickeningly sugary fame. Please explain to me how your music resembles theirs, in any way. There's guitar in yours and theirs? Oh, yes...
Same goes for so many other wildly popular artists out there. Taylor Swift? God help us, again. I get that these songs are catchy, but are we really going to award music just for being good at getting stuck in our heads? I haven't listened to any of her recent music much, but I heard one lyric saying something about a girl that Swift is competing with for the attention of a man being known for what she can do on a mattress. Moral of the story: it's okay to put another woman's sexual lifestyle out on display in order to validate your belief that you deserve a man more than she does. As if being a woman isn't already difficult enough in this MANmade world, thanks for all your help with my endeavors, Taylor.
Okay, I am not trying to just go in and trash everyone senselessly. I am stoked that Frank Ocean won Best Urban Contemporary Album. And I'm sure there are people out there who feel the way I do about T Swift & Co about music by today's big names in R&B, rap, and hip hop. Yes, the n-bombs drop everywhere, people are using drugs, women are being degraded, etc. in these songs. But think about it... there is a message here. What's at stake for someone like Taylor Swift whining about some other trick who is known as a slut competing with her for a man? Versus someone like Frank Ocean singing about "Crack Rock," drugs, unprotected sex, and money. For Taylor Swift, a commonly-thought-to-be beautiful, white, young woman, not much. Her parents come from oil money and a line of bank presidents. She decided to up and move to Nashville to pursue her dream of being a famous musician when she was 15 because she could. Frank Ocean is a young, black man from a single parent home who does not ascribe to just one sexual orientation. I'm not saying that being from a marginalized community will automatically make your music better than someone's from a privileged community. What I am saying is that, given their positions, based on where they are coming from, musicians like Swift and Ocean are situated in a place that gives them a large reach of influence.
What does Swift's album do to influence the demographic she reaches with her music? Give cheesy lines to sing that make young women feel better about themselves in a way that puts down other women? You really can achieve your dreams when you're young and white and come from money? Then there's Ocean-- what does he do to influence his audience? For starters, he has lit a match under the discussion of sexuality and heteronormativity within the R&B/rap/hip hop, hyper-masculine scene. He has approached the genre, musically speaking, from a new angle. What he has to share is new, more interesting, more challenging to listen to and process meaning from, better delivered... the list goes on. His vocals are better. The sound production on his album more careful and unique.
If that's still unfair, then let me synthesize my thoughts this way: let us be patient and see about the test of time when it comes to music today. What will last? Look back at classic rock... Springsteen is not only still making good music, but the music he made back in the 70's is still solid, still building homes for people to live in. His music saves lives. Next to even just one of his albums, how does a Taylor Swift or Carly Rae Jepson album stand up? For right now, they are plastic bags in comparison, and I don't know from what a house built of plastic bags is going to save anyone.
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