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It's Grammy Day... And I always state that for an award, the Grammys have tended to be the most out of touch with their field. Granted, there are literally over eighty Grammys that will be presented today, and that doesn't even cover the Latin Grammys, which are typically presented in the Fall with another forty-eight categories represented there.
Why hasn't the Grammys gotten it right? Well, the point is, they're finally starting to... Back in the day, The Voters for the Grammy Awards were people that didn't care for some forms of music, notably Rock music, and so those songs and albums tended to be overlooked for a very long time. Just as an example, the winner of the "Best Rock N Roll Recording" in 1963 was (drumroll please...) "Alley Cat" or according to the label displayed on that disc The Alleycat by Bent Fabric. Now, I know that this is still pre-British Invasion, but this does suggest that something was wrong with the process.
I eventually found out first hand why the Grammy voting board had problems, even into the 1980s and 90s from a person involved in the process: All voters in all music genres submitted nominees for all categories. That meant you had country music people nominating rap, you had classical music people nominating rock. In short, you had people who had no business nominating things for categories they didn't understand or maybe didn't even listen to, and that created a lot of questionable choices for the awards.
Eventually, as the Grammy board started letting more performers in, people who produced and recorded hip-hop, heavy metal, world music, started to be both represented and voted on by people who were experts in those fields. That automatically made the nominating process more accurate.
The Grammys used to be my big day to criticize everything that was wrong with both the music industry and the people running (ruining?) it, but there's been less to complain about more recently. And the Grammy Ceremony has been a pretty great show, for the most part, for the last several years, since Whitney Houston's shocking and saddening death, the night before the 2012 ceremony. Hard to believe it's been six years since then, but in an odd way, it somehow also seems like it's been about twenty or so.
The industry has been trying to find its feet for a number of years since the Napster issues of file sharing became a rallying cry against fans that acquired music from others - this though stores constantly sold blank audio cassettes and rewritable blank CDs as a part of their inventory.
Now, it seems there is a new, somewhat stable and properly functioning system for the artists and producers to get their due, and for listeners to get their music. Platforms like Pandora and Spotify and outlets like iTunes and Amazon seem to be working better, after some earlier problems. The record labels cut away a lot of the fat, people on the payroll who weren't really contributing to the cause are now gone, because these labels can't just sit back on their laurels and watch the money come in. Everybody is working hard to do the best they can because the process isn't as guaranteed as it was, even as recently as the early 2000s.
And that brings me to my altered challenge for today. My point in doing this meme, this month, was that the Grammys were back in NYC, at Madison Square Garden, for the first time since 2003. So, of course I'm doing a special Grammy Challenge as part of it.
The "Record of the Year" category is sometimes confused with the "Song of the Year." But, they're easily discerned. Song of the Year is presented to the Songwriter. In other words, it's a celebration of that piece of music. Record of the Year is presented to the recording artist. So, that award goes to the particular recording of that song. And it's appropriate to choose "Record of the Year" nominees because we are picking particular recordings of songs with this challenge. Of course, "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" frequently go to the same recording, but not always.
To me, the best sort of "Record of the Year" lives up to the double meaning of that phrase. It is a great performance, but it also is a cultural touchstone that places both it and us at a particular moment, a specific point in history, one that both clearly delineates and acts as a marker for our collective experiences, making it an actual "record" of that particular year.
Music can do a lot of great stuff. It can make us happy. It can help us channel anger in a positive way. It can soothe us or challenge us or inspire us, music has a lot of benefits. That's why we love it. And helping a charitable cause is one of those elements that music has the power to do.
The movement that led to the song I selected really began with another song: "Do They Know It's Christmas" was written by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, in response to the scenes of famine in Ethiopia he viewed on British TV in 1984. Geldof gathered a bunch of recording artists to sing the tune and released it as a charity effort to help support relief for the Ethiopian people. It was an enormous success.
That led to Live Aid, a massive concert featuring performers in both London and Philiadelphia, with drummer/singer Phil Collins taking the Concorde "across the pond" to play at both Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium on that incredible day. This massive effort produced a massive fundraiser and that set off more...
Like Farm Aid was to help America's farmers stay solvent as they fed the country.
Later, the series of Very Special Christmas albums helped to support the Special Olympics
But sandwiched between those came USA For Africa, an effort by Americans to contribute to famine relief, as the Brits had previously done.
Recorded around the time of another ceremony, that year's American Music Awards, it featured an all-star lineup of vocalists to sing the song, which became an international sensation, as well as the video which let you see a bit of what the recording session was all about, an additional album with more tracks, and a whole line of merchandise.
Thanks to the still operating WEBSITE, we have a collection of PHOTOS of the massive recording session. They are certainly worth seeing, or seeing again.
So, my selection on this Grammy Day, Day 27, is the Grammy Award Record of the Year winner for 1986: USA For Africa - "We Are The World"
Why hasn't the Grammys gotten it right? Well, the point is, they're finally starting to... Back in the day, The Voters for the Grammy Awards were people that didn't care for some forms of music, notably Rock music, and so those songs and albums tended to be overlooked for a very long time. Just as an example, the winner of the "Best Rock N Roll Recording" in 1963 was (drumroll please...) "Alley Cat" or according to the label displayed on that disc The Alleycat by Bent Fabric. Now, I know that this is still pre-British Invasion, but this does suggest that something was wrong with the process.
I eventually found out first hand why the Grammy voting board had problems, even into the 1980s and 90s from a person involved in the process: All voters in all music genres submitted nominees for all categories. That meant you had country music people nominating rap, you had classical music people nominating rock. In short, you had people who had no business nominating things for categories they didn't understand or maybe didn't even listen to, and that created a lot of questionable choices for the awards.
Eventually, as the Grammy board started letting more performers in, people who produced and recorded hip-hop, heavy metal, world music, started to be both represented and voted on by people who were experts in those fields. That automatically made the nominating process more accurate.
The Grammys used to be my big day to criticize everything that was wrong with both the music industry and the people running (ruining?) it, but there's been less to complain about more recently. And the Grammy Ceremony has been a pretty great show, for the most part, for the last several years, since Whitney Houston's shocking and saddening death, the night before the 2012 ceremony. Hard to believe it's been six years since then, but in an odd way, it somehow also seems like it's been about twenty or so.
The industry has been trying to find its feet for a number of years since the Napster issues of file sharing became a rallying cry against fans that acquired music from others - this though stores constantly sold blank audio cassettes and rewritable blank CDs as a part of their inventory.
Now, it seems there is a new, somewhat stable and properly functioning system for the artists and producers to get their due, and for listeners to get their music. Platforms like Pandora and Spotify and outlets like iTunes and Amazon seem to be working better, after some earlier problems. The record labels cut away a lot of the fat, people on the payroll who weren't really contributing to the cause are now gone, because these labels can't just sit back on their laurels and watch the money come in. Everybody is working hard to do the best they can because the process isn't as guaranteed as it was, even as recently as the early 2000s.
And that brings me to my altered challenge for today. My point in doing this meme, this month, was that the Grammys were back in NYC, at Madison Square Garden, for the first time since 2003. So, of course I'm doing a special Grammy Challenge as part of it.
The "Record of the Year" category is sometimes confused with the "Song of the Year." But, they're easily discerned. Song of the Year is presented to the Songwriter. In other words, it's a celebration of that piece of music. Record of the Year is presented to the recording artist. So, that award goes to the particular recording of that song. And it's appropriate to choose "Record of the Year" nominees because we are picking particular recordings of songs with this challenge. Of course, "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" frequently go to the same recording, but not always.
To me, the best sort of "Record of the Year" lives up to the double meaning of that phrase. It is a great performance, but it also is a cultural touchstone that places both it and us at a particular moment, a specific point in history, one that both clearly delineates and acts as a marker for our collective experiences, making it an actual "record" of that particular year.
Music can do a lot of great stuff. It can make us happy. It can help us channel anger in a positive way. It can soothe us or challenge us or inspire us, music has a lot of benefits. That's why we love it. And helping a charitable cause is one of those elements that music has the power to do.
The movement that led to the song I selected really began with another song: "Do They Know It's Christmas" was written by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, in response to the scenes of famine in Ethiopia he viewed on British TV in 1984. Geldof gathered a bunch of recording artists to sing the tune and released it as a charity effort to help support relief for the Ethiopian people. It was an enormous success.
That led to Live Aid, a massive concert featuring performers in both London and Philiadelphia, with drummer/singer Phil Collins taking the Concorde "across the pond" to play at both Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium on that incredible day. This massive effort produced a massive fundraiser and that set off more...
Like Farm Aid was to help America's farmers stay solvent as they fed the country.
Later, the series of Very Special Christmas albums helped to support the Special Olympics
But sandwiched between those came USA For Africa, an effort by Americans to contribute to famine relief, as the Brits had previously done.
Recorded around the time of another ceremony, that year's American Music Awards, it featured an all-star lineup of vocalists to sing the song, which became an international sensation, as well as the video which let you see a bit of what the recording session was all about, an additional album with more tracks, and a whole line of merchandise.
Thanks to the still operating WEBSITE, we have a collection of PHOTOS of the massive recording session. They are certainly worth seeing, or seeing again.
So, my selection on this Grammy Day, Day 27, is the Grammy Award Record of the Year winner for 1986: USA For Africa - "We Are The World"