The Grammys Suck - A Rant on the 2014 Grammy Awards

Every year I watch the Grammys and every year it always just ends up making me mad. It always seems like the wrong artists get recognized for being the best. Why do I continue to watch something that just continues to disappoint you ask? Well, the Grammys are suppose to be the most respected awards show for music and so as a fan of music, I almost feel obligated to watch. Given how 2013 was a pretty lack luster year for music, I guess it is no surprise that the Grammys were an accurate representation of this.

Let's start with some of the main awards. Song of the year went to Lorde for the song Royals. I had heard this song a while back and while it is somewhat easy to listen to, I just felt it was inauthentic and directed at a teen listening demographic. Also it sounds so conventional like 100 other pop songs we have heard before. This is why I was surprised to see it win for song of the year. I would have rather seen some of these songs win.

The other 2 big awards for record of the year and album of the year went to Daft Punk. I have never been a fan of these guys. I always found their music to be way too repetitive. I didn't really like the Get Lucky song all that much and from everything I read about the album, it was not very good. So then they end up winning the top 2 music awards of the year? Something is not adding up. I really feel like the robot novelty act has a lot to do with their popularity. The same can be said for similar costumed novelty Deadmau5. Without the costumes, they are just a some regular guys with average sounding music.

You know it is a bad year for music when you are rooting for Taylor Swift to win album of the year. You also know it is a bad year for music when your favorite performance was by Keith Urban and you are not a fan of Keith Urban or country music and you have never even heard the song before. On a related note, Pink's aerial act was entertaining, but she has done this several times before so it has kind of lost the appeal.

The whole show was over 3.5 hours long. What I find odd is how few awards they actually present. I counted only a handful of awards actually shown while most of the show was devoted to live performances. I guess since it is a music show, they figure people would rather see the artists perform than see them give acceptance speeches. I understand this, but it would be nice to see a few more awards given out.

The music educator award was something new they added this year. To me, they should leave this out if they have it at all. There are already awards for teachers. Yes music education is important but the Grammys are not the place to recognize it.

Overall quality of music is subjective and everyone has a different opinion on what is good. Because of this, most people will be unhappy with the choices of songs and artists that are considered the best each year. In one of my previous Grammy Awards reviews here on the blog, I mentioned how the show is more about a celebration of music rather than who actually wins. Even though I am continually upset by the winners selection each year, I suppose this is the best way to look at it.