A Thousand Miles Behind

Music pundits, of course, will say that Adele owned today’s Grammy’s. By sheer count of trophies collected, yes, she did. For me though, this Grammy’s was bigger than Adele. Her win was, more than ever, symbolic to the music industry. Just hear me out for a second here. 

Since the Naughties, we all know that music sales are not exactly stellar with the onslaught of file-sharing services over the interwebs. The music industry will always place the blame on these services for the decline in sales of records of musicians. Don’t believe them. That is a sweeping generalization. That is only half of the story. 

The truth of the matter is, there isn’t really any music worth buying in the first place. My personal standard of good music is simple: flash-forward to ten years of your life, if a record is still listenable, then it’s good music. If a record makes you go, “What the hell?! Did I really listen to that?!”, then you know you’re not doing your future children any favors. Let’s face it, the 90s was the last decade when we were bombarded with great music. From then on, we’re lucky just to be listening to ten really great albums a year. It’s the music industry’s fault, really. Being businessmen, they were in music for the quick buck. But music is more than the money. It’s art. That’s why, the web is liberating. It allowed people who were not “bankable” according to the A&Rs to flourish. Hell, artists are giving away their music online for free. Come on, Radiohead made people pay for In Rainbows for any price. Bon Iver was first heard on MySpace. Now, that’s Ars gratia gratis.

Then back to today’s Grammy’s. What is so special about the ceremony today? One would argue that awards ceremonies like this are useless. Come on, these musicians are awarding themselves for something they like doing! And they’re also richer in the process! (I keed!) Personally, I consider these kind of ceremonies as a barometer of the current state (and taste) of the music industry. I have to say, tonight, things are looking up.

Of course, among the attendees and nominees are those acts backed up by the businessmen in the industry. But among them are artists that are backed up by the strength of their music: Adele, Bon Iver, the Foo Fighters, Mumford & Sons, The Civil Wars, and Coldplay, to name a few. They are not exactly the artists that you see on heavy rotation in YouTube and MTV, but they do sell because of good word of mouth. There are just no gimmicks to these acts. They let their music do the talking. Generally, the kookier the outfit of a musician, the less the quality of the record. 

So Adele? I am not saying that hers was the best record among all the nominees in the Grammys. Mumford & Sons and Bon Iver were just a good. However, I am just happy that THAT opinion is the general consensus. Think about what she stands for in the future of the music industry: Here is an artist who put out a record, sang her heart out, and because it’s really good music, it sold. People bought 21, enjoyed it, and took the record to heart. 21 proved that if the music was good enough, it will sell. It’s fantastic news that today’s Grammy’s was an actual celebration of music. Try to give this year’s compilation a spin, and you will realize, hey, there’s some magical quality in the nominees this year. 

You know what’s that magical quality? It’s that feeling deep in your gut that we haven’t heard the last from really GREAT MUSIC.