I don’t know how universal or deep the “winning” gene is buried in our DNA, (a test of Charlie Sheen’s tiger blood may shed some light), but modern criteria to determine winners from losers, (unless there is something other than chiding involved in the, “there are no losers”, mantra in the acceptance speeches by those who have already won), have certainly blurred the tacit understanding of excellence that once accompanied the term. I’m referring primarily to judged winners, not the head-to-head contests of one-on-one or team-on-team engagements where the outcome is, for all intents and purposes, clear-cut. Since judging requires the wisdom and accepted knowledge of an individual, panel or membership charged with the responsibility of rendering objective decisions on predetermined standards, and those judges have human frailties and subjective observational skills, winning can often be determined by criteria other than the specific work or performance.
Welcome to Awards Season!
Tonight, according to everything I’ve read and heard, is music’s biggest night. The 55th Annual Grammy Awards will present trophies in a few categories on CBS, live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California…and previously, in many, many more categories, (American Roots, Spoken Word, Polka…), around the corner at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The pre-big-show-show, which in recent years has been streamed over the InterNet, attempts to give those winners an honorable, albeit B-minus version of the real deal, where you get to thank your Mom on network TV. Each category’s description starts with the word ‘BEST’, (unlike Academy Awards that start with the word ‘OUSTANDING’), and…there’s the rub. Tonight’s awards, and the Oscars and the Emmy’s and the Tony’s, are not really about the best or most outstanding. With few exceptions, the players and performers and technicians, the nominees and the winners, exude the talent and charisma to thrill audiences around the world, but the need to declare the ‘Bests’, the process for arriving at that selection, and the entrepreneurial need to sell the importance of that notion to the public is fraught with sour notes.
For example, I don’t know Al Walser, never heard a thing he’s done, in fact, the only Electronic Dance Music I’ve really heard came pounding through the wall from the adjoining office suite in the Film Center Building, rattling my brain and drowning out the mix I was trying to work on. Maybe his work sucks and that’s a valid reason for others in the EDM community to be outraged by his surprise nomination, but all of the hoopla I’ve read took umbrage with his being unknown…not untalented.
There used to be very strict guidelines about “no campaigning” for votes and the seemingly unnecessary pronouncement to “cast your vote based solely on excellence”. Not that these admonitions were ever effective, but today, there is a vast social lobbying network where popularity trumps quality, (tweet away, Mr. Walser), and recordings garner support more for the personae of the artists they feature than for the performances and productions on which they perform. The result is the trivializing of the work of all the artists concerned, placing an arbitrary and illogical value on the comparison of one work of art against another, instead of merely celebrating the excellence and innovation of the industry as a whole.
Oh…FYI, “Carrie” was the BEST Musical Theater Recording of 2012…and, with a nod to Ms Lorna Luft, it wasn’t even nominated…just sayin’.