OK, maybe I was a little harsh before but let’s face it- even most music fans reluctantly watch the Grammys.  If you’re a pop music junkie, you need to see it or maybe you need to root for your favorite artist but otherwise, you probably have better things to do with a few hours of your life.

Looking back, last year’s broadcast was actually pretty good (not great though).  But this year?  The Foo Fighters were good though that orchestra part and the American Idol rip-off were tacked on pretty clumsily.  Amy Wino deserved the kudos (even if the State Dept won’t have her) and she actually delivered a good performance which means that she should stop saying no, no, no to rehab. Aretha sounded in good voice though it seemed like they were trying to shove as many gospel acts on stage as they could after a while.  Other than Kanye (the tribute to his mom was moving and you gotta love the Daft Punk pyramid), Fogerty/Little Richard (though not poor Jerry Lee) and Tina/Beyonce (who tipped their hat to Ike whether they like it or not), the other performances were pretty snoozy.  It was nice to see Prince and Stevie up there but it would have been even better to have them perform instead of just presenting. 

The real news was Herbie Hancock upsetting not just Wino but also Kanye (can’t wait to hear his rants) and snagging the big prize- he looked genuinely surprised (as I’m sure most people were).  It’s a nice album and Herbie’s always been a great musician (for proof, check out not just Headhunters material but also his 70’s sessions with Miles and his early album Maiden Voyage, not to mention his early/mid 80’s hip-hop phase with “Rockit"- quite a varied career).  This particular album, his tribute to Joni Mitchell with guest shots by Nora Jones, Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen and JM herself, seemed OK to me when I first heard it but not extraordinary- basically, it’s good lounge jazz record aimed at the adult contemporary market.  Listening to it again, I still think the same way but I don’t see how it adds a lot to any of the original material.  Yet because it serves the AC market so well, it probably snagged enough votes from the Grammy constituency’s older crowd to beat Kanye and Wino, both of whom made better albums.  Which is not to take anything away from Herbie- I think it’s great that he nabbed a big award and certainly deserves the recognition (not to mention the inevitable sales boost he’ll get).  It makes me wonder about the academy voters though and when a younger (and MAYBE hipper) demographic will dominate there and be reflected in the voting choices.

Otherwise, it was actually a little more boring than I feared and longer than I thought but at least, it’ll be another 12 months before it comes back…

—Jason Gross

Despite the mash-up’s of artists from different genres that they try at the Grammys (which usually makes for interesting visual moments but not great musical moments), the real drama of the ceremony is “who’s gonna get bragging rights?” The winners not only get to tack this on their resume but also get a sales boost out of it too.  So with the ongoing writers’ strike not threatening the ceremony, this time going in, the big questions is how many awards would the physically-absent and still detoxing Amy Winehouse win plus how many would Kanye West win and how many fits would he throw.  It’s pretty snoozy stuff compared to the ongoing tussles in the presidential campaign now between another woman and another African-American, not to mention a ‘moderate’ GOP front-runner who’s still getting beaten in the primaries.

(continue...)

—Jason Gross

With the writers’ strike still on now (though hopefully resolved soon), talk shows are scrambling to find guests. Along with sports figures and musicians, you can now add music scribes to the list.  The Monday night edition of Conan O’Brien’s show will have the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jim DeRogatis and the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot (both also from the Sound Opinions radio show) on there, which might be a first for the trade (correct...?).  Jim thinks that Mr. Bangs would have been proud but I’m more concerned that the discussion is more about how Radiohead and Timbaland are reshaping the biz than anything about the latest travails of Ms. Spears.

—Jason Gross

It might not send out as many ripples in the industry as Radiohead’s model did but maybe that’s because super-producer Timbaland has an idea that’s ahead of its time.  He plans to put out a song every month through Verizon’s V-Cast service, thus creating a ‘mobile album.’ Pretty smart on the side of Verizon, who already gave away a free (and great) Prince single.  Even smarter for T who knows what time it is.  Other artists are sure to follow this model and it makes you wonder why they haven’t already.  That’s probably because, like R-head, it takes a big name that has big ideas and some chutzpah to put an idea like this across.  Outside of the U.S., downloading music for your mobile is common but it has yet to catch on in the States.  It will as long as other artists like T take the plunge (and the telecomm companies come up with better rates for sales).  It’s just a matter of time…

—Jason Gross

Hats off to Spin (yeah, I write for them sometimes) for their linking with MySpace to put their content online for free- the pay off was a 50% jump in subscriptions and renewals.  Hardly a coincidence I think… Vice on the other hand is looking for subscribers to pay after offering their publication for free, which is kind of the opposite tact- it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.  Yet another publishing idea is selling stories through an online trader, which is what a service called Reporterist is doing now- they’re just starting out so stay tuned to see if this might be the way o’ the future for scribes and editors to connect.

—Jason Gross