Last word on Grammys ’06

I know, I know… I said I’d quit it but… two articles worth noting.

1) ‘American Idol’ Crushes Grammys in Ratings: the title pretty much says it all and you get the idea of the cultural import here.

2) Academy in a funk: Robert Hilburn of the L.A. Times is one of my favorite writers: he’s always insightful and clever with his work and he’s been at it for decades now. In articles like this, he’s not afraid to speak his mind outright and say that the Grammy electorate are a bunch of idiots for not honoring Kanye’s genius. I agree but I don’t think he should be so surprised about their conservative bend.

One thing occurs to me though: even though U2 won, we have no idea if it was by a lot or a little. We don’t even know if most of the 13,000 people who were eligible participants even voted for them (same goes for the Oscars) . Why not make this more transparent and let people know more than just who won? It would tell us a lot more about the process and where artists really stand rather than just knowing if they’re winners or losers.