As a lifelong fan of all different kinds of music, you'd think the highlight of my year - or at least the winter - would be the Grammy Awards telecast. The big event will be broadcast live this Sunday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Rather than appointment television that will keep me chained to the television set, I'll probably record the show and fast-forward through the highlights over the course of the following week.
It's hard to get excited about the Grammys when the music industry is dying.
Surfing the Internet recently, I was shocked to find that only four albums went platinum in 2014 - Taylor Swift's "1989" (3.6 million copies), the "Frozen" soundtrack (3.5 million), Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour" (1.2 million) and Pentatonix's "That's Christmas to Me" (1.1 million). These figures were published in a Jan. 8 Rolling Stone article about declining record sales.
This is a vastly different situation from 30 years ago. In 1984, several albums went multi-platinum: Prince's "Purple Rain," Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and Madonna's "Like a Virgin," to name a few.
Back then, watching music award shows was really exciting. As a preteen in 1985, watching Prince and the Revolution and special guest Sheila E. performing "Baby, I'm a Star" on that year's Grammy telecast made me scream, jump up and down and nearly tear my hair out in front of my tiny black and white TV on the nightstand in my bedroom.
But this year? Meh.
There are few young performers today that project that kind of charisma and make us music fans want to tune in to see them on the Grammys.
In a piece titled "How to (Sort of) Care About the Grammys" on Grantland.com, pop-culture writer Steven Hyden shares my blah, bland assessment of the Grammys: "Here's a proposition for your office pool: The first person who can name all of the nominees for Album of the Year gets $1 million. Don't worry about paying out - unless you work at a music website, you likely won't have any correct guesses."
In a piece titled "How to (Sort of) Care About the Grammys" on Grantland.com, pop-culture writer Steven Hyden shares my blah, bland assessment of the Grammys: "Here's a proposition for your office pool: The first person who can name all of the nominees for Album of the Year gets $1 million. Don't worry about paying out - unless you work at a music website, you likely won't have any correct guesses."
Has the music industry permanently changed? Here are some ideas that might help give the biz a much-needed shot in the arm:
A real music channel. MTV long ago ceased being "Music Television" and instead morphed into "Miscellaneous Television," a youth lifestyle channel dominated by lame reality shows.
It would be great to have a 24-hour cable channel that is truly geared toward music lovers of all generations, broadcasting not just music videos but live performances, documentaries and interviews with musicians from different genres.
This channel could be hosted by radio deejays, podcasters and indie record-store employees from around the country who are truly knowledgeable and passionate about all kinds of music.
Visionary record label honchos. The music business is in dire need of a new breed of visionary moguls like Berry Gordy (Motown), Clive Davis (Arista), Mo Ostin (Warner Bros.), Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic), Sylvia Rhone (Elektra) and David Geffen (Geffen) who have an eye for spotting potential. Visionaries like these knew how to groom artists who may take several albums to build an audience, give them the time and resources they need to develop, and get out of their way.
Regional sounds, regional stars. In the past, cities like Detroit, Seattle and Atlanta have transformed the music business by creating their own regional sounds. Growing up in the '80s, I fell in love with the distinctive Minneapolis sound that Prince helped create.
Rap pioneer Chuck D, in a speech at my alma mater Ohio State University a couple of years ago, suggested that radio stations should be required to play a certain amount of music by local artists, like they do in Canada. This would certainly give a huge boost to undiscovered talent who may not be living in New York or Los Angeles.
The Grammys should take a cue from artists and go on tour. The Grammys would be a lot more fun to watch if music fans around the country felt a direct connection to the telecast. Maybe the Grammys could be like Olympics and let different cities vie to host the ceremony every few years. It would be cool to see the Grammys come to Cleveland, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And the ceremony would feel a lot more relevant and authentic if held in a smaller venue. The hugeness of the L.A. Staples Center feels cold and impersonal.
Cultivate new fans. Those of us who love music all play a role in passing on our passion to the next generation of fans. We need to cultivate lifelong music fans who see the intrinsic value in buying and owning music and compensating artists for their labor and creativity.
Vinyl is reportedly making a comeback and now accounts for 6 percent of all physical music sales, according to Rolling Stone. But buying a CD or downloading an MP3 is just as valid. There's something about owning an artist's work that makes you feel more invested in it, rather than using YouTube, Spotify, Pandora or another streaming service as permanent cloud storage.
The one sure saving grace of the music industry will be the fans themselves.
A real music channel. MTV long ago ceased being "Music Television" and instead morphed into "Miscellaneous Television," a youth lifestyle channel dominated by lame reality shows.
It would be great to have a 24-hour cable channel that is truly geared toward music lovers of all generations, broadcasting not just music videos but live performances, documentaries and interviews with musicians from different genres.
This channel could be hosted by radio deejays, podcasters and indie record-store employees from around the country who are truly knowledgeable and passionate about all kinds of music.
Visionary record label honchos. The music business is in dire need of a new breed of visionary moguls like Berry Gordy (Motown), Clive Davis (Arista), Mo Ostin (Warner Bros.), Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic), Sylvia Rhone (Elektra) and David Geffen (Geffen) who have an eye for spotting potential. Visionaries like these knew how to groom artists who may take several albums to build an audience, give them the time and resources they need to develop, and get out of their way.
Regional sounds, regional stars. In the past, cities like Detroit, Seattle and Atlanta have transformed the music business by creating their own regional sounds. Growing up in the '80s, I fell in love with the distinctive Minneapolis sound that Prince helped create.
Rap pioneer Chuck D, in a speech at my alma mater Ohio State University a couple of years ago, suggested that radio stations should be required to play a certain amount of music by local artists, like they do in Canada. This would certainly give a huge boost to undiscovered talent who may not be living in New York or Los Angeles.
The Grammys should take a cue from artists and go on tour. The Grammys would be a lot more fun to watch if music fans around the country felt a direct connection to the telecast. Maybe the Grammys could be like Olympics and let different cities vie to host the ceremony every few years. It would be cool to see the Grammys come to Cleveland, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And the ceremony would feel a lot more relevant and authentic if held in a smaller venue. The hugeness of the L.A. Staples Center feels cold and impersonal.
Cultivate new fans. Those of us who love music all play a role in passing on our passion to the next generation of fans. We need to cultivate lifelong music fans who see the intrinsic value in buying and owning music and compensating artists for their labor and creativity.
Vinyl is reportedly making a comeback and now accounts for 6 percent of all physical music sales, according to Rolling Stone. But buying a CD or downloading an MP3 is just as valid. There's something about owning an artist's work that makes you feel more invested in it, rather than using YouTube, Spotify, Pandora or another streaming service as permanent cloud storage.
The one sure saving grace of the music industry will be the fans themselves.
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