The Grammy Award nominations were announced last week. And the big surprise is that the National Academy of Arts and Music was able to find enough recordings to fill the 95-category list.
Last year, as many music journalists have noted, was not a strong one for memorable music.And to make matters more confusing, there are many musicians, as there have always been, that have been misrepresented and mislabeled by the Academy.
--BRANDY: She considers herself a diva. But put her up against Aretha Franklin or Whitney Houston and all you have is a starstruck brat.
--SHANIA TWAIN: She is listed as country, but, in reality, she's really just a pop-music charmer with a music business savvy husband (producer/songwriter Robert John "Mutt" Lange).
--BACKSTREET BOYS: This group of music mannequins is in the New Artist race. But to consider these guys "artists" at all is pushing it just a bit, don'tcha think? The award, if they win, should actually go to the producers, who are the real artists . . . or should we say "con" artists.
-- TORI AMOS, BEASTIE BOYS, PJ HARVEY, RADIOHEAD AND SMASHING PUMPKINS: They have all been lumped together in the Alternative Music Performance. There is no such thing as "alternative," unless you consider progressive pomp rock such as Renaissance and King Crimson.
-- JUST A THOUGHT: There is also a Traditional Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance category. Artists such as the Temptations, Regina Belle, Patty LaBelle, Aaron Neville and Luther Vandross are found there.
So, why isn't there a traditional rock performance category -- also known as "Classic Rock." You know, artists like John Fogerty, Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page & Robert Plant belong there.
-- SPEAKING OF AWARDS SHOWS: The Grammys and American Music Awards are at odds with each other. That's nothing new, but the battles, which happen every year, are slowly coming to a head.
Grammy producers have asked Dick Clark, the music man in charge of the AMA, to move his show to November, to avoid musician-appearance conflicts. The AMA is broadcast in January and the Grammys are shown in February.
The Grammys policy is to bar artists who have performed on the AMA, claiming "it's not good television to show an act that had just performed a month ago," according to MTV News.
Why doesn't anyone approach the viewing public? Would Backstreet Boys fans mind if they saw their heartthrobs perform more than once in a little over a month? Critics might, but isn't TV based on ratings? Besides, Backstreet Boys fans probably have all the videos and music, so seeing one more performance couldn't possibly hurt, right?
-- AWARD SHOWS, PART II: Kudos, however, back to the Grammys. There is not one 'N Sync nomination in the mix.
--OH, BABY: A big congratulations to Mary Lou Lord who became a mother Dec. 31. The singer/songwriter, who appeared during the Lilith Fair at The Canyons last summer, gave birth to Annabelle Lord-Patey on New Years Eve.
Lord-Patey weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Both mother and child are doing well. And rumor has it that daddy, Raging Teens member Kevin Patey, ain't doing too bad himself.