Althouse: "Appropriately, Adele’s ascension happened during one of the dullest Grammy ceremonies in recent memory..."

February 13, 2012

"Appropriately, Adele’s ascension happened during one of the dullest Grammy ceremonies in recent memory..."

"... a tour de force of bumbling anti-imagination hampered even further by the death of Whitney Houston the day before the show, which left producers scrambling to fit in raw tribute with shimmering and gauche spectacle."

The NYT's Jon Caramanica, carps about the dead diva, hampering from a bathtub.

AND: In other Grammy news, how many people tweeted that they'd let Chris Brown beat them up?

44 comments:

Cedarford said...: Another one of these saturation, wall-to wall coverage, "celebrity" deaths the jewish and gay media masters patented back in "Poor Lady Di" days.

Lady Diane died! How can humanity survive now that all hope is gone!!!

At least five more days of this.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government thanks the media masters heartily for deflecting attention away from the massacres...; 2/13/12, 9:21 PM
SteveR said...: Jon apparently sees no irony in the fact that his style of criticism is as old and worn out as the music celebrated in the Grammys, he so laments. Just because something is "new" doesn't make it better and an old dry mouth version of a Beatles song by Paul McCartney, et al beat the hell out of the crap put out by Nicki Manaj.

I mean he writes for the NYT for god's sake.; 2/13/12, 9:21 PM
traditionalguy said...: Where are duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Cab Callaway when the Grammy show needs them?; 2/13/12, 9:41 PM
Alex said...: New York State of Mind; 2/13/12, 9:47 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: In other Grammy news, how many people tweeted that they'd let Chris Brown beat them up?

Most right-thinking males would love a chance to beat up Chris Brown.; 2/13/12, 9:51 PM
edutcher said...: So the Gray Lady agrees pop music is going nowhere?

Stop the presses.; 2/13/12, 9:56 PM
coketown said...: I assumed celebratory tributes and video montages were pre-produced even before the artist died, like the newspapers do with obituaries of famous people. If not, they ought to adopt the practice. It would be a scandal of the highest order if Dusty Springfield died and they didn't have a fitting tribute for her.

Oh...oh, I see. Nobody told me. I came out after she died, apparently.; 2/13/12, 10:00 PM
MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...: A thought that occurred to me when I was watching last night was, "it looks like the music industry has learned from the mistakes of the movie industry".

What I mean by that is the movie industry has done everything in it's power to alienate the segment of the population with the most disposable income: those of us in middle age. Between the animated films, the stupid Sci-Fi, the gratuitous sex, and the movies based on comic book characters, I haven't wanted to see a movie in over a decade. Movies made today appeal to a very narrow demographic segment of society.

But last night, I saw an effort to appeal to every age group, race, gender....you know, all the things "progressives" claim to value. The Grammy planners clearly tried to appeal to as wide of a swath of society as possible.

I thought having old timers like Tony Bennett, Glen Campbell, and Paul McCartney there was a way to show appreciation to the older viewers of the Grammys, some of whom have probably watched all 54 times the Grammys have been presented.

The NYT critic strikes me as a selfish jerk who thinks that the Grammys are for the consumption of his demographic only. The music industry, or at least the Grammy planners, seems to have made a conscientious decision to appeal to as many people as possible.

Seems to me there were some adults in charge who planned the Grammys, much to the chagrin of the NYT critic.; 2/13/12, 10:11 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: I love the word "appropriately" in there:

I told you, culturally, we're in The Dead Zone.

Why so few notice, as y'all keep going on and on about Adele (who, from what I can tell, is not a major talent) is the big question,...; 2/13/12, 10:21 PM
DADvocate said...: I'm sick of the entertainment crowd going into full worship mourning mode every time one of their drug addled members passes away. River Phoenix, Michael Jackson, Amy Whitehouse, Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, ad infinitum. It's a culture of death where lives are chewed up and spit out. I can hardly wait for the wailing and gnashing of teeth when Lindsay Lohan dies. Time to update my death list.; 2/13/12, 10:21 PM
Chase said...: Jon Caramanica is one of the least respected rock critics in America. His writing is so inconsistent, he can't remember who he praised and who he slammed - that's what drugs to do your talent.

Robert Hilburn of the LA Times was the best of his generation of rock/pop critics. Unlike Caramanica, Hilburn had a distinct, understandable philosophy of criticism: Every recording you put out should be musically better than the last in some measurable way, otherwise, you're just a whore. Caraminica makes a play for that in this article at one point, then completely undermines his own points by the end of it by his hatred of the Foo Fighters and pissing on Springsteen. He can't seem to decide if Taylor Swift is younger than Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj, both mediocre talents that will be in the year's first episode of "Where Are They Now" on VH1 in 2020.

Caramanica is in the Times because - and you know it's true - he's sucking Sulzberger or someone else. It's how the Times operates.

And Chris Brown should be in jail, year 3 of 15+ for assault and battery.; 2/13/12, 10:23 PM
Alex said...: DADvocte - to be fair Ledger died from an Rx overdose, there was no history of drug abuse.; 2/13/12, 10:23 PM
Chase said...: Or, let Chris Brown come to my house alone for a "little chat".; 2/13/12, 10:25 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Smilin' Jack,

Most right-thinking males would love a chance to beat up Chris Brown.

And if he kicks your ass, too, then what?

You guys will poo-poo all day about how men have been pushed aside, are looked down upon, demoralized in TV commercials, treated unfairly in family court, goaded by the Feminazis, get thier penises cut off while they sleep, set on fire to applause (because you got one side of the story from Farrah Fawcett) etc., but let a man do anything to a woman and - without even knowing what the fuck was going on between the two "equals" - you decide he needs a blanket party for not giving a fuck about the new cultural imperatives you regularly moan about.

Maybe if more of you pussies fought back women wouldn't decide they can be so fucking bold as to be walking over your asses.

You got any sons out there? What are you leaving them open to? Yeah, YOU. Ever thought of that, genius?

You guys are so short-sighted it's a wonder you can see the keyboard to write this tripe,...; 2/13/12, 10:34 PM
wyo sis said...: Any person who writes with a straight face---"The familiar name and demonstrably serious musician Kanye West."---cannot be taken seriously.; 2/13/12, 10:51 PM
Penny said...: To atheists, death is forever.

Take a silent minute to really think about that...; 2/13/12, 10:52 PM
Penny said...: Show your grace.; 2/13/12, 10:53 PM
Damon said...: "I'm sick of the entertainment crowd going into full worship mourning mode every time one of their drug addled members passes away."

I agree, but watching Jennifer Hudson struggle with Houston's song really highlighted what a talent she really was.

The sycophantic reviewers of Hudson's performance must not have watched the Grammys.; 2/13/12, 11:07 PM
Icepick said...: RE: Chris Brown Tweets: It's as though no one had ever read Catch-22....; 2/13/12, 11:12 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: “Unfortunately I can’t cut the nuts off human men — yet - So I’ve dedicated my time to the neutering of dogs because that’s legal.”

Give it time, Honey, and they'll be hanging them out there for the privilege.

Penny,

To atheists, death is forever.

Take a silent minute to really think about that...

O.K. - done. Now I'm thinking of the self-delusion, and completely unwarranted ego-gratification believers go through, thinking they're going to live forever when there's absolutely no evidence of any such thing, and how they force both on the unsuspecting atheists just trying to endure what time they have on this planet without having to listen to insane ravings about other's "beliefs." It's probably one of the most cruel things one human being can do to another, considering nobody asked you for your input on the nature of their souls, reality, or anything else related to whatever a bunch of illiterate desert people left you to ponder, that you're too stupid - in the age of science, computers, and education - to abandon.

It's like you're deliberately trying to drive your fellow man crazy, because - out of all the lessons your "God" gives you - he never gives you the one that says "Leave other people alone."

How fucking holy of you.

Now, think about that.; 2/13/12, 11:16 PM
Synova said...: Adding some tribute stuff to the Grammys seems like an obvious and appropriate thing.

Displacing everything on the regularly scheduled news programs as if a head of state died and having one after another person with a microphone emoting yet again over the *shocking* death...

That was a bit much.

Oh, and I like Adele well enough. Chasing Pavements was on the rotation at work and I could never ever hear it again and be content, but I like Rolling in the Deep and don't dislike the others I've heard.

I like that she doesn't auto-tune. And while I don't think her voice is the best ever (many of the multitudes of amateur covers of her songs on You Tube are just as good) at least she's SINGING.

My girls like her a great deal, which is super-fine with me considering what else there is out there to chose from.; 2/13/12, 11:18 PM
nesh said...: Hello,
Nice Blog. I would leave my first comment. Unique and useful to follower. Keep visiting this blog very often.

Cheers,
Top up Prepaid; 2/13/12, 11:53 PM
jungatheart said...: She reminds me of Nora Roberts in some of her songs.; 2/14/12, 1:08 AM
deborah said...: Props to Dolly Parton for writing 'I will always love you.' She has the sweetest voice:

http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=RJtpP18ccK8; 2/14/12, 1:19 AM
deborah said...: Also, 'Coat of many colors.'

http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=h7I_9MMcWvk; 2/14/12, 1:24 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: On the one hand Garamanica carps about the award ceremony, and I tend to agree with him, and yet we see people dying to get into it.; 2/14/12, 3:31 AM
Jaq said...: I liked the Grammies. I will take them over the Oscars any day. Excellent musicianship is worth watching, if you don't care about that, don't watch.; 2/14/12, 4:52 AM
Mian said...: Please allow me to take a minute to question Cedarford's usual spew, about the "jewish and gay media masters" (no caps? Is C4 ee cummings? Is this his little Nazi way of making his untermenschen diminutive?) spinning the latest celeb death.

Apparently he hated Lady Di too, but at least he had enough respect for the language to capitalize her name (though had she been Jewish or Gay it would have appeared as "lady diane."); 2/14/12, 5:50 AM
master cylinder said...: guess he didnt see Bruno Mars...; 2/14/12, 6:49 AM
Dan in Philly said...: I really enjoyed the fact that there was a lot of singing by great singers. Weird how entertainin it was; 2/14/12, 7:00 AM
KCFleming said...: It's the mediocre critic's job to hate everything.

He could take a lesson or two from Terry Teachout.; 2/14/12, 7:27 AM
Bob_R said...: For those you you saying,"I like the fact that XX doesn't use auto-tune" I encourage you to go to the Celemony web site and check out the Melodyne tutorials. Pitch correction can be done very delicately - in ways that real experts would find hard to detect. It is a safe bet that your favorite vocalist has had his or her vocal track examined syllable by syllable and processed with (at least) a compressor, equalizer, deesser, reverb, and time and pitch corrections. It is a very common practices for a singer to do several takes after which the mixer "comps" the vocal by choosing the best take for each distinct syllable. If you want to hear naked singing stick to very small venues.; 2/14/12, 7:38 AM
Synova said...: Autotune is sometimes painful. There has to be a reason for that, but it *hurts*.; 2/14/12, 7:54 AM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Dusty Springfield dead? I didn't even know she was sick!; 2/14/12, 7:54 AM
Bob_R said...: The "trading twos" jam in The End was fun, but it shows how hard it is to do a really good two-bar solo. Most of them (and there were some really good guitar players up there) could not pull it off and just spat out a lot of notes. Of course, in the studio the Beatles had time to listen to what the other guys had done and work out a reaction (they did not record at the same time.) It's been a favorite of mine for a long time.(I got Abbey Road for Christmas in 1969.); 2/14/12, 7:56 AM
rhhardin said...: Dullest Grammy would be a pretty high bar.; 2/14/12, 8:17 AM
rhhardin said...: Everything sounds better with the audio processing that top radio stations do than it does on the CD, in any case.

A live singer is usually pretty bad.; 2/14/12, 8:19 AM
Old RPM Daddy said...: Carmanica takes himself just a little too seriously, I think. It's a music awards ceremony, for Pete's sake, not the Treaty of Versailles. But this Kurt Vonnegut quote, while pertaining to literary criticism, still says it best.; 2/14/12, 8:39 AM
EFB said...: Pretty good summation of the event, but if not Adele then who? He didn't say.; 2/14/12, 10:19 AM
Kevin Walsh said...: Seems that he wants Grammy voters and music fans to worship at the house of hip hop and relegate the old white guys, with their guitars and their melodies, off to the cornfield.; 2/14/12, 11:03 AM
Deb said...: Any person who writes with a straight face---"The familiar name and demonstrably serious musician Kanye West."---cannot be taken seriously.

Was he being serious about Kanye West? That wasn't sarcasm?

deborah: agree about Dolly Parton.; 2/14/12, 5:10 PM
el polacko said...: i miss the days when the musical acts at the grammys included a string quartet, a jazz combo, a folksinger, a mariachi band, a crooner, a pop star, a polka band...etc.etc...providing a snapshot of the overall present state of recorded music.; 2/14/12, 9:54 PM
sute said...: Good post, thanks for sharing, I kindly suggest burberry clothing for kids cheap, especially burberry kids skirts cheap and cheap burberry kids jackets and coats.; 2/15/12, 12:47 AM
ben said...: a note from an atheist. the fact that death is for ever is what makes the simplicity of it so beautiful.; 3/30/12, 7:50 PM