Grammy (gra-y), the name comes from the mutated homonym of the English gramophone. The music award, which bears the name of an English homonym, has been awarded since l958 and is now in its 36th year, and the trophy is in the shape of an old-fashioned gramophone.

Although the Grammy Awards are awards in the American recording industry, they are now one of the most influential music awards in the world.

Generally speaking, the world's entertainment centers are dominated by the United States, Europe, and Japan, but among them, the entertainment status of the United States is in a transcendent position, whether it is movies or music, the United States always leads the global fashion pace. The Grammys in the music industry are like the Oscars in the film industry, although they undoubtedly bear the imprint of American culture, but as an award with wide influence all over the world, and it is also one of the world's entertainment centers, the United States awards, its significance is naturally extraordinary, and most musicians around the world are still proud to be able to hold this old gramophone.

For any award to be recognized, there must be a number of indispensable factors. The reason why the Grammys are talked about by musicians around the world is because of these factors. In addition to the fact that the United States has always been the center of global pop music and represents the high level of pop music, the Grammys are also authoritative, impartial and widely influential, so they have been recognized by the world.

The Grammy Awards are given by the American Recording Society. People who don't have real talent and lack of dedication to the music career generally can't enter the recording society. The jury, which is made up of so many senior professionals, is rightfully trusted by music lovers. In addition, the selection of the Grammy Music Awards has a very strict system and procedures, which effectively ensures the fairness of the selection.

The influence of the Grammy Awards in the world is not inferior to that of the Oscars in the world film industry, and the Grammy Awards Gala can easily attract more than 170 countries around the world and more than 1.7 billion viewers to watch. This brought the Grammys to the world and made the Grammys a widely accepted award for musicians around the world.

Grammy-winning works certainly don't come from hype by a few people or by the record labels. In fact, each gramophone award is selected by experts and a rigorous process. The high quality of these works and the rendering of the TV have made the winners popular and the records have sold well, and they have also played a real role in leading the music trend. On the other hand, the judges are also consumers, so they will naturally be affected by the market, and popular records, popular singers, and popular movie songs are of course the easiest to enter their field of vision.

Therefore, unlike the American Billboard Music Awards and the American Music Awards, the Grammy Music Awards not only focus on authority and quality, but also give enough respect to the public. This is an important reason why the Grammy Awards are so transcendent in the field of music.

But it is precisely because of the global attention of the Grammys that their attention to the mainstream music in the market is naturally indispensable, as is the case with any awards ceremony, the balance between artistry and commerciality is not an easy scale to grasp, just as the Oscars of "Titanic" and "Lord of the Rings 3" swept the major awards in the past two years are the two most watched ceremonies in history, the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival that show favor to Hollywood have more audience attention than the Berlin films.

The same is true for the Grammys, who will certainly ensure the detachment of musicality, but with the gradual expansion of the market, the Grammys must also take into account the feedback of the audience such as sales and popularity in order to select the most suitable winning works. This is evident in the history of the Grammys, which marked a watershed moment in 2002 when the artistic and commercial balance of the Grammys was clearly changed.

Before the advent of digital music, that is, before the Internet was fully ubiquitous, the Grammys' authority also came from their recommendations for music. Trapped by the narrow information channel, many music lovers tune in to the Grammys every year to understand the direction of the music market, and then choose their favorite music from it, which makes the authority of the Grammys remain high; However, with the popularization of the Internet and the emergence of digital music, people are more accustomed to finding music by themselves, and the awards selected by the Grammys are either too market-oriented or too niche, and it is always difficult to meet the needs of the audience, which also makes the authority of the Grammys continue to decline, and the loss of audiences leads them to compromise with the market to increase commerciality and reduce artistry, thus forming a vicious circle.

This is also a new crisis faced by the Grammys in the 21st century, but the same situation can actually be seen in the 90s of the 20th century, and the Grammys can already see the signs.

The nineties can be said to be an era of music explosion, the explosion of rhythm and blues, pop, hip-hop, rock and other types of music, and each music type can find masterpieces that are canonized as classics, which also makes the mainstream of the market has been in a state of change, in this case, the Grammys set up an alternative music award in 1991, the original starting point is to further reward the music genre that is not recognized by the market, but the problem is that the Grammys are pedantic, The die-hard judges simply didn't know how to define the word "alternative" to the point of making the department a joke that still scratches its head for n-decade later.

In fact, the word alternative itself is very ambiguous. Ambiguity, the most important thing is the alternative standard, is it musicality or sales? If it is musical, it means innovating a musical form or style, or is it incompatible with the current mainstream market; If it's sales, then it's still a commercial decision, and an album that doesn't sell well is an alternative? This is obviously unconvincing.

Singers who have been in the music industry for decades and have achieved more than 10 million sales have all been nominated for "alternative music awards" at the Grammys after 2000, and interestingly, they have also been nominated for popular categories such as pop and rock, which is a paradox for the Grammys.

In fact, the term "alternative" comes from the early 80s school music radio station, referring to the group of artists who lived under independent labels and were influenced by rock music, but in 1992, the Nirvana broke through the shackles of alternative and evolved grunge into the mainstream, and the word "alternative" no longer has the meaning of true alternative.

Ironically, Nirvana's epoch-making album "Don't Mind" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, but lost out to the band Quickblink Eyeball's album "Out." of。 time)" is a real surprise: who is the other?

The Grammys' vague definition of the alternative is essentially an ambiguity between artistry and commerciality, and on the one hand, they want to reward outstanding music like Nirvana, which is outside the mainstream market; But on the other hand, there is a fascination with commercial sales.

If the Grammys pluck up the courage, for example, to define an alternative as an excellent album with sales of less than one million or half a million, these are outstanding works that have not been recognized by the market, and then the Grammys give them enough recognition; Another example is to define alternative as an album released by an independent label, distinguish it from the big music labels, and promote independent music in the United States; Another example is the definition of alternative as an emerging musical trend, such as Nirvana Band in 1991, which encourages musical diversity......

Whatever the definition, as long as the Grammys determine it and then clearly delineate it, it may achieve satisfactory results, but the Grammys' ambiguity between business and art makes the term "alternative" a neutral word that is neither positive nor derogatory, which makes people laugh and cry.

However, the emergence of outstanding music in the nineties, and the isolation and sluggishness of people's information, also somewhat diluted this blurring of the Grammys, allowing them to achieve a transcendent position of authority; In the 21st century, this shortcoming has gradually been brought to the fore by the complex information on the Internet, which has led to a significant decline in the attention of the Grammys.

The "near-fame" of glory to death is a victim of Grammy's attitude.

"Almost famous" is widely regarded by public opinion as the most representative alternative rock after Nirvana's "Don't Mind", and now that grunge rock is already mainstream music, such impactful music as Glory to Death can be considered alternative rock.

Looking back on the musical journey of l993, although the performances of bands such as Pearl Sauce and Aerosmith are excellent, there is no doubt that alternative rock is the protagonist of this year, and the entire old world order of rock has changed dramatically.

The emergence of bands such as Pumpkin Crush, Carberry, Björk, Radiohead, Goatskin, Tainted, Shen Yun, Tools, and Honor to Death has undoubtedly had a violent impact on the entire rock industry.

But the question is, "Near Fame" has achieved more than a million platinum sales, so is it alternative or mainstream? If it's mainstream music, what kind of music genre should it be categorized in? The conservative Grammys couldn't figure out a clear idea, and they even debated musicians like Nirvana, U2, and Eyeblink Balls, which were already settled in society.

At present, the society generally believes that Nirvana, U2, and Quick Eyeball are mainstream music, because they are already an important part of mainstream market music, and their music style has been unanimously recognized by music critics and listeners; Comparatively speaking, bands like Glory to Death are considered alternative.

In this context, the Grammys questioned the musical style of Glory to Death, they could not define "almost famous", and Glory to Death was likely to be disqualified from the selection because they could not determine the musical style, which immediately caused an uproar in the entire public opinion circle.

(To be continued)

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