Quick: What do Smashing Pumpkins, Celine Dion, Beck, the Fugees and Babyface have in common?
The answer, of course, is nothing. Oh, sure, they all make music. But why and how they make this music, and for whom, bears little similarity. About the only people I know who own all five discs put out by these artists in the last year are other critics. But, otherwise, I’d bet that no one who bought and enjoyed Beck’s “Odelay” was also grooving to Dion’s “Falling Into You,” or vice-versa. It’s like asking someone, Which do you prefer, a glass of wine or a firetruck? A grapefruit or a chalkboard?
There is no technical basis for comparing “Odelay” to “Falling Into You,” because the standards for both artists are completely different: Beck sings like a wiseguy stoner, and his music is the aural equivalent of a funhouse ride. Dion sings with perfect pitch and immaculate range, and her carefully arranged music is the aural equivalent of a warm bubble bath. One could argue that Dion is a particularly bad example of such music, that she has a great voice but absolutely wooden phrasing and no ability to differentiate between a bathetic performance and an emotionally resonant one. And one could say that Beck is a marginally talented musician and singer with an uncanny ability for appropriating bits of junk from unrelated genres and fusing them into mellow gold. But one thing is certain: the worlds of Beck and Dion were never meant to collide.
Until next Wednesday, that is.
That’s when the Grammy Awards are to be announced in ceremonies televised by CBS from New York’s Madison Square Garden (7 p.m. on WBBM-Ch. 2). And, guess what? Strange bedfellows Beck, Dion, the Fugees, the Pumpkins and Babyface will all be competing for the same, coveted prize: Album of the Year.
In years past, the Grammy nominations, determined by the 9,000-member National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, were dominated by the Celine Dions of the pop world — safe-as-milk music for the blissfully out-of-touch consumer who, in a busy year, bought three or four CDs. But in their effort to attract younger viewers and, of course, higher ratings and bigger advertising dollars, the awards no longer smack of middlebrow incompetence, the handiwork of a bunch of middle-aged professionals who worship at the tomb of Henry Mancini, who think that the Captain & Tennille were rock ‘n’ rollers and Jethro Tull was a metal band (and, by the way, which one of those longhairs is Jethro?).
Some overdue reforms in voting procedures — the nominees for the four biggest awards are now picked by a committee of 25 “well-informed music generalists” — have given the Grammys a veneer of relevance sorely lacking as recently as two years ago. But in so doing, the Grammys are in danger of becoming meaningless for a completely different set of reasons. The range of choices in the Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year categories is too wide to be meaningful, and it sets up a scenario where the cutting-edge acts cancel one another out so that a mainstream heavyweight like Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds can roll to victory.
With his record-tying 12 nominations, Edmonds is all but certain to turn the Grammys into his coronation as the Quincy Jones of the ’90s. He’s a classy, gentlemanly triple threat (producer, performer, songwriter), the ideal poster child for the academy’s definition of musical “excellence.” But with few exceptions, Edmonds’ work risks little — his celebrated producing and songwriting on the “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack, nominated for Album of the Year, is generic in the extreme. Babyface’s recent solo album, “The Day,” is the work that finally demonstrates he’s more than just a one-man hit factory, an artist with more on his mind than greeting-card sentiment — but it was released after the academy’s Sept. 30 cutoff date for nominations.
So, why watch the Grammys? The tide has turned in some respects. The nominees in the rock and pop categories at least give a passing nod to younger acts that scored significant sales in ’96, such as Oasis, Garbage, Rage Against the Machine, No Doubt and the Wallflowers. Still, it’s lamentable that the academy continues to ignore independent labels, any kind of techno-based or dance music, and in general continues to equate commercial impact with artistic merit. No matter how disparate the choices in some of the categories, the academy remains beholden to the “Jerry Maguire” rule of judging the have’s from the have-not’s: Show me the money. If the music of the Album of the Year nominees was strikingly dissimilar, their commercial success was not; each sold more than a million copies.
A quick look at some of the top nominations:
Record of the Year: The Babyface-Eric Clapton collaboration, “Change the World,” is the safe bet, though Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason” could contest it. But the best of the bunch is the Pumpkins’ sly New Order homage, “1979.”
Album of the Year: Beck’s “Odelay,” the Fugees’ “The Score” and the Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” are all worthy choices, but, again, the winner should be Babyface, the composer-producer behind the diva-inundated “Waiting to Exhale” soundtrack.
Song of the Year: In a lackluster category dominated by the hacks who brought us Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” and LeAnn Rimes’ “Blue,” root for Chapman to win for “Give Me One Reason.”
Best New Artist: What, no Cardigans? In lieu of the subversive Swedish popsters, settle for Garbage over the worthy Tony Rich Project and the not-so-worthy Jewel, No Doubt and country pipsqueak LeAnn Rimes.
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal: In yet another example of the academy’s fixation on honoring past superstars for substandard work, the Beatles get a nomination for their earthbound “Free As a Bird.” Which means it should win in a landslide over even more dubious selections from Journey, Gin Blossoms, the Neville Brothers, the Presidents of the United States of America and Take 6.
Best Pop Album: Yet another yawn. Neo-folkies Tracy Chapman and Shawn Colvin could cancel out the dreaded Dion and Toni Braxton, paving the way for Sting’s lackluster “Mercury Falling.”
Best Hard Rock Performance: Creditable choices all around, with the money on the Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” over Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots.
Best Metal Performance: How could Metallica have been overlooked? The band has won before, remains a commercial juggernaut and its “Load” album is loaded with shards of sharp metal such as “Ain’t My Bitch.” The way is opened for Pantera’s shredding “Suicide Note Pt. 1.”
Best Rock Album: Utterly lame choices include a Bonnie Raitt live album, Neil Young’s most turgid release of the decade (“Broken Arrow”), Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band and No Doubt, and frankly we don’t care who wins and neither should you.
Best Alternative Music Performance: A worthy list of nominees, led by Beck’s “Odelay.”
Best R&B Album: R. Kelly remains blacklisted, even though his self-titled third album stands as this commercially dominant artist’s most refined effort. Still, the nominees are strong, with Curtis Mayfield’s sublime comeback album “New World Order” meriting an award that goes well beyond sentiment.
Best Rap Album: The Fugees’ “Score” can’t miss, though there’s much to love about A Tribe Called Quest’s incisive “Beats, Rhymes and Life” and LL Cool J’s bodaciously bawdy “Mr. Smith.”
Best Country Album: The usual suspects — Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam — as always represent the progressive fringe with little hope of victory, while Brooks & Dunn lead a cavalcade of assembly-line Nashville hitmakers. No wonder country music sales are in decline.
Best Contemporary Blues Album: A duel between perennial favorite Buddy Guy and newcomer Keb’ Mo’. But where are Floyd Dixon, Charles Brown and Alvin Youngblood Hart, who released the most compelling blues of ’96?
Best Contemporary Folk Album: Expect Bruce Springsteen to win for his well-intentioned “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” but Gillian Welch’s “Revival” and Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s “Braver Newer World” are more deserving.
VOTE ON-LINE FOR YOUR GRAMMY FAVORITES
Tired of your favorite songs getting snubbed at the Grammy Awards? Now you can vote for your favorite artist at http://chicago.tribune.com/tempo
Before you make your picks, listen to clips from the top nominated songs and hear Chicago Tribune Rock Critic Greg Kot further explain his picks for the Grammys.
Then check back on Grammy night next Wednesday and compare your picks with the actual winners.
