Segunda-feira 23 Dez 2013, 10h:33
It's that time again, the music industry's annual show where they crown what they believe is the greatest music ever which 99.9% of the population will literally disagree with. I could go more into the big mistake with the selected pop album up for Album of the Year and all, but I wanted to focus on a bigger issue.
Rock music.
Yes…Rock music….
Earlier this year, a certain Radioactive made noise across radio stations. My local rock station that once relied on playing a ton of modern rock like Disturbed, Three Days Grace, and Godsmack, decided to start playing Radioactive. Despite having nothing to do with nu metal, post-grunge, and hard rock, the song got mass overplay on the station…and I mean massive overplay. This song literally changed the radio format on the station as suddenly songs that they would never ever play like Sail, Cough Syrup, Madness, 1901, even freakin Fall Out Boy with their 2013 hit My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up) was literally added on to the station. Songs by Disturbed, Three Days Grace, Godsmack got lowered. Limp Bizkit vanished from the station. And when competition from a new alternative station appeared, the station changed up their sound even more by bringing in bands the station ignored and breached into even more classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Aerosmith (hard rock bands like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Guns N' Roses had already been played on the station for the longest time). So it feels like rock music is changing. Perhaps with the changing sound, the grammies would start to acknowledge it.
Instead, we're trapped in the stone age. Well, yeah, Queens of the Stone Age is up for rock album of the year but…
For rock album of the year, we got releases from David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Neil Young, and ….Led Zeppelin?
Yes…while Bowie and Sabbath can be let go as their albums did generate noise this year, the others are iffy. Specifically when a live album of a recording of 2007 is up for rock album of the year.
Ladies and gentlemen…we are literally trapped in the stone age. What does this mean? It mean Jimi Hendrix recording a special concert in the 60s…it's found from the vault, remastered and released as an album in 2015…it could literally win rock album of the 2015 despite being recorded centuries ago. Is this the message we should be sending out about rock music?
And don't give me this bullshit that "ROCK IS CRAP RIGHT NOW WETH NACKLEBACK". Seriously, Nickelback hasn't done much other than releasing a Greatest Hits album. Bands like QOTSA, Muse, The Black Keys, Tame Impala, Arcade Fire (who would have been up for album of the year if it was released during the eligibility period so it'll be in 2015 instead of next year's award show), and Vampire Weekend have been making some noise (but the grammies place them in the Alternative album category which IMO is no longer needed).
Of the 6 albums up for best rock album, only 2 albums is from a band/artist originating from the 90s and beyond (QOTSA/Kings of Leon). Everyone else (Sabbath, Bowie, Zeppelin, Neil Young) are all from the classic rock era. The main noises in rock have been placed in the unnecessary alternative album category.
And how bout Best Rock Song where we have stuff from Sabbath, Paul McCartney (w/Dave Grohl's gang), and look…The Rolling Stones. Seriously, I give up.
And Best Metal Performance has been overly biased towards older acts in the last few years. Since 2005, most of the winners have been older acts (Motorhead, Metallica, Slayer, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden) with most new acts rarely win (last year was an bizzare year that saw Halestorm beat Iron Maiden when hard rock and metal was combined). But because of relying on giving the award to old acts, they deny new and rising metal acts a chance at getting a grammy…Machine Head, Mastodon, Lamb of God, and Dream Theater. This year Sabbath is bound to win it because they are Sabbath. I mean, Killswitch Engage, Volbeat w/ King Diamond, and Dream Theater are up for the award, but might not be stronger than Sabbath this year so I won't really blast this award, but the show needs to start looking at newer acts to carry the legacy on.
And this is probably why there isn't a rock album up for album of the year this year. 2 hip-hop albums, and one electronic album from Daft Punk which I honestly hope wins the AOTY category. Rock is on the sidelines. It's time to get some younger talent into the grammy committee and advance rock forward.