It will probably not shock anyone that I have no intention of watching the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, which will be broadcast Sunday night.
Heck, I didn’t even know they were supposed to be happening until I came across an article indicating that they took place this weekend while looking for something to write about.
I remember watching the Grammy Awards as a kid, though. I was a bit more in tune with what was popular and probably had someone to root for in all or most categories. I had opinions on who deserved what award and, later, who got robbed for not winning in a category they should have.
This is definitely not the case anymore.
Sure, after the incident at the Oscars last week, I can imagine there will be some people wondering if this awards show will have a controversial moment that can distract us all for a while. Or maybe they’ll just tune in to see what kind of jokes they tell about it.
Frankly, I just don’t care about that. I lost my interest in Will Smith and Chris Rock by Monday evening. If Billie Eilish slaps Justin Bieber at the Grammy Awards Sunday night, it won’t affect me either.
I should explain that I only mentioned those two because I happen to know their names, not because I know anything either one of them has ever produced. Surprisingly, according to a shortlist of nominees up for awards tonight, there are still plenty of names I’m familiar with, but there are more that I either have never heard of or never heard their music. Heck, there are plenty who I’ve heard and simply don’t like.
I’m probably not the only person whose musical tastes stopped evolving around college and whose musical library stopped growing considerably at that point. I’m pretty stuck in my ways, and as such, my Spotify playlists tend to be mostly ’90s music, with few exceptions. My most significant exposure to “new” music is when I’m on my Peloton, and I rarely find myself thinking, “Oh, I like that song” when a song I’ve never heard comes on. I guess I’m just an old dog who can’t seem to learn new tricks. And I’m only 42.
I don’t like being so disconnected from pop culture, but it’s so hard to find anything “new” that I like anymore. But my lack of interest in the Grammys preceded my stunted growth in musical interests.
Like the Oscars, the Grammys lost their appeal to me a long time ago. The fact is, these award shows are so unmemorable that the only things we remember are the controversies. I actually can still remember Billy Joel extending his performance of “River of Dreams” in protest of the Grammys cutting off Frank Sinatra while he was accepting the Grammy Living Legend Award to go to a commercial. “Valuable advertising time going by, valuable advertising time going by,” Joel quipped after looking at his watch. “Dollars, dollars, dollars.”
What else happened that night? Beats me. I can’t say who won Album of the Year or Artist of the Year or whatever—But I remember that performance by Billy Joel. I guess there’s a lesson in that. It’s the controversial moments that we remember more than anything else, not the awards that were given out. Years from now, people will remember Will Smith slapping Chris Rock more than Will Smith winning whatever award he won later that night.
So why bother tuning into something we’ll all forget when, if anything controversial occurs, it’ll be the talk of the nation the following day and the inspiration for countless memes until we all get sick of it. We should all have better things to do with our time—even on a Sunday evening.
