I`ve never been a member of NARAS but for years I could always tell something was seriously wrong with that awards show.
I think it goes back all the way to 1980 when Christopher Cross won Best new artist. I was about 19 at the time, and I just couldn`t believe this freggin` Eunuch won, the guy that me and my friends had been ranking on all year was now being praised as the second coming of Christ. And what happened? Not suprisingly he completely disappeared. Why? Because he sucked. Meanwhile we`d go to CBGB`s and be absolutely blown off the floor from some unknown band, but you never heard about any of them.
You know what it is, it`s all about money. Money rules, it always has. Once money comes into the equation, the idiots run amok. They focus more on the cash than the art, and therefore you get the clones and the "commercially acceptable".
They did that back in the `90`s with the whole Grunge thing, 20 gazillion Nirvana clones, they did it back in the `60` with the Beatle clones, and back in the `50`s with the Elvis clones.
This is why I absolutely love the internet, because it completely lays to waste the middle man. It`s literally a direct person to person connection in an instant, and simply by word of mouth a band today can get somewhere without having to suck up to some schmuck looking for the next eunuch sounding Justin Timberlake.
Hopefully the more advanced it gets the more it will lay to waste these incredibly bogus promotions made by organizations like the Grammys and the ten gazillion other back patting awards they give each other for absolute sheet musicians.
bump