The "so called artists" that the major labels shove down your throats on the Grammy's, yes, they can be a talentless bunch, especially the hip hop crowd, they've simply exhausted their genre, and they're becoming cartoons of themselves, the angel sketch last night proved it - the music is less important now than the image. But it's okay, it's the same thing that happened to metal in the 90's, to grunge after that, then boy bands - the music industry goes in cycles, and right now it's in the valley of the cycle.
Trust me, tho, there are PLENTY of great musicians and artists out there, on indie labels. That's where the action is these days, all the good stuff went back underground for a while, it'll come back some day. There are some great, solid, heavy hitting hard rocks acts out there just starting out, that you will never hear on Clear Channel radio stations and on MTV...at least for now. There's great singers and songwriters out there, plying their trade in small clubs, on self-produced albums and small indie labels.
Heck, even a lot of the great bands of the 70's, 80's, 90's, and even the 00's are on smaller labels now, after being dropped from the majors. The majors have been dropping acts like crazy with all the mergers and such, and the way of the future will be an act will progress and grow in the indies, and then get picked up by the majors when they're a proven success - much like baseball, you now have the minors, and "the show". The majors are'nt interested in molding new acts and letting the mature over several releases - hell, they only release a new album by a lot of their top acts every 2 years or so, when back in the day, a Led Zeppelin, or Elton John could release on, two, or even three albums a year, and tour between.
No, to get the good stuff these days you have to avoid Clear Channel, MTV, and the Grammys, and start digging into the indy labels, and your local clubs. Even Apple is wise to this, and is adding indy label albums to the iTunes store, there's some GREAT stuff on there from bands you never heard of, and never will hear of if you rely on the media these days.
Please don't do that.
If someone is curious, they can always click the "To #, that is placed in blue at the bottom of your post. (When you click on the "To #, you will instantly go to the original post that you are referring to)
Quoting the whole message means that your point gets lost...it takes up too much space and, to be honest, it's downright annoying.
Most of the over-hyped groups on the Grammys are talent-deficit flashes in the pan whose only saving grace is that they will be back waitressing or tending bar within a couple of years. Look at Britney: what has she had, four albums? And it's obviously pretty much over: sales falling, creative stagnation, moving off to crank out babies with her trailer trash hubby. Now, look at the groups of the past, like one of my faves, the Kinks. When their fourth album came out, they'd been recording for less than two years, they were still doing R&B covers, and most of their greatest work, from "Lola" to "Come Dancing," was still years or decades ahead of them. Can you imagine most of the people you saw at the Grammys still being around 15 years from now and showing that kind of artistic growth?
The only band I saw that impressed me was Los Lonely Boys: they could actually write catchy songs and play and sing them live. That used to be the minimum requirement for professional musicians, but now, it's like witnessing a miracle.
Thanks for your info about finding decent music, but these days I just listen to talk shows, there are no more real artists that can perform decent music. Talk shows are fine with me.