A week ago was the big media spectacle of the Grammy’s. I didn’t watch it and honestly, I’m not at all interested. Still, here two remarkable trends I spotted when viewing all the comments afterwards last week:
Women and aging
Two strong women showed us that aging is not an issue anymore, both in her own way. Madonna still knows how to look young and provocative, all fitting with her American electro-pop theme. The British Anni Lennox has become a jazz-icon and shows gracefully her age. Nowadays, aging women seem to be disposed by the music business. But these two women break the trend! They show us that there are many ways to break this trend.
Quality as songwriter matters
Beck won the Grammy for best album and Kanye West didn’t agree, he thought that Beyoncé deserved it instead. The fact that Beck won instead of Beyoncé showed to me, that even the Academy sometimes puts quality of songswriting above quality of show-entertainment.
Madonna was compared to Annie Lennox, Beck to Beyoncé. Both comparisons lead to nothing. Is Madonna better in dealing with her age than Annie Lennox, or the other way around? Is Beck better than Beyoncé? What criteria do you use, is it the ability to write your own songs or the attractiveness to men?
“Your real job in the world is to be you. Comparing yourself to others hurts you more than anything – it’s poison.” (India Arie)I wasn’t interested in the Grammy’s at all, until I’ve seen the posts on social media. Beck won not only the award, most posts on FB were telling how much he deserved to win the price. Awards are always about comparing one with the other, comparing apples with oranges. As artist we can better use our energy to become better in being ourselves.