Do we need the Grammys? I say we do. If a wall stands between "us" and "them," it's an imperfect, sometimes permeable wall, allowing unexpected visitors from one side to find a place on the other. When that happens on Grammy night, which it sometimes does, it's something to see. |
 | | Álvaro Bernis |
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When it comes to the Grammy Awards, I've taken different positions over the years: I've dismissed them, adamantly opposed them, wanted one for myself (when I was nominated for one) and, some years, missed them entirely, likely because I was changing diapers, looking for work or falling in love, doing the things you do between awards shows. But more recently, something led me to solidify my position. Today I'm prepared to say there's reason enough for the Grammys, however imperfect, disappointing and out of step they can be. That's the argument I make in a guest essay published in Times Opinion today. |
Here's what happened: I was reading someone else's take on the Grammys, a this-institution-has-lost-its-meaning argument. It was nothing new, the kind of polemic you encounter each year around this time. From one perspective, I could get behind it. Then I went to this year's list of nominees, started looking through the various categories, seeing some new ones, taking in the nominees, thinking about the changes that have come over the years, however slowly. |
Last year, this year and hopefully next year, there will be some artist who, because of incremental changes in awards show culture, is going to be Grammys material for the first time ever. That individual will force a stuck door open just a little wider. One part of me, a part I'm coming to like, wants to consider what it means to declare the Grammys a meaningless institution just as that young or old person reaches for their first award. Because when the previously uninvited show up as guests of honor, I think I want to be there. |
I've hung around music, as a writer, a teacher, a musician, because things happen in that world that don't happen anywhere else. It's no utopia, but it's a place where the normal rules don't always apply. The Grammys are slow to reflect how productively disruptive it can get out there, how beautiful it really is. But the Grammys eventually catch up. So, rather than simply declare the building uninhabitable, I want to see when new rooms are made available. I want to see the new tenants and hear the sounds they make. |
| READ WARREN'S FULL ESSAY HERE | | |
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