DEPTH PERCEPTION

The 2010 Grammy Awards ceremony was held last night and, as usual, mediocrity was the cause for celebration. But you can’t really blame the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization which holds the event and presents the awards. With such a formal name, it is pretty hard to imagine the esteemed members of the Academy are in touch with the vanguard of popular music.

I’m sure they get the award for Best Classical Album right on the mark, but when it comes to current social trends their track record is pretty bad. Consider this: the Beatles, as a group, have only four Grammys while John Mayer already has five. The godfather of funk, James Brown, only has two – one in 1965 and the other in 1986. According to the Academy, Brown apparently didn’t do much musically in the years between those two awards.

The Grammys have always been conservative and fairly out-of-touch. The Awards have about a nine-plus year latency between when a new musical form emerges and when the Academy decides to create a new category to acknowledge it. State’s evidence #1: the first Grammy for a rap album was given in 1988. If the release of Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979 is acknowledged as the official start of rap in the music industry, then it took the Academy nine years to take notice. Plus, they gave the first rap Grammy to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. In 1988 hip-hop was at the beginning of the golden age of conscious hip-hop but the Academy chose instead on the children’s version of rap instead of the real thing.

In the case of electronic dance music, though, the amount of time it took to finally create a category is pretty staggering. Although there was an award for disco back in the ’70s, it took over 20 years for the Academy to realize there was such a thing as electronic dance music. To be fair, the underground nature of the music and the anonymity of its artists have helped to shroud the movement from the establishment. It wasn’t until the late 80′s/early 90′s before there were actual full-length artist albums being released.

But consider this – State’s evidence #2: in 1991, Massive Attack, 808 State and Orbital all released full-length albums. It’s impossible to overstate the impact these albums and these groups had on dance music. But, alas, the Academy wasn’t listening. It wasn’t until 2004 that a Grammy was awarded for best electronic dance music album.

So who won for best elecronic album this year? Gui Boratto? Moderat? Martyn? Not even close. Lady Gaga won the Grammy for her album “The Fame.” Five #1 hits will generally give you an edge. But none of the aforementioned albums were even nominated nor were any of their artistic contemporaries. Instead, we have The Crystal Method and the Pet Shop Boys, two groups that peaked a long time ago, competing against the Lady. Perhaps the Academy felt that the various European Union countries’ awards ceremonies would cover the artistic side of electronic dance music. As for the good ‘ole USA, we have chosen the mysterious chanteuse known as Lady Gaga.

I don’t listen to much radio, or rather, radio that doesn’t stream through my computer. The reasons are obvious, but as a result, until a month ago I wasn’t really sure what Lady Gaga was about. But due to some complicated circumstances, I was able to hear her album about ten times in two weeks. I can safely say that I “get it.” Lady Gaga writes pop songs. They are very catchy – which is what pop music is supposed to achieve. The music, though, is cooky-cutter club music – a bastardization of progressive and electro house. It reminds me of mid-90′s Hi-NRG that you would hear in a gay dance club, but let’s be clear: Ce Ce Pennington this is not.

The final pieces of the concept called Lady Gaga are risque garments (by middle-American standards) and mysterious imagery and iconography. My roommate was telling me that there is a conspiracy theory going around that Lady Gaga is part of the Illuminati (seriously, YouTube it.) I can see how someone could follow this theory since Lady Gaga uses a lot of imagery that draws from the Freemasons and other secret societies – an eye in a triangle, for example. Why the Illuminati would be using a dance pop star to manipulate society is truly beyond me. Maybe they like to dance, too.

Now fully intrigued by this cultural phenomenon, I watched a broadcast of a recent live performance of Lada Gaga’s in London. Before they aired the performance, she was interviewed for British television. Lady Gaga is obviously quite intelligent and she certainly has a talent for writing catchy music. Her persona though is based upon mystery. She even stated as much, saying, to paraphrase, no one will ever know the true Lady Gaga. The performance was solid – I appreciate the fact she doesn’t lip sync and the stage show was fairly interesting.

But as I was taking in her performance, I was struck with an epiphany. I understood what Lady Gaga is. The image and personality are wrapped in mystery to cover up the fact that underneath all the sparkle is just some decent pop music, nothing more, nothing less. If you took away the makeup and the trashy outfits you would have a very talented songwriter who would probably make it to the final three of American Idol.

In the age of the Pussycat Doll, if you are not genetically or surgically gifted in the looks department, the chances of getting a fair listen from the music industry are fairly slim. Lady Gaga seems to have recognized this and flipped the script by hiding her average-Italian-girl face behind a shroud of mystery and glitz. I have to applaud her marketing acumen. She did what she had to do to get a chance, and now she is recognized as having the best electronic dance album in the world.

Lady Gaga’s performance at the Grammys was actually quite interesting in the light of my new insight. The stage was made up to be a run-down Fame Factory with a surreal circus ring performance complete with a Master of Ceremonies. Lady Gaga was then thrown down a chute for apparently breaking the mold of the pop star. But when she returns, she appears with Elton John, each sitting at a piano. The song they sing is about taking someone’s music and then making it your own. The whole thing was quite fantastically ironic, and a smart comment on the state of music in this country.

While I am still shuddering at the fact that she is considered an exceptional electronic dance music artist, I now appreciate the intelligence of Lady Gaga. I am sure her performance was lost on the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In another ten years of so, the powers that be might look back at Lady Gaga and laugh at themselves for having not “gotten it” while they stand in the unemployment line. Perhaps by then, as well, some of the artists who truly are making great electronic dance music will get the recognition they deserve in the country that gave birth to this sound.

written by Jack O’Shaughnessy

Grammy photo courtesy of Gawker