THE GRAMMYs - THE GONGS, THE SONGS AND LARA'S VERDICT

LARA IN THE FAB HOUSE!

It is awards season and last night we had the Grammys. THE top music award show. Twitter, facebook, the news, blogs were ablaze with the news of Lady Gaga erupting from her "egg". I think we have lost the essence of the Grammys and what it means. All everyone ever focuses on are what the artists wore and what mad antics they got up too.

The Grammys are the equivalent of the Oscars to the music industry. At least with the Oscars, we pay as much attention to the actual awards as we do to the stars and their clothes. With Oscars, it's truly about participation as just to be a nominee is kudos enough, much less actually winning. With the Grammys, nobody pays attention to the winners or nominees anymore. Who can tell me what the nominees for (I'll make it an easy one)  best R&B vocals? Male or female? Or even any of the urban music category winners? Ok, song of the year? Record/album of the year? Yet - I bet we all know what Lady Gaga did! We've all had a comment about what Nicki Minaj wore - hate it or love it. 

Granted, the Grammys are over long with too many absurd categories now (2011 had 109 categories - many of which aren't shown on TV), and their cut-off date for eligibility means you get albums that you've forgotten about creeping into the fray with more recent/hip music. Plus let's face it, it's still a popularity contest, right? But really? Is that right? Record of the year was Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now". Really? That beat "Empire State of Mind"? Or B.O.B's "Nothing on You", Eminem & Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" or Cee Lo's "F*** you"? Those songs were all played to death across the globe! "Need You Now" not soo much. Album of the Year was The Surburbs by Arcade Fire. Granted I haven't heard it so can't comment on whether it's good or not. Probably because I've never heard of Arcade Fire. The Fame Monster though - yeah I have and it's pretty good. Katy Perry's Teenage Dream not soo much. Usher won a Grammy for "There Goes my Baby"? Really? Are you kidding me? Beating Kem and Jaheim? Even worse Raymond v Raymond won best R&B album? (Gagging all over the place at the memory of the assault of that tosh on my ears)

That being said, congratulations to Bruno Mars, Herbie Hancock with Pink, India Arie, Seal and the others (amazing song btw), Rihanna, Michael Buble, Them Crooked Vultures (will always love Dave Grohl and anything he does), Muse, Fantasia, Sade (the most deserving in my opinion), Cee Lo, John Legend & The Roots, Jay-Z & Swizzy (woo - on to the next one!), Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum (for the country performance. I don't agree with the record of the year win as I said before), Bebe & Cece Winans, Buju Banton, Ali Farka Toure, Julie Andrews, Jon Stewart, Danger Mouse (Producer of the year) - for winning in their various categories. Apologies for the others I didn't mention, I either don't like you or don't know you. 

Well done as well to the nominees that didn't win.  I'm most upset for John Mayer. Battle Studies was a brilliant album but only won one award and an obscure one at that for Best Engineered Album, despite being nominated countless times. 

Win or lose - I hope all the nominees enjoy their success and the  recognition of their efforts. There will hopefully be millions like me who may never have heard of some winners like Esperanza Spalding, but their shock wins will thrust them into the limelight and will generate more album or at least concert ticket sales. I shall be definitely be checking her and Arcade Fire out. That's how I discovered the Dave Matthews Band last year, and my life is much better for it. 

Hope you all discover some amazing music this week! 

P.S - Did you guys know they give out Grammys for Best Album Notes?? Hahaha - now that's one to aim for! 

WALKING DOWN NOSTALGIA LANE

LARA IN THE HOUSE! 

This week, I'm buckling down into work mode. I have too many balls in the air, so I have to be focused. As we are ramping up for the music issue and as I've needed to concentrate, I've been listening to a lot of music. 

Yes I'm one of those people who needs to listen to music to concentrate and zone out the world. Some people might find it strange, especially if you need to study or have a lot of reading to do, but I guess my brain is wired that way. I constantly need a different stimulus to keep my brain active and ticking. It's all about the right kind of music as well.

My slant on music this week is actually going to feature on the gizmos. I remember listening to the radio as a child and dubbing my favourite songs on to cassette tapes. I had a collection of my favourite tapes and kept them with care so the brown sticky tape wouldn't rip. Back in those days, you had to flip the tape to the other side to listen to the rest of the album. If you were a little hasty or hadn't let the cassette finish playing/rewinding, you could end up with that dreaded chewed up tape sound, skipping past your favourite bits. (If the tape even played at all after that!)

I remember my first Walkman. I really felt like the shiznit! Lol. I kinda got in late so by the time I was rocking mine, people had moved on the Discman! Whoa! The invention of CDs! Who remembers their first CD? I think the first disc I owned was Celine Dion. My mum bought it for me with the Discman so I couldn't complain. However I rinsed that disc and played it to bits! "It's all coming back to me now..." Lol. I wish I could claim I was cooler and say my first album was Tupac or Biggie or something classic. Years later though, I finally started buying my own music and my first purchase was the Destiny's Child Album. 

Then came the invention of CD writers and MP3s! One of my guy friends bought the early first generation MP3 players - which used a mini disk! Hahaha! He paid the earth for it and it never quite caught on! I learned a valuable lesson that still holds me till now: Never buy first generation toys; they are always super expensive and the technology gets old very quickly! 

It's funny we've moved from Walkmans to Discmans to mini-disks and finally proper MP3s and iPods. I am not even going to talk about those big 10/12 inch record players. I'm way too young to know about those things beyond seeing them in a museum (Erm, have I said I'm 24? Lol). I kinda feel sorry for the industries that got left behind. Who buys CDs anymore? And what do you play them on these days? Do DJs still use them? Let's not even talk about other MP3 players - iPods have taken over and are now a new genre in themselves!

I feel sorry for all those little record shops. They had such character! I would pore over different artists and records and spend ages discovering new music. Now itunes/bit torrent (shush - don't judge me) gives me super easy access that leaves me with a slightly disconnected aftertaste. Nowadays rather than racing out for new music, I wait for months before doing big downloads of albums for my iPod. Oh well... I save my appreciation and money for concerts. I would pay anything to see some of my favourite artists perform. I am still saddened that I never got to see MJ. I got tickets for day 5 of his O2 arena show. It would have been awesome. 

Apologies - I've sorta rambled on a bit. Please leave a comment and share your 1st album stories. Would be interesting to see if anyone else is cheesier than me. Next week if I'm still on the music tangent, I'll go over some of my favourite concerts/live performances ever. 

Have a FABulous week all! 

Lara. Xx