I went to the Grammy Awards last year. I don’t write that to flex. It was something that was only peripherally on my radar until I joined the Recording Academy in 2022 and realized attending the ceremony was within the realm of possibility. A lot of people close to me who’d joined the academy the same year (as part of their push to fill their ranks with a younger and more ethnically diverse pool) wanted to go as well, and truthfully, the best part of the experience was spending time with them. The ceremony itself was fine, and I’m grateful for the experience. It’s a nice thing to cross off the bucket list-even if it wasn’t really on the bucket list to begin with. But I’d have gotten a much better view, and I’d have spent a lot less money watching the ceremony at home. And I’m not even sure I’ll be doing that when the ceremony airs tomorrow night.
I’ve felt like I’m aging out of a lot of things lately. I probably aged out of being incredibly interested in any music award show 7 or 8 years ago. The last time I watched the Grammys live (without attending the show) was maybe 2018 or 2019? Kendrick performed (I know, that doesn’t really narrow it down) and my buddy Shane invited me over to watch. Hell, I’m not even sure I would’ve tuned in had I not been asked to watch with a friend.
Anyway, let’s be real: most of the musicians I’d be super gung-ho about seeing are old, dead, or I’ve seen them already. Sure, I like Taylor. I like SZA. I’m just kinda starting to discover Olivia Rodrigo, and she’s okay. But none of them really feels like my kind of artist. I wouldn’t pay $50 to see any of them in concert, and I’m not super excited to see them on TV unless I have something better to do. Some of it is age, some of it is I’m jaded (I’ll readily cop to that) and some of it is the fact that most of us have other (if not better) things to do rather than spend three or four hours parked in front of the TV for an awards show. Very few award shows are consistently entertaining the whole way through. Even when I was a kid watching the Grammys, there were inevitably periods when I would get up and pour myself a bowl of cereal, or even switch the channel for a few minutes to see what else was on TV. To put a person in that same position years later, when there’s endless competition for attention and you can watch the highlights on the internet at your leisure?
I’m not gonna shit on the institution, though. As flawed as the idea of awarding something as the “best” when “best” is an entirely subjective thing, there are a lot of great memories I associate with the show. One of my earliest memories is seeing The Doobie Brothers perform “What a Fool Believes” on the show back in 1980 (I can still remember my grandmother asking why Michael McDonald looked like he was eating the microphone). I was so keyed up from watching Michael Jackson sweep in 1984 that I couldn’t sleep afterwards. I was similarly heartbroken when he got swept four years later (although on the real, I don’t know that he was my favorite in any of the categories he was nominated in). The first time I saw Sinead O’ Connor perform? The Grammys. First time I saw Metallica perform? Grammys. Hell, I met my buddy Dustin because I would live tweet award shows from a chat room and they would join me there as I made quippy comments about the performances, win choices and fashion. Maybe the best way to wrap it all up was to finally just go to the damn thing.
(and almost as if to prove my commitment to not attend this year, I had to go to LA for business earlier this week and I busted out of Dodge first thing Friday morning, having only had to attend one Grammy party. If you’re conscious of your social battery-like I am becoming-Grammy week is kinda one endless schmooze, and for people like me who are not naturally extroverted, it can be fucking exhausting. Another reason I’m glad to not be going.)