Just caught this article on examiner.com by the beautiful and whacky Erikka Innes
Grammys are Still Out of the Loop on Indie Music
In the article she recoginizes that lack of an independant music face and wonders about the future of the Grammys and independant music as we know it.
I think that award shows are going to have to embrace independant music at some level, or another type of show will pop up in it's place.
As we foray into breaking the incredibly talented, Derek Stroh we cant help but watch the Grammy's and really consider some of the questions that Erikka brings up in this article.
What do you think about the Grammys for independent music?
I think that something like this has to happen eventually. Let's face it the music industry is changing. As Michael Laskow of Taxi calls it we are witnessing the rise of the "Musical Middle Class" and that means that award shows are going to have to adjust.
Should they have an indie music category and include more independent artists?
I think this could be a great option. I mean to create categories based on artists that sell under a certain amount of songs or that do not have a traditional deal may be the way to go.
However let's not forget that what you see on the Grammys show is not all the Grammys being awarded in smaller categories that do not merit television coverage. Like the guy who has won 18 grammys as in the Polka Category, Jimmy Sturr and has never played on the show.
Or do you think of indie as underground - meaning
a submission or win at the Grammys would compromise the whole idea of
being an independent, non-mainstream artist?
I hate that people hate good music just because it's popular Good or great music should rise to the top.Our musical ears in this country are not as sophisticated as they used to be thanks to the lack of musical education but I think the mp3 player and independent music is slowly fixing that problem.
I mean the fact that a kid can download all of Led Zeppelin, Cheryl Crow, Bach and Christina Aguillera and actually list to all of it is great. However it also means that the buffett of music is no longer limited to the top 40.
We are going to see more and more smaller trends of pop culture. Instead of the whole world loving one song. It's going to be a small campus loving one song while another caomus loves another song.
David Kamatoy (www.davidkamatoy.com) and Tony Woodroffe of Noyz Boyz Productions are Co-Producers on the Derek Stroh "Stand" Album project. We invite you to join the email list and subscribe to the blog as you can help uscreate the story of Derek Stroh's journey to a Huge Success.
