Favorite all time piece of music in any vein, fourth movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony. Moves me to tears every time. Second would be the Hallelujah Chorus.

(01-27-2014 11:17 AM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 10:55 AM)Hoopla Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 10:26 AM)Willie Becton Wrote:  one more thought.

I'm so happy I've not seen a thread lauding the grammys.
The whole thing seems so ridiculous to me.

They are awarded for commercial success, not quality or technical achievement or any other superlative reason. And that tells you all you need to know.

that's not true at all. many of last night's winners were not the highest sellers...one didn't even have a label when the album was out. the industry votes on the winners - there are way more voters in the technical aspect of the biz than the artistic.

You may be right, but in the past "the industry votes on the winners" meant "commercial success". That's when I stopped watching or caring. But if that has changed, good. It needed to change.

ahhh but who does the nominations?
The voters can only vote for those who are nominated.

(01-27-2014 11:58 AM)Willie Becton Wrote:  ahhh but who does the nominations?
The voters can only vote for those who are nominated.

Again, all of the voting members of the Recording Academy, which includes any artists OR technical people make the nominations.

Ballots are sent out months before the awards are given, and you write in who you want to nominate. Then another ballot is sent out after that with the nominees, and you vote on them.

So yes, in order to get to the top of that heap, you DO have to have some sort of commercial success....which is as it should be; otherwise no one would know the album existed aside from the 15 people who worked on it & their families (who aren't voting).

(01-27-2014 11:50 AM)Hoopla Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 11:17 AM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 10:55 AM)Hoopla Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 10:26 AM)Willie Becton Wrote:  one more thought.

I'm so happy I've not seen a thread lauding the grammys.
The whole thing seems so ridiculous to me.

They are awarded for commercial success, not quality or technical achievement or any other superlative reason. And that tells you all you need to know.

that's not true at all. many of last night's winners were not the highest sellers...one didn't even have a label when the album was out. the industry votes on the winners - there are way more voters in the technical aspect of the biz than the artistic.

You may be right, but in the past "the industry votes on the winners" meant "commercial success". That's when I stopped watching or caring. But if that has changed, good. It needed to change.

This is how it's always been - the results vary from year to year, just as the music that comes out from year to year varies, and the members choosing to send in their ballots varies.

how are the nominations approved? couldn't there conceivably be hundreds of nominations in each category?
I'm legitimately curious. I've never been interested in awards shows so I never cared to find out

(01-27-2014 12:22 PM)Willie Becton Wrote:  how are the nominations approved? couldn't there conceivably be hundreds of nominations in each category?
I'm legitimately curious. I've never been interested in awards shows so I never cared to find out

You know the boring part of the shows that show the two business people holding a briefcase? they literally crunch the numbers - they narrow down the top X number of nominees for each category they receive.

Sure, you can get hundreds of nominees, but there are a handful that always rise to the top.

A few years ago, Adele was everyone's darling...they may have put their own pet project on their ballot for something, but Adele got on there in some way, because it was a damn good album.

Same thing happened for Daft Punk this year, and I dare say it got more support from the "older" block of industry voters because of the involvement Niles Rodgers had with it.

The voting block is VERY extensive. I worked with a couple of voters for almost 20 years....one was because of his musical contributions, one for production, and one was a graphic designer. To give it an older reference, if you are in the "liner notes" of an album (as someone who worked on it in one way or another) that has been released within the past 5 years, and can still be purchased online or in a physical store, you can apply to be a voting member. You can also vote if you've been nominated for a Grammy within the past 5 years.

Finally, if you don't meet all of the above criteria, you can apply to be endorsed by voting members - two current voting members have to vouch for you, as well as a whole separate committee in one of the local chapters (there are currently 12 chapters nationwide - Memphis has one of them).

Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Bach, I have several others. Remember these guys were the rock stars of their day.

(01-27-2014 12:27 PM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 12:22 PM)Willie Becton Wrote:  how are the nominations approved? couldn't there conceivably be hundreds of nominations in each category?
I'm legitimately curious. I've never been interested in awards shows so I never cared to find out

You know the boring part of the shows that show the two business people holding a briefcase? they literally crunch the numbers - they narrow down the top X number of nominees for each category they receive.

Sure, you can get hundreds of nominees, but there are a handful that always rise to the top.

A few years ago, Adele was everyone's darling...they may have put their own pet project on their ballot for something, but Adele got on there in some way, because it was a damn good album.

Same thing happened for Daft Punk this year, and I dare say it got more support from the "older" block of industry voters because of the involvement Niles Rodgers had with it.

The voting block is VERY extensive. I worked with a couple of voters for almost 20 years....one was because of his musical contributions, one for production, and one was a graphic designer. To give it an older reference, if you are in the "liner notes" of an album (as someone who worked on it in one way or another) that has been released within the past 5 years, and can still be purchased online or in a physical store, you can apply to be a voting member. You can also vote if you've been nominated for a Grammy within the past 5 years.

Finally, if you don't meet all of the above criteria, you can apply to be endorsed by voting members - two current voting members have to vouch for you, as well as a whole separate committee in one of the local chapters (there are currently 12 chapters nationwide - Memphis has one of them).

Very insightful. Thanks. I feel like there should be less ways of obtaining a vote.

(01-27-2014 02:08 PM)KRB Wrote:  Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Bach, I have several others. Remember these guys were the rock stars of their day.

would they have received grammys in their times is apparently the question now?
haha

(01-27-2014 02:25 PM)Willie Becton Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 02:08 PM)KRB Wrote:  Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Bach, I have several others. Remember these guys were the rock stars of their day.

would they have received grammys in their times is apparently the question now?
haha

Liszt would have. Rock star of his time.

The closest I ever got to enjoying classical music was some of Rick Wakeman's solo work.

I always like chamber music better than full symphony. Less is more maybe?


Shostakovich

I took music appreciation at U of M and at one of the concerts I attended for the class a string quartet played one of his pieces and it blew my socks off along with a Beethoven one.

do you recall the Beethoven piece?

(01-27-2014 02:25 PM)Willie Becton Wrote:  

(01-27-2014 02:08 PM)KRB Wrote:  Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, Bach, I have several others. Remember these guys were the rock stars of their day.

would they have received grammys in their times is apparently the question now?
haha

No, it would go to Taylor Swift, or those Robot Dudes.

If you guys have never heard it, Max Bruch's Variations on the Kol Nidrea is stunning.
I'm a big fan of chamber music as well.....though Barber's "Adagio for Strings" IMHO sounds better with a full orchestra even though it was written for a string quartet.

(01-28-2014 08:08 AM)oldmangrizz Wrote:  The closest I ever got to enjoying classical music was some of Rick Wakeman's solo work.

So you never watched old cartoons back in the black and white TV days? A lot of those cartoons were made using classical music?

(01-29-2014 02:10 AM)SayWhat? Wrote:  

(01-28-2014 08:08 AM)oldmangrizz Wrote:  The closest I ever got to enjoying classical music was some of Rick Wakeman's solo work.

So you never watched old cartoons back in the black and white TV days? A lot of those cartoons were made using classical music?

lot of looney tunes as well

Motzart...Vivaldi.

(01-28-2014 02:20 PM)Willie Becton Wrote:  do you recall the Beethoven piece?

Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4

I had to look up my old report I had in my files. It's a good one.