I won’t watch the Grammys this year not because I am boycotting it or didn’t care, just too busy.
But the lack of recognition to Natalie Cole and Earth Wind and Fire leaves me a bit confused.
I have friends who are recipients of this esteemed award that I respect greatly. My concern is more with our society as a whole and how it disregards the importance of music, art and its influence on our culture. The ability to actively listen has been thwarted by a 3.5 minute musical regurgitation of an emotionally constipated world.
We as musicians blame society for so many things, but in order to survive ourselves we must conform to a model that has been set in place for decades, a model that is no longer effective for consumer or entrepreneur, not to mention those artists who are struggling to get their music heard.
I would love to say something like “support local music” but it goes deeper than that. We as a society have accepted whatever the music industry gives us and then we blame them, the music industry, for putting out “Bad” music.
But we buy it – every time we hear a commercial, when we choose to not search for new artist, and [not] support new music endeavors.
We are victims of our own crime.
Music education in schools has become non-existent, even after research has shown how beneficial it is for developing young minds.
Parents are stressed and just happy to have their kids in a decent school, even if music is not on the menu. We take it out of our society and overlook its purpose, then we wonder why our society has such a lack of empathy, not to mention Respect for such an amazing art form.
Vincent Johnson on Fb, 2/15/16
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SUPER BOWL 50: LADY GAGA WAS SO AWESOME, FEW NOTICED UNUSUAL DETAILS
At Super Bowl 50, Lady Gaga wore a sparkling red Gucci suit, and heavily applied matching red glitter eye-shadow. As a slightly unusual contrast, her nails were painted a shimmering dark blue. However, her face was not heavily made up. Other than her eyeshadow, she had a wholesome, almost fresh scrubbed beauty to her skin, and there was no red or dark lipstick, either. The only things that really did not match were her shoes. Well, they matched her outfit and nail polish, but not each other.
The Huffington Post explains that for Super Bowl 50, Lady Gaga chose a pair of American flag-inspired, custom Gucci shoes, specifically made not to match at all. One shoe was blue, while the other was red and white, but both sported little silver panther head shoe toppers. Perhaps Mama Monster was trying to bring Cam Newton and friends a little luck, but unfortunately, lucky shoes were not enough to influence the outcome of the game.
For Super Bowl 50, Lady Gaga created and sang her own special rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner,” before a full house in one of the largest stadiums in North America. The biggest TV audience of the year also watched from their homes, all around the world. It was an amazingly flawless performance, and a tough act to follow, as both Carolina Panthers and Coldplay found out a little later.
Overall, Lady Gaga not only looked stunning as usual, she was absolutely beautiful. Her face was positively radiant against her platinum blond hair. Something was also very different about her overall persona. It was a side of Lady Gaga most fans had never seen. She treated the song with a respect akin to reverence, and the style of her musical arrangement was slightly reminiscent of gospel music. Her voice conveyed great meaning and significance to the centuries-old lyrics.
The Super Bowl 50 Lady Gaga performance exceeded all expectations, as she displayed tremendous vocal range and perfect enunciation. She scored higher than either team, at least in the hearts and minds of awestricken football fans. It seems that no one really knew that the Lady could sing quite that well.
Lady Gaga’s “Star Spangled Banner” arrangement was absolutely stunning, and her voice was pitch perfect. The song is known for its difficult high notes. It takes incredible range to be able to sing the national anthem correctly, but Lady Gaga took that high note even higher, with a an amazing little flourish that thrilled virtually everyone who watched Super Bowl 50.
#SuperBowl50LadyGaga tweets reflected the amazement of virtually all listeners, whether famous or not, and whether musically talented or not. In an odd coincidence, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Gene Simmons chose the word “solid” to express their appreciation of Lady Gaga’s amazing voice, while others were a bit more descriptive of their emotions. Many said it brought tears to their eyes.
Gene Simmons tweeted: Lady GaGa did a solid job of singing the national anthem for Super Bowl. Impressive.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: That was solid. @ladygaga did a hell of a job.
Super Bowl 50 was Lady Gaga’s highest honor and a dream come true, according to Entertainment Weekly. She took her job very seriously, finding great meaning in the lyrics and a great challenge in its melody.
Lady Gaga explained, this is “one of the highest honors of my career.”
“I have to live up to a song that stands the test of time. I think the best way to do that is kind of forget about yourself and just focus on what it means.”
One cannot argue that it is a great honor to be asked to sing at the Super Bowl. It is a really awesome opportunity, not only for wide exposure to showcase talent, but also to become part of a great American tradition.
At Super Bowl 50, Lady Gaga performed the National Anthem, and that became part of American History.
[Original article contains photos and videos of the event.]