Grammy awards turn into political paybacks

From MSNBC...

“Most country stations aren’t playing the [Dixie] Chicks, and they aren’t going to start now,” said Jim Jacobs, owner of WTDR-FM, a country radio station in Talladega, Ala.

The awards might have the opposite effect, sparking another radio backlash against the group. Country broadcasters said Monday that the group’s five Grammys show how out of touch the Recording Academy is from the average country fan.

“I think (the listeners) are outraged,” said Tony Lama, program director for KXNP in North Platte, Neb. “This is rural, conservative America. They are just disgusted.”

Speaking of disgusting, check out this line from the MSNBC article...

Country radio may not be ready to embrace them again, but the Grammy runaway suggests that a significant portion of the rest of the country has come around to their way of thinking.

From the official Grammy site...

A GRAMMY is awarded by The Recording Academy's voting membership...

The Academy has three levels of membership available:

VOTING: professionals with creative or technical credits on six commercially released tracks (or their equivalent). These may include vocalists, conductors, arrangers, and other fields directly related to the creative or technical process of producing recordings....

So exactly how are the handful a "professionals with creative or technical credits on six commercially released tracks", the "rest of the country"? I guess to snobby elites like MSNBC anyone not in some form of media are not worth noticing.

Posted by Danny Carlton at February 13, 2007 8:43 AM