Usually the day after the Grammys broadcast, folks gather round the water cooler—or, in the case of my workplace, the bourbon counter—and rip into the winners, performers and presenters. So much fun!
But this year there were unforseen obstacles to this happy tribal ritual. The snow storm that buried Boston had to be talked about. As did Jon Stewart’s surprise retirement announcement (God help and protect us!). And, yes, Brian Williams’ fall from grace due to the conflation of events ping-ponging in his memory. Brutal. But a useful lesson for all of us in the media and I want to take this opportunity to say, for the record, that I have vivid memories of all the times that I was not in Iraq. And even vivider memories of all the times my chopper was never shot up or down. I have never been to Iraq. And I have never been in a helicopter. I will stand by that story. I value your trust in me as a reliable source of generally useless information about music and popular culture. In fact, let’s have a drink after this column—on me.
According to Wikipedia, “conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics…appear to become lost.” Conflating has proven to be not a great thing when reporting the news.
But in the music world, people conflate like rabbits! And the Grammys were no exception. Let’s start with an example that goes right to our brand-obsessed brains: Target’s 4 minute commercial block-that-was-an-Imagine Dragons-cross-promo-concert. Casual viewers like yours truly had no idea what we were seeing (till I read about it the next day).
You could say that I wasn’t paying attention—I mean it just looked like an off-site performance that was somehow part of the Grammys. But No! It was an $8 million commercial for Target hyping the new album from the Dragons that will be in their stores later this month. So clever, engaging the “target” audience in this way. Most critics thought it was a brilliant first. Rolling Stone not so much, writing, “It’s difficult to spoil a commercial break, but this year, Target and Imagine Dragons rose to the occasion.” Maybe they didn’t like being duped by the conflation of the awards show and the commercial break. Tricky territory in my view.
As viewers and listeners we’re used to the unusual pairing & ganging of artists on stage and on record. It was all over the map on Grammy night, with generally inspired results. Remember, each of these performers is his or her own brand. When they step out of the identity we know, they can either burnish or tarnish that brand.
I liked legendary crooner/belter Tom Jones paired with pop dance diva Jessie J for “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” They killed it—Ms. J got to firmly establish her vocal cred in a grand venue and Mr. Jones got to show why the ladies probably still wanna toss their intimate apparel up on his stage.
A similar branding story for the odd couple, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, who won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album with “Cheek To Cheek.” He gets the exponentially bigger audience, she gets respect for her musicianship and vocal chops. Brand aid!
Enough of the older man shit—let’s bring out the older woman! Annie Lennox blew the roof off the Staples Center in her duet with Hozier on his “Take Me To Church” seguing into Annie’s cover of “I Put A Spell On You.” Scorching. I got chills seeing and hearing her and it was fun to see the baby divas in the audience clap and cheer in appreciation.
And then….the inevitable inscrutable. On stage singing her new single “FourFiveSeconds,” Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney! What?? Here’s the video. Felt like Sir Paul should be on the OTHER side of that camera. WARNING: Conflation may, under certain circumstances, result in inflation of the head, which may result in deflation of the ego.
PS: here are the credited writers of “FourFiveSeconds”: Kanye West, McCartney, Kirby Lauryen, Mike Dean, Ty Dolla Sign, Dave Longstreth, Dallas Austin, Elon Rutberg, and Noah Goldstein. That’s almost as many as it takes to write a :30!
Lyle Greenfield is the founder of Bang Music and past president of the Association of Music Producers (AMP)
