BLOG 67 The 52nd Annual Grammys: Grand Spectacle But Geezer-Phobic.
The 52nd annual event Grammy Awards celebrates and recognizes the world of recorded music. Most of the actual awards though, were off camera, on webcast, or at an earlier time and venue. This kept the Grammy Awards Show with its the music and production numbers mesmerizingly exciting, fast-paced, sexy -- or, in Pink's case, transcendent in its erotic beauty -- and clearly female dominated -- Beyoncé went Gaga in a Swift, Pink moment.
Oh, yes, and humongously youthful. True, Steven Colbert was the designated host. But this 40something was gone in 60 seconds, except for a brief return to pick up his Comedy Grammy.
Youthful is a no brainer in televised award shows nowadays. In this iPod-YouTube era the 12-24 yr. old demo is the head water of the most readily disposable, easily pried and plucked revenue stream, the group which buys, steals or pirates most of the pop music.
It makes sense to skew the show toward them and even to reduce the dreaded geezer presence. But to such an extreme? Reduce them basically to little more than a series of paired associates, i.e., one yesterday paired with one today or tomorrow. For example, Elton John and Lady GaGa, 
Roberta Flack and Maxwell, Stevie Nix and Taylor Swift,
Andrea Bocelli and Mary Blige (although that was as much for classical- opera- quarantine as it was for age.)
Most absurdly, there was this apparent fear that the youth in the TV audience couldn't override a reflexive, ADHD reaction to the idea of 7-time Grammy winner, 69-year old opera tenor Placido Domingo announcing the classical music award by himself - alone - nothing to offset ... careful now, I say to myself, ... Placido's AARP visual bona fides. So, they teamed him with younger, classically trained tenor Mos Def.
This, presumably in the spirit of the Grammy's previously touted Grammy Salute to Classical Music." (Really? Who? When? Where? What Salute?)
Def seemed a little awed by Domingo. 
Tongue-tied. Natural, I suppose, given Domingo's operatic stature and domination of -- Wait a minute! (cupping my hand to my ear)! ... I'm told that Def is not a trained opera singer. He's an actor. Doesn't even like opera. Never heard of Domingo until last night. How can that be? -- Wait! (again ear-cupping) ... I'm told Def is popular with some of the members of Black-eyed Peas. That's only one degree of separation from the youth demo. Close enough to do the job. Whew!
But it's getting dicey out there in Grammyland. I tell you, guys like Jamie Foxx, who performed that spirited (and dismal, chaotic homage to opera), better watch out because, I don't know about you but to me Jaimie was lookin' a little long in the tooth, 
almost as old as young-old as Jon Bon Jovi (does Jon have an aging painting of himself in the closet which absorbs the years?).
If the Grammy youth march continues apace, Mr. Jamie Fox may not be allowed on stage next year without a performing fetus beside him.
In the long run the Grammy's Gulaging older or classical music award recipients and pairing most over-30 performers may be a double-edged sword. You get ratings, yes. But if there's no bold, mass mediated, unabashed respect for pioneers and stars on whose shoulders today's celebrities stand, they and we are the poorer.
If there's no appreciation for music and voices that speak to the history of human art and culture and not just to pop, current, immediate culture, young people will be quite ignorant of how humanity's music unfolded and who created and who pushed the envelopes.
What is music? What is culture? What are the canvasses of options? For most people, if it's not on TV, it's not part of history. Maybe it never really happened.
If it's not portrayed on shows like the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys, which are designed to recognize the best and the worthwhile, for many it will never qualify for either.
An art's media invisibility denudes the aesthetic music palette. It leaves only youth's pleasing comfort zone, the edgy or the explicit sexual aesthetic.
In the end, how many crotches can you grab without getting carpal tunnel syndrome?
