David Farrell
The Grammy Awards reversed the trend of declining viewership on Sunday night by uncorking a three-hour extravaganza that tossed propriety in the gutter and brazenly packaged stars as voyeuristic entertainment.

When women weren’t flashing their extremities, the tenor of the night screamed out ‘we are the world, we are rich, we are famous – and aren’t we beautiful!’. It was vulgarity without conscience, a pageant that perhaps marked the end of an era for music’s relevance in a complex world. It was a show that missed umpteen opportunities to correct perceptions that music today is anything more than a back-beat for vulgarity, misogyny and sexual recklessness.

Lacking were role models messaging the world that music’s superstars and the industry behind them care about the plight of so many unfortunates that have become marginalized, downsized, unemployed, homeless and without hope. Yes, Haiti was mentioned, but it was merely word substitution for AIDS, Africa or whatever buzz charity happens to be making the rounds that month in any given year.

Missing were appreciative sentiments freely given to assuage the declining value of longstanding music retailers that continue to stock CDs and dispense free advice to a customer base that increasingly finds what it wants for free online. The music industry continuously bickers with iTunes over Apple’s download pricing policy, and yet the only retailer mentioned Sunday night was iTunes. It’s as if indepenendent music retailers just don’t matter. One can only imagine the reception record companies will receive when next they call on Amazon or Costco.

Absent from the stage were performances by Susan Boyle and Michael Buble, unarguably two of the hottest selling album artists anywhere today. Very evident was Taylor Swift’s limited ability to sing and strum at the same time. Her evident indifference in having Stevie Nicks harmonize with her on ‘Rihanna’ was either  unfathomable rudeness or blatant stupidity. Someone suggested kindly to me that it is possible  Goldilocks s might not know who Nicks is. If so, it doesn’t change a thing.

The Grammy ratings may have spiked considerably, but the ethos spun was largely flash lacking substance. In presenting music today as some sort of down-market burlesque show, the end result can only be moral chastisement and decaying irrelevance in a complex world.

The Grammy Awards on Sunday were nothing more than a carnal feast of self-centred insipidness. America’s beautiful applauding themselves as we watched. Beyond the gliterati another world exists, and frankly I’m not entirely sure that outside world is as captivated by their gloating narcissism as they think we are.

And, by the bye, who is your teenage daughter dry humping with her ear buds  on these days?