Jay Cronley: Singing may not be for everyone
BY JAY CRONLEY World Staff Columnist
Sunday, February 10, 2013
2/10/13 at 4:41 AM
The Grammy awards, short for gramophone, are tonight.
"Bangarang" by Skrillex, "Based on a T.r.u. Story" by 2 Chainz, "Mylo Xyloto" by Coldplay, "God Forgives, I don't" by Rick Ross - all your favorites and then some will be up for kudos and standing ovations.
The current state of the music business mirrors other creative endeavors like writing, dance, architecture, film making, oil painting. It doesn't age so well. Tributes, like the one scheduled tonight for Levon Helm, play best.
Reflections of the music business are currently being offered by two television shows, "Smash" and "Nashville."
Games of musical beds dominate the singing time on both.
"Nashville" and "Smash" are where the "Glee" kids go to whine and complain when they're all grown up.
The primary audience of "Nashville" and "Smash" would be parents of offspring wishing to enter the music business after high school.
That some music is better seen than heard was confirmed by CBS, which said that the flaunting of private and semi-private body parts will not be tolerated on the Grammy stage.
Longevity matters: Here's a halfway decent question.
Which of tonight's music will be around in five years?
Or three years? Or even one?
Great music lasts generations.
Writing a hit song doesn't seem that difficult anymore.
First, you get a popular or common phrase, something simple like, "Come Back and See Us" or "No Problem."
Some of you could be thinking "You must be kidding," which is another song title, the obvious hook there being a busted relationship.
Once you have settled on a well-known expression, you build a short story around it in three brief acts, complete with creative rhymes.
"Come Back and See Us" sounds like a moving and emotional country song having to do with dead people and loneliness, possible key rhyme words being bus, cuss, fuss and streptococcus.
"No Problem" sounds urban, with two big-beat syllables carrying the theme.
No problem. No job done. No sob song. Just maudlin. Just dog gone. Just oblong. No problem. Whatever.
Single hit: "Call Me Maybe," sung by Carly Rae Jepsen, is up for best song.
This catchy jingle-type tune has been a sing-along, dance-along for just about everybody from the New York Jets offensive line to the coyotes at the zoo.
How catchy is this song?
Imagine having to sit there as Carly Rae Jepsen sings something else.
Original Print Headline: Singing may not be for everyone
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