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Greetings! My thanks to Associate Editor Robert Lewis for taking over the Editorial in the January issue while I was out of town. I wasn't quite expecting such a glowing review of myself, but it was greatly appreciated! But now that I'm back, it's time to climb on that soapbox again. Like many music fans, I watched the "25th Annual American Music Awards" this past week, eagerly awaiting to see who the nominees and winners would be. About half way through the show, although I did enjoy the clips from past award shows and the montages of artists that had performed in the past, I began to wonder what the hell was going on. Other than a few so called "alternative" bands like "The Wallflowers," "Matchbox 20" and "Jewel," I was really starting to wonder where the rest of the music genres were. I saw a whole lot of Country artists nominated, winning and performing. The same with R&B/Soul/Urban artists. But where were the rock bands and metal bands and the rest of the music released in the past year? They didn't even have a CATEGORY for best Metal Band this year. And since when is Puff Daddy a Pop/Rock artist? Poor Puffy didn't win anything he was nominated for, but last time I checked he does Urban music - not Pop/Rock. I was totally floored by what, in the past, has been the second most prestegious awards show, after the Grammy's, for music of all genres. Except they left out half the genres. And the nominations in certain categories were totally ridiculous - like Pop/Rock Male, Female, Group and Album. I'm sorry, but when Mega-Bands like Aerosmith, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Jane's Addiction, LIVE, INXS, The Descendents, The Orange Country Supertones and Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, just to name a few, all had new albums out in 1997, how do Puff Daddy and Celine Dion end up in the Pop/Rock category instead of the Soul/Urban and Adult Contemporary categories? And a few Country artists slipped into weird categories too. Who picks what artists go into a category, and where are their brains? Billboard makes sure they have separate charts for the various musical genres, although they do get mixed now on the Billboard Top 200 (and why is that?), so why aren't the right people being nominated in the categories where they belong? Is every single album that comes out now cross-over? I sure hope not! I'll be the first to say that stamping an artist within a narrow category of music isn't right. People won't listen to something they don't think they'll like because it's "categorized." But by the same token, it's more than a little ridiculous to find some of the artists that were nominated, and won, at this year's "American Music Awards" in the categories they were placed in. I sure hope the Grammy's aren't a big dissapointment this year too! The opinions expressed in this editorial are mine as Editor of this magazine. If you agree or disagree with anything I write here, whether you're a fan, band, label, P.R. Firm or anyone else associated with the music industry, feel free to write to me at the address below and your comments will be published. Please send your comments, questions, or anything else you can think of to ACCESS to the MUSIC ZONE at marellg@music-reviewer.com See You In Cyber Space! Mary Ellen Gustafson, Editor

 

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