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| Beck, Björk and Bryan Adams. All three are nominated in the rock categories at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Is this the music future generations will associate the 2020s with or is it perhaps time for the Grammy jury to learn about newer bands and artists? |
The nominees for the 2023 Grammy Awards have been revealed, so let's take a look and have a laugh. You can find the relevant categories (within rock/metal) listed on Loudwire. Feel free to take a look and then come back for my take on them. Don't worry, I'll wait...
Ready? Here we go!
Wow, did they actually nominate rock bands this year?
In recent years, the jury has seemed completely uninterested in rock music, resorting to just about any type of music that just happens to have a guitar somewhere deep down in the mix, like country, pop or singer-songwriter music.
The 2023 nominations seem to offer somewhat of an improvement in that regard. This year they at least nominate rock and metal bands - who would've thought?! The problem now is that their idea of typical 2020s rock - the defining rock artists of 2022 - are artists like Bryan Adams, Beck, Björk and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We're talking about acts that had their prime some 30+ years ago.
Music YouTuber Finn McKenty made a video about it you can check out below.
Age is not the issue
While McKenty shares my opinion regarding the lack of relevance in the nominations, his biggest gripe seems to be with the old age of the nominated artists. And while that is true; for instance, Ozzy Osbourne is honoured with a nomination. And while Ozzy deserves a lot of praise for his contributions to the heavy metal scene, it's kind of sad that a guy soon turning 74 is still seen as the defining artist of 2023, carrying the genre at the forefront. Had that been the case, the future of rock/metal would have been quite bleak, for obvious reasons.
Ageism sucks, though, and it's something we have enough of as it is. The age of artists isn't the main issue, either. Had there been cool new bands with older members, I wouldn't see a problem. The problem lies in the Grammy jury's scarce interest in staying up-to-date on new, upcoming rock artists, making it look like an outdated genre that's merely clinging to the past.
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| Ozzy Osbourne released a limited Ukraine-themed edition of his latest album Patient Number 9, raising charity for the country Russia decided to invade and terrorise for whatever made-up reasons their leadership decide to pull out of their asses, seemingly changing from day to day. Kudos to Ozzy for doing this! |
A 40-year-old Neil Young cover is the hottest thing of 2022, apparently
Rather than resorting to a bunch of artists of various genres that happen to feature a guitar and lazily throwing those together as "best rock" like the Grammy jury has done in recent years, they take a different approach this time. For the 2023 Grammys, they decided to revise their old record collections and picked out a few acts of the '80s and '90s that happened to release something in 2022. The fact they nominated Beck for a Neil Young cover says it all.
When the Grammy jury - an entity that is supposed to represent the music industry as a whole, and all the collected knowledge of new music that lies therein - is so heavily stuck in the past, you can't really blame anyone for wondering if rock as a genre has stagnated completely over the last few decades. And that is a great shame, as it just solidifies the misconception of rock being dead.
It's kind of laughable, really. Just imagine looking back at the history of Grammy nominations in the future to find out what was typical 2020s rock, only to discover that the hottest thing we had in 2022 was an old '90s artist (Beck) doing a cover of a song that came out in 1972.
A few more contemporary picks
Luckily enough, there are a few slightly newer artists included, though. This includes post-hardcore band Turnstile, pop-punk dude Machine Gun Kelly and the band IDLES, which I'm less familiar with. Both Turnstile songs nominated (Holiday and Blackout) came out in 2021, though, so not sure how they managed to make their way into the 2023 Grammies. They're nominated in "best performance" type categories, though, so I suppose Led Zeppelin could play Stairway To Heaven in 2022 and get nominated for a 2023 Grammy.
The same case can be made with singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile who's also nominated in the "rock performance" category for a song released in 2021. She album-debuted in 2005, so I guess you could say that makes her relatively contemporary, at least.
I placed Turnstile's 2021 album Glow On high on Rock Today's best albums of 2021 round-up. Here they perform Blackout on Jimmy Fallon a while ago. One of the two songs they are now Grammy nominated for. Let's hope they win!Turnstile and Muse getting nominated in the Metal category. Lol.
Both Turnstile and Muse are nominated in the "Best Metal Performance" category, ironically. The Grammy jury ran out of metal bands they know about after counting in Megadeth, Ozzy and Ghost, I suppose, thus having to resort to placing post-hardcore and alternative rock bands into the category. Admittedly, Muse has moved towards a heavier sound on some of their new songs, but when nominating metal bands, Muse sure wouldn't be one coming to my mind. Even less so Turnstile.
While I'm not the biggest metal listener these days, Architects and Spiritbox would probably have a better fit in this category.
Rock is more influential than the Grammys give it credit
For the "best alternative" Finn McKenty mentions artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Maggie Lindeman, who aren't nominated. And I agree, at least Maggie Lindeman would have been a great pick. Her latest album has some nice rocking songs on it, as does Demi Lovato's 2022 album.
And that is the thing: when looking at the most popular rock acts of today, many of them aren't bands, necessarily. Quite often it's young female artists, like Maggie Lindemann and Demi Lovato. One could easily add artists like Tate McRae, Willow Smith, baebadoobee, Kailee Morgue and Charlotte Sands to that list as well. Whether they fit 100% in the "best rock" or "best alternative" categories can be argued all day long if you're a "rock purist". But if you ask me, the best indication that rock isn't dead is not because Bryan Adams has dropped a "new" single. It's because young artists like the ones just mentioned, help popularise the genre by bringing electric guitars into popular, mainstream music that appeals to a lot younger audience than the one growing up listening to Bryan Adams.
Hearing the song below on the radio at Mickey Dee's the other day made me genuinely happy. If this is modern, mainstream pop, there's still hope! no denying that rock is still very much an influential, relevant genre even in the mainstream.
This is what the genre needs to invigorate itself and be more than just an underground movement or a "revival" genre. It needs to reach out to Gen Z.
The importance of gateways in music
Having said the above about pop artists blending rock elements into their music, that's not to say there aren't any proper rock bands around anymore. There are of course plenty of cool new bands out there. Just the other day, I went to see Wolf Alice, and the warm-up band Beverly Kills were killing it (eyyy!) on stage, and it's always great to see interesting new bands pop up. But in order for new people to find them they need gateways, just like Wolf Alice did in this case. So for kids only listening to mainstream pop, Tate McRae and other artists are true blessings.
Same with dudes like Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. Regardless of what you think of them, or if they can be considered as "rock"; if they can be the gateway for pop and hip-hop listeners, leading them further into alternative and punk-rock, then credit where credit is due.
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