PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic PGMusic Grammys?

Sometimes it's hard for me to turn off my brain, and last night this idea came to me.

Imagine if we had "PGMusic Grammy Awards"?

There is a ton of talent on this forum and I was thinking that when I hear, yet another great song on the Showcase, that for me, it'll then be lost in the endless clutter of the mountain of songs uploaded each year. A PGMusic Grammy system would organize the very best showcased songs of the prior year in one easily assessible place to solve that problem.

The "award" could be simply getting your name on a list and maybe recieve a PDF certificate; suitable for framing of course. This could be a huge marketting tool for the product.

Maybe someone has already thought of this but I couldn't find any threads on this subject. In any event the idea would be a select set of judges would produce an annual list of winners in several categories much like the real Grammys. The list would then be found on the PG website and would point to the Showcase threads of the songs. I'm thinking the judges could be volunteers on the forum.

This could be a benefit for those that post their songs on their own websites for sale (or streaming services) to get their songs more exposure. Another benefit could be the thousands of young musicians world-wide that may be aware of BiaB but never tried it or tried it and gave up.

I'm thinking that one type of response from young-blood musicians could be "Wow, even though this may be old-fogey music, it's definately quality old-fogey music and I can use this tool to make the kind of music I want to make."

As for a name, it could be serious like the above, or fun like "Grammys in my Jammies".

This may very well be a wackadoodle idea, but I thought I'd put it out there for comment so my brain can start thinking about its next one

List of Grammy Categories

You said "the very best showcased songs."

Based on what? Who's opinion makes them "the best"?

All that does is make it a popularity contest. We can already say who will win. That half dozen or so members of "the clique" would just vote for each other and those half dozen or so members of "the clique" would win every year, effectively discouraging anybody else from trying. We all know who the forum darlings are and I won't name anybody to avoid the predictable onset of defensive flaming arrows being sent my way. Based on how many people really just don't like me because of my refusal to censor myself, sugar coat things, or play "the game" in general, I could write the next MacArthur Park and it would be dismissed for reasons other than the actual content. Just like how the real Grammys stopped being about music 25 years ago.

The second problem is that the latest wave of people doesn't know how to play, sing or write. The actual talent is removed from the process when AI lyrics generators, AI vocalists, and 100% BIAB generated music takes the talent element out of it and turns it into a contest to show who knows how to use a computer better. THAT deserves some plastic, ego salving notoriety?

Learn MUSIC! Not computers. Music creation is not for the lazy. Put the hours into music, not your computer. And shoot for a real (and almost as meaningless) Grammy.

The thread above this one is “ We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!”. If you want different criteria, what would that be?

The criteria would be based on the types of songs submitted to the Showcase. Here are some examples:
Best Rock Song
Best Country Song
Best Blues Song
Best Folk Song
Best Love Song
Best Video Produced
Best Female Vocals
Best Male Vocals
Best Synth Vocals
Best Singer Songwriter
Best Mixing/Mastering/Production
Best Use of Melodist
Etc. You get the idea

As an example, I could see Janice being submitted for a Best Female Vocalist for Arcs of Life

And Floyd for a Best Male Vocalist for Tattooed

In the "Grammys List", the artist would be linked to his/her winning song and placed in the appropriate category for easy retrieval thereby solving the "mountain of uploaded songs" problem.

But my main point is regarding the BiaB non-user.
If a non-user is only interested in the best folk songs (for example) produced with BiaB, how can he easily find them even if he has access to the Showcase winners list? With an organized Grammys list (see link in OP) this would be easy-peasy.

Btw, over time and ideally, one could search back many years for the Grammy winners and their songs.

Thumper, I again don't want to sound mean or condescending, but your "overwhelmed by all of you who can do something I can't" is showing.

If you were to study music at an advanced level (meaning a college degree program), you would spend some time on a concept called "Levels Of Listening." That is a fancy college term for "The more you know about this, the more you'd understand what to listen for, and the bar that is the list of things that make you say 'wow' would get higher and higher. You would know WHY that chord change was ear catching. You know that a chord change was unique and 'off piste', as in something not native to the key the song is in." Very little impresses me any more, and the older folks here who have been at this for over a half century would likely be in the same category to some degree. Especially now when a large number of people are trying to convince themselves they are musicians by having various AI programs doing all the work. Songs are stories set to music. Tell your story. Don't ask ChatGPT to tell it for you.

4 people can go to a performance of any type and hear 4 different performances. Depending on each person's level of listening, one might hear phrasing, noticing that a simple theme seems to repeat. One might take note of the dynamics, how the music's effect on the listener's emotion can be manipulated by volume changes. Another might take note of how the chord progression goes from major to minor in a way that is not anticipated. Another might note the playing skills of one player with no regard for the total synergy of the band, like "That lead guitar player was really the most skilled of all of them." None of those things are "wrong", but they do reflect the amount that people know what to listen for. They are often the same people who buy really bad albums by old hanger-on bands because they are sheep who know nothing other than "I've been following them for 40 years". (See: Dead, Grateful)

You mentioned 2 specific people in your example, both for vocals performance. Both very good singers. So, enter some farmer from a small town in Idaho that isn't even on a map. Call him "Spuds". (Get it?) If Spuds knows nothing about music, beyond "I like this", what is he basing that Grammy vote on? Just to say "I liked it" isn't enough to be awarding things. Spuds might be very easily impressed, so what does that vote mean? Back when I still considered American Idol to be any sort of relevant, the last year I watched had a bunch of singers that consistently sang flat, but somewhere in the song hit that one high note with extreme power and significance to twang the emotion in people (Because as you are also taught in college, music done well affects human emotion.) and those flat singers were voted for enough to stay on another week. To use a sports analogy, a QB could throw 4 interceptions, complete no passes longer than 4 yards, and fumble twice in a game, but what will people who don't know football remember? Yep, that ONE 59 yard touchdown pass. Those same people are impressed by drummers based on the size of their drumkit rather than if they can keep time.

You also listed categories. How do you define what is rock vs country vs whatever? Best VIDEO production? You know this is music software, right?

As far as "the BIAB non-user"... why are they even here? How do they even know about this place?

As I said before, the handful of people in the clique would win anyway.

This place has gotten FAR away from a musician/songwriter forum like it was when I joined 13 years ago. It's really become more focused on conversation about finding ANY way to make music that doesn't require any real, actual work be put into, you know, making music. As in playing an instrument, writing lyrics and working hard at it every day. Metaphorically, as my girl Chrissie Hynde said, "My city was gone."

Please don't.

(I couldn't resist. Jimmy Webb is actually an amazing songwriter.)

MacArthur Park II : The Cake Strikes Back!

While wearing a strip-ed pair of pants full of sweet cream icing!!

MacArthur Park in the flesh!

Personally, I think the User Showcase Award is sufficient. It's based on who PG thinks is best representing and using the product in real life, regardless of genre.

What Herb said.

Another plus 1.

Yeah, the Grammy awards themselves are just a popularity contest. Best and Worst is always very subjective. PG Music's version is just fine.