Has music become a sideshow?

Did you watch the Grammys? I didn’t.

Music’s self-proclaimed “biggest night” celebrated it’s 52nd year this past Sunday with one of the most colorful, over-the-top spectacles in the broadcast’s history. Pink pulled a Cirq Du Sole while dripping wet and suspended from the rafters. Lady Gaga played a duet with a rock and roll icon who more recently has come to resemble a Lady Gaga himself, Elton John. Green Day performed a broadway number, and the Black Eyed Peas dressed up like Tina Turner.

And most likely much of that was set to music.

It’s unfortunate that even on “music’s biggest night” the music itself is relegated to the background – an excuse to dress up and do something ridiculous that might buy you a few more weeks in the blogs and tabloids. Yet that’s exactly how the priorities appeared to shake out on Sunday. Yes, It’s an awards show and awards shows need to drive ratings to stay alive. It’s also a television broadcast, and translating music for a visual medium requires adding an element of interest to the performances. TV doesn’t have the advantage of the living, breathing energy of the club and needs to compensate.

Nevertheless, the Grammys are arguably the most ridiculous awards show on television. Certainly the least sophisticated, with the exception of the MTV music awards. I think that says something about music and the position it holds in the entertainment industry as a whole.

Music’s Position in the Entertainment Hierarchy

In some ways, music is an outdated medium. We’ve lived in a visual world for decades now, with TV and movies dominating entertainment. More recently interactivity has come to the forefront. Music plays an important role in each of these formats, but still hovers somewhere near the background. While music supports the overall effect of the media package, it’s subservient to the visual and interactive elements.

Music as a Celebrity Springboard

You can see this hierarchy in the celebrity world. When popstars reach a certain exposure threshold what do they do? Begin make cameos in movies. Landing a supporting role is like a big-time promotion for a pop singer. The actors who take the opposite route are usually the ones struggling to stand out in the Big Pond of motion pictures. Their agents convince them to take a short swim on down to the slightly smaller music pond where they can be a Big Fish. Take J-Lo for example.

Music as an Entry Point to a Media Empire

For another example just look at Apple. When Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes they revolutionized the way people enjoy music, but they also used these products to position themselves as a major player in the media/entertainment space. Over the past year Apple has shifted their focus heavily towards the mobile gaming industry. Remember that big Apple music event last September? It would have been more accurately billed as an iPod event, because Jobs spent much more time talking about all the great things the iPod touch has brought to video games than the new iTunes LP format. Music was the entry point for Apple, not the end goal.

I don’t say all of this to discount the value of music as an artform, or even as a medium of entertainment. Music has an inherent power that none of these other artforms can claim. With no shapes, colors, faces, no buttons, joysticks or touchpads, music is able to make an unparalleled emotional impact on the listener. Music has a unique way of capturing time and space, and the ability to transport a person back to the important events in their life.

The fact is that our culture has changed, and continues to change.

The Musician’s Role in Culture

Musicians need to figure out where they fit into the larger arts and entertainment picture if they hope to build or maintain sustainable careers. Maybe this means accepting the subservient role music has been dealt over the past two decades and focusing on licensing for film and television, or video games and Rock Band. Maybe it means trying to break this mold and attempting to capture the world’s attention again the way rock and roll did in the 60′s and 70′s.

Perhaps the reason why the Grammys feel so irrelevant and inauthentic is that the organizers appear to try to ignore music’s new role in entertainment and pretend that music is still king, while at the same time desperately relying on non-musical spectacle to get anybody to care.

What are your thoughts? Can music stand on it’s own in today’s entertainment culture or must it be paired with spectacle to be remain a viable industry?