Amy Winehouse, I am sort of ashamed to admit, is my favorite punching bag of late. She is a walking, drinking example of the current sorry state of the music industry.

It wasn’t all that long ago when new and younger musical talent, under contract to a label, were under some serious obligations as to image and comportment. Conversely, the labels also took much more responsibility to manage new and younger talent, to hold them under some semblance of control and keep their peccadilloes out of the press. Power in the music biz has since shifted, ceded years ago to big celebrity talent, the U2s and Madonnas, who make their own deals, call their own shots, and are beholden to none.

The unfortunate after-effects can be seen in Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse, who benefit from this talent-first arrangement. They are absolutely free to mismanage their personal lives any way they please. And though their labels are probably none too happy with them right now, they definitely have much worse problems to deal with. And they are probably saving money NOT managing their talent, money they need to sue MP3-swapping college kids.

So as tempted as I am to pick on Amy, this article isn’t really about her per se. Except this picture. That “British Teeth” thing was, I thoroughly believed, an urban myth, or at least a remnant of earlier, less orthodontically enlightened era. I apparently stand corrected.

Anyway, Amy Winehouse managed to do two completely contradictory things in the last three weeks:

• She cancelled her rather modest UK tour after a disastrous kick-off concert November 14th in Birmingham. She was so unrehearsed, so visibly drunk, and so distraught about her honey Blake Fielder-Civil (who was remanded that day for something called PCJ, “Perverting the Course of Justice”) she was unable to finish the set.

• On December 6th Amy Winehouse was nominated for no less than six Grammys– second this year only to Kanye West’s eight nods.

Talk about failing upwards.

Alright, what are the Grammy folks up to? I can’t think of another example of an industry so enamored by someone that f***ed up. They are willing to risk giving the podium of their premiere awards program to an obvious trainwreck– Not once, but six times.

And as far as Ms. Winehouse’s music is concerned– If you want to argue that artistic brilliance is the reason for the nods, then no small credit is due to her producers. Listen to “Rehab” or her cover of “Valerie:” The mix is beyond lush. Horns, strings, vintage keyboards, big choruses, even a church carrillon. I love the distinctly British sound of it all, but if she’s a standalone talent, why all the stürm und drang?

I think the reason lies in the clues. Kanye West, though his nominations were unquestionably deserved for his excellent work this year, has had some rather serious issues with award shows (Complaining at the last Grammys on a lack of award, throwing a fit at MTV Europe, etc.) and live television in general (”George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” he said off-script during the Hurricane Katrina Benefit). His mother also passed away this year. He is absolutely guaranteed to be compelling on the Grammy stage.

Are the Grammys going all Reality Show? It sure seems like it: They have a colorful cast in place, perfect for an exciting, unpredictable night. On February 10th, we’ll know– especially if Winehouse wins all six and West loses all eight.

All this being said, the awards themselves seem to be drastically devalued of late. The best example came from the “Simpsons” episode when Homer won a Grammy for his barber-shop quartet. In a fit of depression he threw his Grammy off a hotel balcony, only to have it thrown back with an angry offscreen voice saying “Don’t throw your trash down here!”

–Skot C.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 8:34 am and is filed under General, Music, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.