As you probably have guessed from reading my blog, I am a big fan of the music of Paul McCartney, John Lennon and The Beatles. Some might ask, as an evangelical Christian, how can you be a fan of their music? My quick response is that I recognize their musical gift as something tremendous and God-given, and so I can appreciate the beauty and the craft of their songwriting, without necessarily endorsing the philosophical or other beliefs of their songs.
In any case, I am very pleased to hear that McCartney's latest album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, has earned Paul three Grammy nominations: Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the album's first single, "Fine Line", and Best Pop Vocal album; in addition, Nigel Godrich is nominated as Producer of the Year for his work on the album.
Why am I pleased? Well for one thing, I think the album is very deserving (see my review). It is also gratifying that something that I really like personally and appreciate musically is being recognized by these well-known awards, that represent, at least by the standards of the present music industry, the best work in the field. In recent years, I have found myself at odds with a lot of popular and critical taste in music, feeling that there has been a degeneration in the recognition of what constitutes excellence in music, and a corresponding overall decline in the quality of popular music.
I'm quite certain however, that I'm not alone in this feeling. Music lovers perhaps have an instinctive understanding that there is such a thing as quality in music, and that although tastes in music will always be marked by subjectivity, nevertheless, true excellence can be recognized (or else why have awards?), sometimes intuitively, sometimes through training. Whenever music that is truly deserving because of its excellent quality is recognized and lauded, I think a step forward is made toward the restoration of true beauty and artistry back to popular music.
Congratulations, Paul! I hope you win!!
The 48th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 8, at Staples Center in Los Angeles and once again will be broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
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