The 35th American Music Awards took place on Sunday. But does anybody really care? 

 Do you like Carrie Underwood or Daughtry’s music more because they have new statues on their mantles? Do you like Taylor Swift or Maroon 5 less because they don’t? Does it even matter that the AMAs have never even heard of indie artists like Band of Horses? 

No, probably not. Whether it’s AMA, CMA or the upcoming Grammy Awards, most of these shows are exactly the same: boring.  

There’s never a big surprise at these events. It’s just a boring run down of whatever is popular on the radio at the moment.  It almost seems like those contests they hold for the Girl Scouts where whoever sells the most cookies - or in this case, albums - wins a prize. 

So, how do they pick the winners at these awards shows? 

American Music Awards:

This was the first year that the American Music Awards allowed the public to vote for their favorites online. Prior to this, winners were selected through a random sample of 20,000 voters who were sent ballots by the AMAs. Nominees are selected based on sales figures Radio & Records and Nielsen Soundscan, which tracks retail music sales, so voters’ choices are pretty limited. 

Grammys:

For the Grammys, the voters are members of the Recording Academy - mostly industry big-wigs and players in the music scene. The nominees are selected by a panel of “music experts.”� Why a group of music experts would want to give the Red Hot Chili Peppers a Grammy is anybody’s guess.

Similar processes hold true for the Latin Grammy and Country Music Association awards. 

Billboard Music Awards:

The Billboard Awards look at how artists have ranked on the Billboard charts and divvies out the trophies accordingly. At least this one doesn’t pretend there’s any artistic merit to a song like “Fergalicious,”� it just gives prizes to the highest charting songs - which is honest enough, but still not very exciting. 

Maybe someday there will be an awards show where voters can nominate and vote for any artist they choose. Then these shows might actually be interesting, entertaining and a good way to learn about music and help your favorites succeed.  

Sounds like a job for MySpace”�

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Music Downloads, Country Music, Indie Bands. 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.