The Grammy’s Were Disturbing For David Draimen
February 10, 2009 by Scott
Blabbermouth reports that Disturbed front man, David Draimen thinks the Grammy’s don’t give Rock it’s due. I think he’s the first person to ever say that…really! These dudes are standing there like they’re on some shitty made-for-T.V. version of The Matrix. “I know Kung Faux!”
“I don’t think they give rock its fair share by any stretch of the imagination, and the truth is that they’re really neglecting a big part of the Grammy constituents. The majority of the country states that are red, they’re either fans of country or fans of rock so there certainly needs to be better representation for our genre. We’ll continue to fight the good fight.”
First, who really designated what kind of music red or blue, Democrats or Republicans listen to? That’s the biggest crock of shit I think I’ve ever heard concerning politics and music. Secondly, I think he’s pissed cause there’s sand in the Vaseline and Disturbed didn’t win the Grammy. Dude, you guys were up against Metallica. They could have released an entire album of heavy breathing and still would have won the Grammy. If you went to the Grammy’s expecting to win while going up against Metallica, then you went for the wrong reasons.
Image: Newscom
thats a little too much pun for me scott, also I agree with you that red or blue doesnt mean shit, rockers are typically seen as democrats, and country lovers as republicans, and from the poll you did on the presidential race i will say it might hold mostly true, but i tend more toward the right, and i Hate country and love metal. So suck on that America.
Yeah…probably could have done without the cheesy title, but I couldn’t resist.
I’m a human global warming skeptic, and I love my steak, but that doesn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying Gojira and Cattle Decapitation. Good music is good music regardless of politics – I’m sure plenty of Vietnam supporters still remember “Paranoid” fondly, for example, despite the would-be title track, “War Pigs”. And as much as people like to knock Disturbed, I honestly don’t think they’re all that horrible, compared to their Nu-metal comrades, Korn, Jizzed Biscuit, and all the others. Disturbed is probably the best nu-metal out there. Granted, that’s not to say that they’re particularly good or anything, but I can hear them without wanting to smash whatever device I’m using. Occasionally, one of their albums will actually even have a catchy track or two. Case in point: Stupify.
The Grammy’s are just like the RRHOF though, the Oscars, the Emmys, they’re just a joke. Avant-garde material of ANY form is always going to be panned in favour of conservatism (that is, as pertaining to art, not politics), tradition and herd-mentality. I don’t think any serious fan of any genre pays any attention to them.
grammys suck
I totally agree with Alex on the last part of his comment about the grammy’s.
Scott, I agree with you on the music in politics. However, they were not up against Metallica. According to http://www.grammys.com, they were up against Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Mars Volta, and Rob Zombie. Mars Volta is the winner of that grammy. I, for one, had never heard of Mars Volta before this. That’s not saying that they’re bad, I just hadn’t heard of them. Do I think that they right band won? No. It should have been between Disturbed and Judas Priest.
And on the categories. While not a huge difference, there is still a difference.
There are:
9 categories of pop
6 categories of rock
8 categories of R&B
4 categories of rap
7 categories of country
6 categories of jazz
7 categories of gospel
2 categories of blues
Man, Siena. Shows how much I was actually paying attention to the Grammys. A lot of people like The Mars Volta. I’m not one of them. It’s not my thing but people seem to really dig them. I can honestly say that the only person I wanted to see win that category was Judas Priest. Nost5radamus may have been different from anything they have really done before, but musically it was brilliant.
You are absolutely right, Scott. Judas should have won that grammy. After all these years, they’re still at the top of their game.
I thought he was talking about them being televised, although he may have meant another rock category as well. As for the red state notion, I’m sure you’d agree that country music is more rural in its consumer base than other music and, these days, ruralness and Republican voting are highly correlated. If you exclude country, “hard rock” — particularly the types represented in disturbed’s category — is arguably the least urban (and indeed, Mars Volta is easily the most urban of the group). Urban consumers follow trends more closely which meant that they abandoned metal — especially pop-metal, classic metal and nu-metal — more readily. Notice the location of Rocklahoma. Maybe, given various metal revival trends ongoing, the hard rock category should have been on TV. But the grammy’s know their TV audience and probably ranked the televised ones properly in terms of interest.
Molasky, I see what you’re getting at. I agree. My two year old was sick during the Grammys. I was unable to watch. Out of curiosity, what categories were televised? I have watched on previous years. Generally, I believe, it’s the R&B, Pop, and Country that are most televised.
I would have understood this logic if it was, say, 10 years ago. When the more rural areas didn’t have access to cable and sattelite. However, I believe now, that a lot of “the industry” is ignorant to the fact that we exist and times have changed. For instance, where I live, it’s over 80% rural. Pretty much everyone here either likes country or rock. Most of the younger people like rock.
This is the same reason the “industry” is having such a difficult time wrapping its head around the idea of downloads. Times have changed and the “industry” needs to change with them lest fail.
I think i’m kind of late for this discussion but I don’t care. It just goes to show how much people are stuck in the past about their music. I understand not everyone has the same taste and are loyal to the bands that they grew up with. I, for one, am a huge mars volta fan. I found it especially amusing when they were announced and you could barely hear the crowd cheering, as if they were saying to themselves ” who the f**k are the mars volta?” As for David Gayman’s comment, i’m happy he was disturbed(hahow) with the results. if you keep making music that sounds the same, you shouldn’t really expect too much. I don’t discredit their ability to make music, i just think the mars volta are worlds ahead of them in creativity, delivery, style and all around concept of true music.