An Opinion You Can Trust

The most irksome problem with the Blogosphere is that everybody is a critic, which is cool for everybody but troubling for everybody else. Without institutional authority — a newspaper, a university, a trade group — to certify who should be listened to and respected and who should be dismissed and neglected, discerning the wheat from the chaff has become increasingly difficult. 

This is why now, more than ever, we desperately need award shows.

When a consumer must decide which record he needs to own — or, more likely, steal — he can either trust his own critical faculties, sift through thousands of nattering nabobs postulatiing into the ether, or he can take the word of Sony/Warners/Universal. Who knows more about music than those guys?

Buzzkillers who dismiss industry-sponsored awards shows as cynical marketing ploys meant to consolidate advertising power among the most influential of the cartels miss the larger point: without awards shows to anoint Product, the average buyer is prone to consumer paralysis. There’s simply too much stuff out there pretending to be good. Awards shows unmask the impostors and identify the real deal.

For that we are grateful. Enjoy the Grammys, everybody!