Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.
By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
Raise you hand if you watched the Grammy Awards show on Sunday night. I did. Who the hell are those people I saw on TV? Sure, I recognized a few of them. Like Trevor Noah. But he was the host, not a recording artist. And let’s see. Oh yeah, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson. I recognized them. And I got excited when they introduced Madonna, but then a woman who looked nothing like the Madonna I remembered started talking. Huh?
Okay, when it comes to music, my favorite period started in the late 50s and stopped evolving in the mid-80s. I admit it. I’m basically an oldies and classic rock fan. So the fact that I recognized the names and music of so few artists at the Grammys didn’t surprise me. But I think I’m going to skip the Grammys going forward because I just can’t relate to most of what I saw and heard during the telecast.
Maybe I’m just an old fart who has no interest in contemporary popular music because it doesn’t hold a candle to classic rock. But I do wonder what your own preferred music genres are. So even if you didn’t watch the Grammy Awards, my provocative question this week is…
What is your favorite music genre? Why is it your favorite? If you have more than one genre that you prefer, what are they?
If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.
This, That, and the Other 
I don’t have any specific favorite genre in English songs. However I like Sufi music in urdu and Punjabi. I also love a few Arabic, Persian and Turkish songs, though I can understand just a few words of them.
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I love old school RNBs
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I grew up with Motown. Love it.
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Has to have two guitars, bass and drums at a minimum. Can also include any number of instruments from a keyboard of some sort, a horn section up to a full orchestra Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra comes to mind
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Sounds good to me!
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Here is my contribution. https://humorismandatory.wordpress.com/2023/02/08/fandangos-provocative-question-201/
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The only awards show I watch is the Oscars – otherwise I don’t really enjoy them. I’m really an old fart! But I like a wide variety of music – from Bach to Queen to the Buena Vista Social Club.
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I have a different favourite every day, but I know the most about the 80s, as that’s my teenage years
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Pretty much all except rap. I saw a few photos on google of Sam’s performance and think it may have been over the top but don’t watch much tv at all so wouldn’t have seen it live. Sam Smith songs got me through my husband’s death in 2013 so I still respect him. Ten years later I think he’s letting his true self come out, no pun intended. Do your own thing is my theory.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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Madonna has had plastic surgery (if that’s still the right term) with the goal to actually change her facial structure — not just a facelift. (I perceive that as kinda sad.)
There was a guy in the list of nominees for “best new artist” who I like but who I (an older person) found out about like two years ago — so observed myself perplexed as to why he was among the very new this year. Perhaps he’d only put out a few songs previously but an album this time around, I postulated. I have enjoyed Omar Apollo songs (which I believe I’ve said at some point before on your blog). I looked into some news and conclude “new” simply means first time Grammy nominators have noticed (he’s been putting out music for six years).
I caught about the last ten minutes of the show this year, did enjoy it. I deeply appreciated the final act and smiled quite a bit even though the piece isn’t, for the most part, a music style or song to which I’d listen often. (There were some nice harmonies here and there though.) I recognized about half of the men in that.
I like A LOT of genres and am motivated to always (but not usually actively) listen for new people I like (along with the old); first saw Billie Eillish, for example, on Colbert. My tendency is a preference for poly-rhythmic (in multiple genres) while that’s not a rule. Really cannot pick one genre or two. Let’s go with this: I said yes to traveling to hear Riverside (progressive rock) in concert this spring.
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Time’s been flying lately. It was two years ago that I became aware of Harry Styles (via the Grammy broadcast). Therefore, I first heard Omar Apollo three or four years ago (and not at the Grammys).
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I posted, maybe a half hour ago, this to comments at Marilyn’s blog: Yeah, I found the replay [Grammys this year] without commercials last night. So I ended up “watching” it (often skipping through). Not entertaining to me. I had seen the last ten or so minutes already. A jazz singer (true singing) won best new, so that had been encouraging. Then there was a group who “did“ (very little singing involved) a last act that I experienced as performance art (in the realm of visual arts more than music). The table laden with fruits, silver candelabras, and so forth was remiscent per an iconography of indulgence or wasteful wealth [in movies, music videos, and more] from white-dominance. And the rhymers were making a statement of having arrived at gaining riches and notoriety while “the academy” hadn’t satisfied their desire for recognition (or, depending upon perspective, the nominators didn’t notice the earning power it was their job to highlight). I “got” it (and appreciated a sense of irony). But it was a moment, not quite music for playing. Later (a few days later when watching the full show) I figured out the whole piece is called “God did” — now I feel a little concerned that they were saying the signs of money are because of God. Who knows… maybe so in some way sometimes. Yet, I’m not a health and wealth (“gospel”) sort.
[For whatever reason, I have remembered today that the two stations I put on all the time in the car are (SiriusXM) “Spa” and “Coffeehouse” — two genres. I like them because they’re blissfull. I don’t necessarily want to hear every single offering, but I can switch to the other. Still, I don’t turn either on in the house.]
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/the-grammys-ended-in-controversy-again-here-s-what-to-know/ar-AA17b90Z
According to Billboard, the Recording Academy boasts more than 12,000 voting members. ….
Numerous artists have criticized how the Grammys nominate artists. The Recording Academy is undergoing a campaign to diversify its membership and has a goal of having 2,500 female members by 2025.
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Okay… not Colbert (the first time). I liked her new song on Colbert’s (cbs) show in 2021. But the first time I saw Billie Eilish was not that. I’m thinking it was Fallon’s (nbc) show. I have no idea why the video is archived at the bottom of this article (way down on the page), but there we go; couldn’t find it outright when I searched the right words.
https://m.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/music/billie-eilishs-note-worthy-appearances-on-the-late-night-show.html
When Billie Eilish performed on live on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
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I knew it was a long time ago that I came across news Madonna had done something extreme and structural. But the talk online after Sunday apparently didn’t mention that. There’s a clue, near the end, as to 2012. Farther down, there are some tweets. The best one points out that she fell for the ageism and mysogeny herself by getting facelifts and other “work” done. (Classism or reliance on big money besides that, I’d say. And it’s not only women fooling themselves with that these days. There are billionaire men, usually in tech, who really think they might live forever.)
But what else is she gonna do but say what she said?
https://pagesix.com/2023/02/07/madonna-responds-to-backlash-over-her-new-face-after-2023-grammys/
… A world that refuses to celebrate women pass [sic] the age of 45 And feels the need to punish her If she continues to be strong-willed…
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To me, if there’s singing… the person has to be able to sing. When there’s auto tune involved, I’m going with “Skip”
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Here’s mine
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This was the first time in decades we watched it and I’m pretty sure it will be the ONLY time. Yuk.
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I am pretty sure it will be my last time as well.
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I am currently listening to a little 70s music… lots of bubble gum pop in this mix. If it has a good beat and is not negative lyrics, I pretty much like it. The lyrics take a lot of contemporary songs out. I don’t want to hear about killing and raping and swearing every other word. But saying that there are some good songs of new. I did not know about half of the crowd at the Grammy’s and agree with WHO was that trying to be Madonna? I will say I like a lot of Lizzo’s body positivity efforts. It was so good to see Bonnie Raitt win and I about fell over when I heard Willie is still winning Grammy’s at 89! It wasn’t the worst Grammy’s, but I am getting older and it is showing by my loss of knowledge and enthusiasm for some of the new artist.
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Always interesting to hear what people enjoy listening to.
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https://uproxx.com/indie/beach-boys-grammys-tribute-charlie-puth-beck-john-legend-fall-out-boy/
The Recording Academy set up a tribute for the Beach Boys last night, February 8, for a special that will air later this year.
They had a special during the height of the pandemic, too. That one was aired like the night before or after the main show, rather than later in the year.
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Beck “and similar artists” shuffled [“alexa play beck”] from an iTunes general mix is a good mesh of sounds fulfilling acceptable to appealing genres for me (and I can always say skip to a singular something I find annoying or less interesting). This won’t be inclusive of everything rock, r&b, or rock-adjacent that I like. But there is real variation and range of style and time-frame. Within the first twenty-five minutes of listening to it, today, I got Led Zeppelin and Tom Petty, plus a serious blues artist I didn’t recognize and Pink Floyd. For example. He’s also considered Americana, folk rock, and freak folk. Alternative, of course.
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/9/8005609/beck-beat-beyonce-grammys
Now is a good time to don your skeptic hat and remember that the Grammys are formally, openly rigged. The nominees for Album of the Year, though voted on by Recording Academy members, are ultimately chosen by a secret committee that the Recording Academy formed in the 1990s to review voters’ choices.
To the Grammys’ credit, this committee has a point. Before the committee was established in 1995, there were several very strange (if not horrible) choices […. that] helped create the public perception that the Grammys were cut off from what “good music” meant.
… What pushed the Recording Academy over the edge was Tony Bennett’s MTV Unplugged Album of the Year win in 1995 over Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, and Zubin Mehta.
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I did actually write about this, but several days later. And when I linked it to the word of the day, the pingback linked it to a post from years ago. What can I say? It was still a good question:
https://kajmeister.com/__granda_led_zeppelin
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WordPress works in mysterious ways.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/22/kremlin-propagandists-partying-grammys-tougher-sanctions
In Kyiv, we know Kirkorov well. In June 2021 we designated him as “a threat to Ukraine’s national security” and he was banned from entering our country after he spoke in support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Last month, we added him to our list of Russian propagandists who are subject to personal sanctions for their support of Russia’s warmongering. He had reportedly been asking his audiences to stand up and clap for … Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. … A few days earlier he had dinner with Engelbert Humperdinck in Los Angeles and visited Las Vegas to watch an Adele concert. How could such a man be freely wandering the US? How is he able to party at a time when so many Ukrainians are fighting for their lives?
Sadly, Kirkorov is no isolated case. ~
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