Oh, That: Re artistic relevancy versus financial relevancy in music, why didn't you say so? Good god, just give all the awards to the boy bands now and get it over with. There will always be more teenage girls buying music than anyone else, methinks. Not that I'm seeing the Grammies through rose-tinted glasses, but surely artistic merit counts for something. I'm sure Norah Jones was outsold by plenty of records this year. (Now, I'll accept a certain threshhold for consideration -- the guy who sells 26 albums to his fans out of the back of his Toyota doesn't get to be nominated, even if he just made the next Sgt. Pepper.) My wife remarked, about the Norah Jones song, "It's okay, but it's not great." But I thought, even if it's just barely listenable, that's an accomplishment.

Speaking of barely listenable, what's going on with Eminem? Is he tired of being quirky, funny, and iconoclastic? What a shame. Remember when MC Hammer shed the funny pants and cool dancing (and the MC) of "U Can't Touch This" for the Atlanta toque and the buffalo-stance posturing of "Pumps and a Bump"? Same thing. Sure, "Can't Touch This" got slack for being radio-friendly and irrelevant (but thank god for cool irrelevant pop music) but he should have stuck to his guns instead of trying to be what the hip-hop world said he should be.