The Scrapbook stopped caring about the Grammys ages ago. Like all entertainment awards, they’re not much a measure of talent. Long ago they devolved into the self-satisfied celebration of a self-satisfied industry. And in no way is the music biz more pleased with itself than in its politics, which are—except for the occasional country act—reliably left-wing. Nowhere is that more on display than in the Grammys’ “Spoken Word” category, which is generally a prize for the year’s most prominent liberal. This year should be no exception: Bernie Sanders has been nominated for a Grammy for the audio version of his book Our Revolution.
Sanders (with some help from actor Mark Ruffalo) narrates his own book. Have you heard Sanders speak? There’s a certain arresting quality to the man’s voice that serves him politically, but let’s face it: Sinatra he ain’t. (Maybe more an aged Christopher Walken.) There’s no way to stick a microphone in front of Bernie for hours on end and produce anything that deserves to be honored for audio excellence. Nonetheless, Sanders is the odds-on favorite to win. As the Hollywood Reporter notes:
And of course don’t forget Al Gore’s 2009 Grammy for An Inconvenient Truth. And there is that as-yet-unrevoked 2002 Grammy for Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, read by grabby-handed author Al Franken.
One gets the sense there aren’t a lot of Republicans in the Recording Academy. And these days there may not be very many happy Democrats, either. Hillary Clinton’s latest audiobook, her failed-campaign score-settler, came out just a few weeks before the September 30 deadline, making it eligible for this year’s Grammys. And yet she was not nominated. The snub from the entertainment-wing of the Democratic party was such that Hillary must be wondering What Happened?
