Did you watch?

I didn’t. One side of me thinks this deserves a wee slap on the wrist (my job is musically related! I shoulda been staring at the screen intently!) while the other side of me is bemused by the fact that there was hardly a band performing or being honored up there that I was really interested in seeing. One category (which had both rooting for both the Canucks and the Bellinghamites but was disappointed to see the established/expected take ‘er home ) interested me. The rest of it just seemed like a lot of hoopla and too much Madonna/Mariah for my liking…so, I passed.

Apparently I wasn’t alone.

From Rags Gupta writes over on his Digital Music News blog that American Idol beat out the Grammys almost 2 to 1. Yowza. 28.3 million people would rather watch a bunch of people *maybe* make it (and that end result for any of them is questionable to me…) instead of basking in the glory of poor Mimi’s comeback.

The record industry is in trouble. This is but one more sign. We don’t want you hand feeding us singles anymore and expecting us to automatically buy it, love it and tell all our friends. We’ve got a computer, connections and a multitude of resources for finding something more, something better, something meaningful. As the music consumer turns away from the "charts" and starts to develop a bit more confidence to find something that speaks to them as an individual, artists like the younger miz Simpson just seem all that more laughable…and at the same time sad.

I don’t buy "it" anymore (yeah, I like some of my top forty stuff and I’m still a Coldplay fan even though they are adored and glorified the world over…but at least I can say I knew ‘em when…thanks Alex), and it’s becoming all the more apparent that this is not just happening in my apartment, in front of my computer as I get more and more confident about what I like and what I can definitely do without. Learning has never been easier.

And I like Rags’ last musing – Myspace Awards, here we come…