Tripping over your own words to prove a point you didn't mean to make.

I haven't looked at the full list of nominations for the 2020 Grammy Awards yet. I miss a lot about Chicgoist, since it's still in hibernation, but the one thing I don't miss is the constant rush to get up content about topics I have no personal interest in, and the vast majority of award shows and their nominations fall firmly under that category.

Of course a few things have crept through to my attention on the Grammy front regardless of my interest—while the non-stop writing sprints ended once my regular outlet went dark, my non-stop consumption of hundreds of news stories across just about every topic every single day never slowed down. I just have the luxury of not having to dig deeply into the more meaningless stuff in order to extract somewhat meaningful content. In the case of awards shows, there are now so many (across every artistic discipline) that thaw are completely meaningless. In recent years I haven't even seen conclusive proof they help artist album sales in any sustainable way, or introduce underdogs to a new fanbase that sticks around.

To me, the only thing the Grammys were good for in the last couple of years was the chance they provided me and a select group of friends to gather around the television and mercilessly mock the proceedings in real time—both IRL and on Twitter. (Truth be told, we did celebrate the brief highlights of this or that super famous talented person doing something worthy of praise instead of ridicule too. We weren't monsters. Much.) There is something hilarious and writer's room-like about a room of cultural critics tossing around barbs and working off each other as they compose their tweets. Who ever said Twitter had to be a solo activity?! Sadly, in recent years, my path split off from that crew, so I don't even watch the broadcast for humorous purposes any more.

One thing that about the headlines that accompanied this year's noms did bring a smile to my face, though. Numerous media types were trumpeting that Lil Nas X, Lizzo, and Billie Ellish "dominate 2020 Grammy nominations." The quotes are there because multiple outlets used that exact descriptor in their headlines in reference to some combination of those three artists, accenting the performers who probably resonate most with their target reader demo and would result in clicks.

I know that last bit sounds snarky, and it is. But I'm all for Lil Nas X, Lizzo, and Billie Ellish dominating the nominations, even if that doesn't really result in anything concrete outside the Grammys acknowledging that what would have previously been viewed as industry-unfriendly artists are simply the ones running the show nowadays, and that the rams needs artists like that to make them at least appear relevant.

Annnnnnnd I just realized that what started as an early morning writing exercise turned into me producing "content about topics I have no personal interest in."

Sigh.