The big news from my colleagues in Europe who wake up before me is that both The King’s Singers and Hilary Hahn are nominated for GRAMMIES. We have Hahnda Accord in Best Classical Album and Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra), and All The King’s Singers’ Horses and All the King’s Singers’ Men in Best Classical Crossover Album. Now let’s see…six Singers plus one Hahn times two tickets each minus four managers minus one mother minus wives and children…yeah, there’s no way I’m getting to that ceremony. (((Sigh.)))
Awards are funny. David wins the Pulitzer and suddenly presenters who didn’t love his music before are banging (on a can) down his door. When a friend of mine’s client didn’t win a Grammy last year and he was upset about it, I said, come on, she’s unbelievably successful: what would a Grammy really do for her career at this point? Legitimize her as an artist? Hardly. Well, he said, I would have liked to add “Grammy Award-winning artist X….” to the first line of her bio.
I have found that the Grammies are a point of reference for the “outside world” about classical artists, that is, a way to let people who haven’t heard of a certain artist know he or she is “that good”. Sometimes, I’ll meet someone and the conversation will go like this:
What do you do? Classical music PR.
Oh, that’s cool. Name someone you work for. Is it? And…Hilary Hahn?
Mmmm…don’t know her. She’s a violinist. Mmm…. She played for the Pope’s 80th birthday. Weird, OK…. She played on ‘The Village’ soundtrack. I loved ‘Sixth Sense’. She won a Grammy. Oh! Cool, great, yeah.
So the Grammies are a cultural touchstone – is this the right use of that phrase? – or, perhaps more accurately, a popular culture mile marker of success. What is that worth, though, monetarily speaking, slash, what does winning a Grammy mean for an artist’s overall profile?
Both The Kings Singers and Hilary have won Grammies before, so I already get to slap “Grammy Award-winning…” next to their names in their bios and pop-culture-mile-marker-of-success name-drop “Grammy” to folks outside the industry.** BUT – would Grammy wins this year result in, oh, what’s the word – “album sales”? Does a shiny Grammy sticker on an album make the difference (it might), or is there more we can do to channel the win of a mainstream award into recording and concert revenue?
**Not that this means we should “give someone else a chance” (boo, ridiculous) and that all seven Life’s a Pitch readers shouldn’t vote for my British lads and all-American girl! Also, for changing record industry sales and marketing forever by virtue of “getting it out quickly“, Radiohead’s In Rainbows is the official Life’s a Pitch choice for Album of the Year.
Update, 12/4 like, 10:18 AM – Grammy voters vote on all categories, no matter what their particular genre of choice, correct? So, let’s say voters who know classical music are reading this blog/will read the press release I’m about to send out – that’s great. But how do I reach voters who are super psyched to get out there and vote for “N.i.*.*.e.r (The Slave and The Master)” in Category 31, Best Rap Solo Performance? They might be sleeper King’s Singers fans! You-never-know. And anyone who doesn’t think someone voting for “Back to Back Hall of Fame Polkas” in Category 76, you guessed it, Best Polka Album wouldn’t vote for the Schoenberg if they had heard it is simply incorrect. I want those votes!
Honestly, a Grammy helps newcomers into a genre pick some easy to listen first steps, (especially when the distributor puts those helpful stickers on them) but the album sales bump come when folks you don’t know perform on the show and knock it out of the park.
I went out immediately after the Tony’s and got the Spring Awakening album after the cast performed. And a LOT of folks went to go find Once after Hansard and Irglova performed at the Oscars.
Involuntary exposure.
Just to touch on the “The Village” reference, I’ve always been surprised that more big name classical artists don’t get involved in soundtrack work. From my point of view (that would be the view of a sound engineer at a regional performing arts centre), the public at large gets most of its exposure to classical music from film scores and advertising. Why don’t more artists try and hop on those bandwagons? I know that there are a handful of studio orchestras that record most film scores, but would it be that hard to have a soloist come in and record a few movements? Sure, it’s not high art by any stretch of the imagination, but if the term “Grammy Award Winner” raises eyebrows, just imagine what “Oscar Award Winner” could do. Movie scores are a gateway drug; I got into Wagner as a seven year old because I told my mom I wanted to “go hear the Star Wars kind of music” and she took me to see Tristan and Isolde.