Mainlining the Pop Culture Zeitgeist!

Best Album of 2014? I would hazard a good guess that the four albums that were nominated by the Grammy committee were not it. I bought lots of new music in 2014 and none of the records I absolutely loved, and listened to obsessively, were nominated, and probably weren't even heard of by most people.

You know there is music, and then there is the music biz and in some ways they don't have anything to do with one another. And to compare albums and artists and to rank them and reward them with little trophies is just so ridiculous.

This isn't synchronized swimming. Hard to judge totally different things. And when it comes down to it, the music you love or don't love is all a matter of personal taste.

Of course, the Grammy's and other awards shows are all much more about money, power, and attention, and some grand status game. It's a spectacle, and a kind of debacle. This Beyonce vs. Beck thing is pretty funny. And Kayne West really is treading on thin ice. I mean he is "mainlining the pop culture zeitgeist" and you can only do that for so long before you blow out your credibility as a viable pop culture entity.

Kanye is taking it all way too seriously, or maybe not seriously enough. He is really risking becoming the "Chocolate Vanilla Ice." And he risks joining the ranks of other pop culture car crashes: Charlie Sheen, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Geraldo Rivera, Milli Vanilli... etc.