Saturday, February 26, 2011

Seriously?!?

I meant to mention this last week, but never got around to it. Even though this story has come and gone, I've been stewing about it ever since.

A little background, for those of you that don't know. Last weekend, the Grammy's were held. Everyone had jumped to the assumption that Justin Bieber would win the award for Best New Artist, especially his legions of fanatic tween girl fans.

So, when the announcement was made that Esperanza Spalding, a new jazz artist, was the winner, you could hear two different reactions.

On one hand, there was the anger and outrage from Bieber's fan base. On the other side, there were cheers from those of us that are more knowledgeable of who is the better artist.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to deny that the boy has talent, just not as much as everyone seems to think. He was worthy of the nomination, just not the win.

Anyway, after the win, apparently, some of his obsessive fans...well...just read this...

Fans who have "Bieber Fever" may be downright sick.

After the 16-year-old singer lost the Best New Artist category to the little-known Esperanza Spalding at the Grammys on Sunday night, Justin Bieber fans mounted an overnight Internet assault on the jazz artist.


Spalding's Wikipedia page was vandalized within hours of his loss, as Bieber fans-turned-hackers posted a series of misstatements, insults and death threats on her page.

After a sentence noted her Grammy victory, a user wrote, "Justin Bieber deserved it go die in a hole. Who the heck are you anyway?"

Also on the site, the singer's middle name was changed to both "Justin" and later "Quesadilla."

In yet another place where her win was mentioned, a Bieber fan wrote, "Even though no one has ever heard of her! Yay!"

Indeed, Spalding pulled off the biggest upset of the evening, where the bassist also beat out Florence & the Machine, Mumford & Sons and Drake in the newcomer category.

Spalding released her third album, "Chamber Music Society," last summer and has enjoyed modest success since then. She released her first CD in 2006.

"I was one of those [surprised] people," the 26-year-old Spalding told MTV.com after her victory. "It was so unexpected, that's the truth. I'm grateful to all my people in my big musical family that have given me so much support and help over the years. I don't really think this is for me; it's for all of us."


Isn't that just sickening, sad, and insane? The fact that this was able to have been done was bad enough, but let's take a minute and think about the kind of people that would go to such measures.

I know there are plenty of times I've been disappointed with someone wining who wasn't who I was expecting, but never in a million years have I thought of doing anything to deface them.

What makes matters worse is that after this was done, he didn't step up and say anything. Not like that would have done anything, but we all know that had this been someone like, say, Beyonce, everyone would be expecting her to come out and say something distancing herself from these deplorable acts.

Guess we better watch out come Sunday if there is an upset in the Oscars. Someone may attack their wikipedia pages.

This is just...I don't really know what to say about it. Here's something else, though, the day after the Grammy's and Bieber's upset it was announced that they would be bringing the Billboard Music Awards back to TV.

Is it just me, or does the timing of that seem to be jut to find a way to get Bieber some awards (as if he won't get enough at the MTV, Kid's Choice, Teen Choice, etc....the ones that are voted on by popularity and not talent)?

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding her win, this girl is talented. It's great to see a real musician win a music award and not some manufactured, over hyped boil on the butt of society.

In conclusion, let me leave you with a bit of Esperanza's music. Like most of the world, I hadn't heard of her until she won....and I'm a jazz fan!

3 comments:

Sandi said...

I'll be honest. I saw Justin Bieber's homemade personal youtube videos long before he became famous and I had been impressed. I thought "wow, that kid can sing." You see a lot of homemade videos on youtube and some stand out. His did for me. Now that he has gotten so famous it's not the same. It's out of control and you have all these teen girls going nuts for him. I personally think it ruins a person's chances of making it big AFTER those teen girls grow up. What happened to New Kids on the Block? lol I saw them sing recently. *shudder* They have gotten older, and lost much of what made them famous before. I honestly hope it doesn't happen to this kid. I hope he can break away from all the nonsense and take his music seriously. He can actually play many different instruments. He has some talent in there if it weren't hidden in all this glitz and glamor. As for the girl who won, I don't know her. But I appreciate real music that isn't edited, chopped, sliced and diced on the sound room floor. I really hate autotune. I want someone who can truly show me genuine talent. I'll have to listen to her.

Lin said...

Well, I think the true talent won. I am tired of manufactured talents, and while Bieber might be talented, I think he is waayyyyy overrated.

Mystery Man said...

Sandi - yeah, the kid does have some talent, but not as much as everyone (under 16) seems to think. I think he's going ot end up either like Usher or Chris Brown...still makking music for awhile, some hits, but one the next big thing comes along, we'll all be like Justin who? Remember this time last year it was all about Miley and the Jonas Brothers...lol

Lin - indeed...and yet some record producer called for a meeting with the Grammy committe saying that the wrong person won (he also said something about Eminem should have won whatever category he lost in...geesh!)