Viewpoint: Grammy performances unsatisfactory to viewers of all ages
Performances by artists ranging from Nicki Minaj to Sir Paul McCartney seem like a sure way to draw viewers of all ages, but as we saw at the 54th annual Grammy Awards last night, this is not always the case.
Yesterday, Paste BN collegiate correspondent Chris Shores interviewed five college students in the Northeast. The majority of the students interviewed weren't interested in watching the Grammys for various reasons.
At an age when they are both in tune with what’s current and old enough to appreciate the past, college students seem like the ideal target group for the annual Grammy broadcast.
Are these New England students representative of the general college mindset? If most college students aren't interested in watching the Grammys, what do other age groups think?
One method of finding answers is following people of various ages on Twitter during the show and monitoring their responses to the various winners and performances.
The results were somewhat surprising -- many college students tweeted that they were too young to appreciate performances by the Beach Boys and Paul McCartney.
But during Deadmau5’s crazy electronic number, some editors tweeted that they were too old to understand what was happening.
Abby Gardner, Marie Claire’s site director, tweeted from her personal account that the Deadmau5 performance made her “feel 10000 years old.” Other editor in their 20's and 30's shared similar reactions.
Some reactions, though, were relatively standard across the board.
Everyone was baffled by Nicki Minaj’s performance, which appeared to attack organized religion. Many jokes were made about old men in cream colored blazers.
Old and young people alike found Adele’s snot particularly endearing as she accepted her Best Album award in tears.
Even the people tweeting from their publications’ accounts didn't hold back from sharing honest opinions about their disappointment with the show’s performances.
Vulture, New York Magazine’s entertainment blog, called Sir Paul’s first performance “boring” in one of their tweets and said that Chris Brown’s second performance was “jarring” in another.
Another sentiment that drew Twitter users together was a general feeling of indignation that Chris Brown performed twice, especially given the fact that Jennifer Hudson’s awe-inspiring Whitney Houston tribute was a shortened version of just one song.
Zooey Deschanel’s website, HelloGiggles, had published an article about why Chris Brown performing twice was problematic within an hour of the show’s ending.
But this reaction wasn't entirely universal -- though most other celebrities shared the anti-Brown sentiment, a number of young people were in favor of Brown’s performances.
In an article titled “25 Extremely Upsetting Reactions to Chris Brown at the Grammys,” BuzzFeed provides screenshots of Twitter users with messages in support of the singer.
Tweeters also shared a love of Adele’s appearance, lauding both of her gowns, blonde hair and tactful use of false eyelashes.
And Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s head designer, still can’t live down his comment that implied she was fat.
Celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson tweeted from his personal account that Adele’s performance was incredible.
After the show ended, it looked like those New England students were onto something by choosing not to watch the Grammy Awards last night.
Even the professionals couldn't contain their disdain for the majority of performances.
Meghan DeMaria is a Spring 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.