The 2009 Grammys – Taking A Page Out Of American Idol's Playbook?

The Grammys have been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism from music lovers year after year after year. The awards show has the annoying (if not infuriating) habit of rewarding popularity much more readily than musical talent. That's why, looking at the nominees for the 2009 Grammys, it's easy to wonder whether it's trying to do certain things that made its rival, American Idol, so popular ratings-wise.

Grammy mainstays like Mariah Carey, U2, and Alicia Keys weren't as present in the lineups as everyone expected, and instead some new faces – and questionable ones at that – are poised to make waves in the show. A lot of people have asked questions why Li'l Wayne was nominated so many times – in other words, a lot of people think he doesn't deserve the attention.

But is this exactly what the Grammys intend to do? American Idol, despite being fronted by contestants with little prior exposure, have been trouncing the Grammys in TV ratings over the past several years. The 2009 lineup of Grammy nominees tend to give the average lover the notion that the Grammys are trying to reach into the American Idol viewer base by fronting new talent. The fact that they nominated Idol finalist Jennifer Hudson in four categories is probably further proof of this.

If you ask me, the Grammys is doing itself a disservice. First it rewards popularity over talent, and now they're focusing on ratings over both?

I'm a U2 fan, and I love the fact that I see Bono and the others every other year in the Grammys. And as much as I don't like Mariah Carey's brand of R&B, it was still nice to see a sense of consistency with her winning a Grammy every now and then. To see such big stars giving way to the likes of Li'l Wayne, Kanye West and Ne-Yo just feels wrong. OK, I take that back. I like Kanye.

You might say, yeah, sure, but a fan of any music genre will almost certainly dislike the other genres... it's just the culture of calling other music genres “trash” and such that's exaggerating the strange Grammy nods.

But consider this. CNN keeps a close eye on the road to the Grammys, and recently found out that while a lot of its iReporters and general music lovers loved David Archuleta's first single Crush, it was totally snubbed by the Grammys, even if it beat the deadline. To refresh your memory, Archuleta won second-place in this year's American Idol, despite having a huge following against winner David Cook.

What does this mean? To me, it's simply reaffirming the suggestion that the Grammys this year is focusing more on ratings than either popularity or talent. David Archuleta evidently has both!

In any case, I still think the music industry needs to be a little more conducive for new talent to get the exposure they need. That's what American Idol did even when it was only starting out. Hey, if William Hung managed to get his share of the spotlight, then people with real talent can too. You disagree?