I Didn't Watch the Grammys

It's true, I didn't.  I thought about it, but I always cry at tributes.  I don't really follow pop music and I'm not into spectacles like this.  The Facebook posts about Nicki Minaj, however, were enough to make me seek out the performance on YouTube.

I understand that people were offended by the presentation and by the mocking of religion.  I'd like to point out, however, that this is nothing new.  Songs about exorcism have been around for a very long time and are well-known in the literature of classically trained musicians.  They're called Tarantellas.

Musicians and artists have been satirizing the Church and giving it a hard time since at least the 11th century when the Carmina Burana hit the shelves, so to speak.

Here's the difference: in the 11th Century, and for a long time after that, people had a better reason to satirize organized religion.  For a long time, the Church was the only major ruling power in the world.  If you were rich, you could buy forgiveness, but if you were poor you weren't being helped at all.  For the most part, things have changed since the middle ages.  Churches of all kinds have set up outreach to help people.  Since the separation of Church and state, no organized religion has any power in government.  Religious persecution continues, yes, but it's kept better in check in 2012 than it was in 1180.

I don't have too much of a problem with what Nicki Minaj might refer to as "performance art."  I'm all for free speech (well...except for this.)  The one instance in which Nicki Minaj crossed the line was her allusion to sex abuse in the Catholic Church.  If you're going to protest it, protest it.  Here's a good example.  When it's to enhance a performance of completely unrelated material and as background dancing, however, it's insensitive, pure and simple.

The biggest problem that I had with the performance was that the song truly stunk.  There was no real complexity or depth, the singing was average at best, and I finished watching with no idea what Nicki Minaj was trying to communicate.  People might praise the performance as avant grade or unique, but the bottom line is that you can't put makeup on a pig.