Strolling down the Venice boardwalk, I take a few moments to let my curiosity consume me as a crowd begins to form around a young boy moonwalking to a static filled rendition of Beat it by Michael Jackson. I continue on until I see a small coffee shop, I take my seat and continue my favorite hobby of people watching. Sitting next to me is a girl decked in multiple brightly colored braids that cascade down her back with a huge instrument case beside her. She stands up to hug me. This beautiful girl’s name is Zoe Jackson and she had a lot to say about her music, Taylor Swift and the pressures of mainstream award shows.
As she sips her drink and waits for her chocolate muffin, she opens up about her early exposure to music. Zoe’s whole life is music, starting at age 6 when she learned how to play the piano. Adoring the jazz her father played around the house, she decided to start a band at age 12. A band that still plays live all around Los Angeles. Her artistic vision is what she’s really passionate about. She combines her vision with her band mates saying “we had a similar idea of what we wanted our genre to be, which was Jazz-fusion, we always bounced ideas off each other to make it cohesive”.
As a new artist, she is reflective of her music as a small contribution to the huge industry in Los Angeles, she describes this in a comparison to the Grammys,
“I only care about the performances to be honest because that’s what I love to do”. Zoe looks away and admires the art on the wall before she continues, “you know, its so crazy cause the people who vote for the nominations and winners are bullshit. They’re all old and most of the time don’t know anything about anything and aren’t representative of what people want- you never hear of those winners because its not pop, RnB or rap or whatever”. Zoe continuously struggles to book venues and find an appreciative audience as she searches for representation or an agent. “There’s so many people who win or are so talented that never get talked about unless it’s album of the year”. This portrayal of the Grammys is not unheard of, especially amongst people within the millennial generation. According to Variety, while it “produced a slight year-over-year increase in overall viewership…it fell to a seven-year low in the key young-adults demo”. Which means more and more young people are becoming disinterested in award shows.
As award season comes and goes, One cant help but wonder if a Grammy puts even more pressure on an artist to shape their goal into awards instead of creative progression. She gave an enlightening response: “I don’t think I have ever thought- oh I need a Grammy, its almost cooler to perform than to win, even when you win its not like people will go out and listen to you so really there’s no point, I gave up on that, I focus on contributing my work and trying to mold it into something better and new”. This view on how the value of a Grammy is almost insignificant is hard to prove wrong since, according to the Rolling Stone, some of the biggest artists in the world haven't won a Grammy. Some artists include, Snoop Dogg, Tupac, and Guns and Roses, to name an iconic few. As she receives her chocolate muffin, she declares, “These muffins are the shit, you should really get one”, I politely decline and let her scarf down the oozing chocolate pastry.
Zoe waves a few of her braids out of her face and offers to buy me a scone. As I admire her instrument case she tells me “its my bass, I have, like, four in my apartment. They grow with me. I got this one as a gift”. As she sips her mocha latte her face gets red and passionate as she raises her voice and says “Just be sure you write this down -fuck Taylor Swift”.
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