Award Shows, Do We Need Them? February 14, 2011

If you’ve known me on a personal level long enough, you’d know that I think of most Awards Shows as farces.  That gladly includes organizations such as the Academy or Golden Globes.  Over the entire span of my life, I’ve not only disagreed with their decisions on what makes a good movie, actor, song, or director but the very people and movies I believe should win an award for Best (Insert Award Here) of the Year not only don’t win, but  don’t even receive a nomination.  See it happen enough times and you start to look down upon the Awards Organizations in general and start to think, “What’s the point of having a Best Award for anything when the actual best of the year aren’t even up for nomination?”  I know a lot of people were thinking along those lines when the Academy spat in the face of Christopher Nolan in 2008 by not nominating The Dark Knight, the actual best picture of that year, for Best Picture.

You could say, “Oh you’re just being egotistical again by thinking your opinions of what makes a good film is better than anyone else’s.”  Now, normally you’d be right.  But seriously, if the movies that I believe deserve the awards aren’t even nominated, and a lot of my peers are listing off names of their own favorites of the year which aren’t getting nominations either, you slowly come to the conclusion there’s a fix in place somewhere, and if you’ve continued to see a downward trend where lousy movies you’ve never heard of not only get nominated but win awards they have no business winning, you lose faith in a system which claims to declare a true BEST.

Then there’s the Grammys, which are awards for music, not movies.  I’ve seen parts of a few of them.  I have always wondered why most of the awards don’t actually get presented to the winners on stage, and instead just have their names called out, and why the majority of the awards aren’t mentioned or given out on the actual awards show.  Steven Colbert learned that one a few years ago when his self narrated book didn’t win a Grammy a few years ago.  They never even broadcasted the section of the show for category he was up for.  He had to find out he lost online.

But, something surprising happened at the Grammys this year.  A song which was made specifically for a video game won an award last night.  “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin won “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)”.  This is a fantastic song I first heard accompanied by a full orchestra on the Video Games Live Level 2 Blu-Ray.  I am ashamed to admit I was never a Civ player despite the heavy classic gaming pedigree that goes with that franchise (and it’s Game God creator) but I was just blown away by this song.

It is my guess that the Grammys had absolutely no idea that this game was originally designed for a video game theme, as it was introduced in this year’s Grammys for Christopher Tin’s Album Calling all Dawns, which released on CD in 2009.  Although games have had fully composed scores on the level of movies for the past ten years, Best Video Game Score is NOT a category the Grammys recognises, and because of that a lot of fantastic scores over the last ten years have gone ignored by the Grammys, which is seen by a lot of musicians as the award only the greatest of them can aspire to.

If you’re a fan of the song as I am, here’s the official music video for it made for Civilization IV.  The game has been out for five years now, so you might be able to find yourself a copy if you wish.  If you don’t want to play, you can buy his CD Calling all Dawns, which is what got him the nomination in the first place.  The game is also featured on the Video Games Live tour, and it is one of the songs on the Video Games Live Level 2 DVD and Blu-Ray concert. 

Congrats to Christopher Tin and the makers of Civilization.  Your win has broken down a barrier of hypocrisy that deserved to be trampled.

UPDATE:  The Video Games Live Official Site states that Calling all Dawns won the award for Best Classical Crossover album.  So that’s two for Christopher Tin.