Music World Braces for a Low-Wattage Grammy Night ..
The Grammy Awards on Feb. 10 were supposed to be a balm to the ailing music industry, a 50th-anniversary celebration of artistry and longevity at a time of mass layoffs and sharply declining sales. Instead the music world began bracing for the latest havoc from the continuing strike by Hollywood writers, as a stalemate with the Writers Guild of America threatened to force record labels and organizers of the Grammy Awards to proceed with a show with severely diminished star wattage.
As the Writers Guild maintained on Monday that it was unlikely to grant a request from Grammy producers for an interim agreement that would allow writers and other unionized Hollywood personnel to take part in the show, talent managers, label executives and even record shops worried over prospects of a gala drained of major stars, particularly musicians who are also members of the Screen Actors Guild, which has lined up with the writers.
Lackluster turnout by the stars, executives say, could embarrass the industry and waste a much-needed opportunity to publicize artists and gin up sales. (Even if there's an agreement, one much-nominated star, the British soul singer Amy Winehouse, might not appear because of visa troubles.)
Heading toward the planned Feb. 10 broadcast, industry executives say, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Grammy telecast, has more at stake than the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which lost out on its annual moment in the spotlight last week when the strike effectively wrecked the Golden Globes gala, which was reduced to a news conference. For instance, the recording academy already has marketed a series of Grammy-branded CDs and had planned a particularly splashy show to honor the awards' 50th anniversary and build on last year's 18 percent rating jump. Grammy organizers said the show would proceed even if striking writers picket the ceremony, held at the Staples Center arena here. But that could mean a long list of no-shows, from sympathetic artists to marquee Grammy nominees who double as television or film actors, including Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and Alicia Keys.
Ms. Keys performed at a rally for striking writers last November and is widely expected to perform on the academy's program. The Foo Fighters, who are involved with a Grammy contest in which fans audition to perform with the band at the ceremony, are still scheduled to appear, according to a spokesman for the band.
Though a relatively small number of musicians might come under pressure from the Screen Actors Guild to picket or avoid the ceremony, "you could have enough where you get a critical mass, and those who wouldn't really worry about it feel awkward" about attending, said a label executive with long involvement in planning Grammy performances, who requested anonymity for fear of affecting negotiations with the writers. "I would never rule out the artists' sensibilities toward these kinds of issues."
But the writers' stance could expose new fissures in the front presented by Hollywood's labor force in its continuing standoff with major movie and television companies. In a statement late Tuesday two other entertainment unions, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the American Federation of Musicians, urged their members to participate in the Grammy program - potentially pitting them against the Writers Guild and sparking an intra-labor skirmish that might cost the writers leverage in their battle with Hollywood's movie studios.
For their part recording academy officials appeared to bristle at the intrusion of the Writers Guild into what they advertise as "music's biggest night," saying that the two music unions that support the Grammy program as planned "have long been the only ones with jurisdiction and representation of the musical talent on the show."
Fewer appearances by big artists would also lead to widespread disappointment for record-label accountants, given the typical jump in sales in the weeks after a performance on the show, which last year was watched by an estimated 20 million people. Such a moment is seen as all the more valuable in light of last year's 15 percent drop in album sales.
Last year's big winner, the Dixie Chicks, sold roughly 103,000 copies of the album "Taking the Long Way" in the first week after winning the trophy for album of the year, which represented a weekly increase of more than 700 percent, and the album rose from No. 72 to No. 8 on the Billboard chart. It was the biggest post-Grammy jump into the Top 10 in the history of the chart.
"While it's unfortunate that the record industry relies on bad TV to keep sales going, this happens to be a very important promotional event," said Jeff Rabhan, a talent manager for artists including Jermaine Dupri and Elliot Yamin. "To not be able to capitalize on that, due to events beyond the music industry's control, would be yet another blow to the already sinking balloon."
And a scaled-back Grammy show could also contribute to the troubles of record shops, which have long suffered eroding sales amid the industry's struggles with piracy and its attempted transition to digital sales.
"Not getting music on television or out in front of people is criminal," said Joe Nardone Jr., an owner of Gallery of Sound, an eight-store chain in Pennsylvania. " "It's going to be a problem. The writers' strike has already hurt a lot of artists who didn't get to be on the talk-show circuit during the holidays to talk about their records and promote themselves. Less exposure is not what we need right now."
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