ONCE AGAIN the time of year has rolled around when, whether you want to or not, you have to hear about everyone's awards nominations. Open a newspaper or turn on the tube and you'll be engulfed in the Hollywood machine trying to inform everyone about whose acting performance was best, what album you should buy or what film you must see because it is the absolute best piece of celluloid processed this year.
Against our wills, we actually begin to use the award nominations as our own ratings system and we become entrenched in the seasonal war of words the entertainment industry has designed to ensnare us. Even though we'd like to believe that there is some legitimacy in an awards nomination, we should be more aware as consumers that the practices of Hollywood's awards show season is all industry hype to get at our wallets.
Every year, we say we don't care, but come January we can't help but notice the commercials about how many Golden Globe nominations a film has received. We actually begin to take the advice of obscure French and Japanese news journalists about what films are actually worth seeing.
We'd never do that at any other time, but when we see that ad boasting about the film's acting performances, we can't help but wonder whether it's worth taking a look at.
Already, Hollywood has made its annual move on us, and just like every year, we fall prey.
The American Music Awards catches our eyes as we flip the channels, and after watching lackluster performance after performance of the artists we thought we liked, we take note of who's accepting the awards. We come to think we've been missing something by not buying Eminem's album. But the truth is, we haven't. We're just overdosed with nomination fever, and even though we deny it, we secretly take it all in.
Just a small circle of entertainment insiders actually decide the outcome of any of these self-indulgent events, but somehow their thought-politics affect us all. Most people don't pay attention to the fact that film and record companies shell out big bucks to get their artists or movies noticed. Films with little hope of doing well at the box office invest a good portion of their budget into sending advanced copies to voters and setting up private screenings to ensure their product's success when the awards nominations roll out. When the strategy works, we begin to believe that there has been underground material bubbling just under the surface that we have yet to see -- and then we actually go out and buy it. The scam works every time.
After artists are nominated, they can then present themselves as worthy of notice, and soon the sales of their products jump. We flock to see films we wouldn't have thought of seeing otherwise, meanwhile others are even re-released or wait until awards time to open so they recieve notice. Record stores re-stock with nominated material, and the whole lot of us is duped into thinking that this is the best that entertainment has to offer -- and of course, being over-indulgent, we have to have it.
Even those who've supported the less-than-well-known artists or films prior to nominations feel validated by the process because they supported the artist beforehand, and feel like they've discovered the artist or movie for themselves.
The truth is that oftentimes, the best actors and songwriters are over-looked for more popular ones. The exposure popular shows receive makes them shoe-ins -- but chances are awards insiders don't have a clue about what "the best" is because they haven't even seen it or heard it.
Essentially we are fed the idea that we should keep on watching what we're watching, or keep supporting certain movie stars, because a few insiders say they're the best -- when in fact it's our viewership dollars that allow Hollywood to perpetuate the never-ending cycle.
The need for everyone to have an awards show is proof that what was once giving someone an honor is now a calculated industry practice and a sure sign of good business. Aside from the film critics from Los Angeles and New York, the actors themselves produce an awards show, to couple with self-aggrandizing recognition from the big willies of awards show hype -- the Grammys, Oscars andEmmys.
Industry companies have gotten in on the business, too, with the Billboards, the Blockbusters, TV Guides, BETs and MTVs. Even the magazines "People" and "Teen People" have a choice in deciding what's hot and what's not. With greater popularity, other forms of entertainment like sports are jumping on the awards show bandwagon: the ESPY Awards, where sports stars increase their notoriety, will eventually turn into dollars for jerseys and golf clubs. The smartest business move was taken by the E! network, which banks on the awards show frenzy by having pre- and post-shows to analyze the clothes of awards show guests, taking awards shows to the point where E! can capitalize off of the fact that people are simply wearing clothes.
By now awards shows have gone far beyond the point of recognizing quality acting or music. The Hollywood money machine has managed to turn the once noble act of honoring their best into a big business practice.
I know I say I don't care just like you do, but the fact remains that in the back of my mind I am paying close attention, too. In fact, I have to remember that this Thursday I'm going to see The Hours, I'm picking up Norah Jones' album from the record store, and of course I have to remember to set the VCR for Friends.
(Kazz Alexander Pinkard's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at kpinkard@
cavalierdaily.com.)
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