Win some, lose none!

HIGH NOTES

Growing up, I distinctly remember being caught up in the Grammy frenzy that to my disappointment came just once a year. It was a time for young boys such as myself to reinforce our notion that we possessed some amount of musical expertise when it came to international bands, charts etc.

As to who cared about our musical knowledge in the real world, well that's a different story and one that little geniuses like to ignore. This enthusiasm might have been better placed in school (so my mother would say)!

Self-important as I was, it was a matter of mere pondering to conclude that REM, TLC and Pearl Jam were to be the big winners in a given year.

Obviously, more often than not our predictions were wrong but there were always heated back-up arguments based on our aesthetic understanding of music and how the world might have far been better off leaving the judging of truly good music to the likes of us.

As time went by, one began to lose that nearly maniacal enthusiasm reserved for the greatest music award show on earth. Maturity opened my eyes and I soon realised that all I really knew about music was that I knew very little about it.

And so, in the last many years, the awards took a backseat and the search for varied forms of music and artists ensued. Since then, I've often missed the Grammys with little or no regret.

But this month! Within a week of each other, two of the biggest award shows in the world are taking place and I'll be damned if I miss either. From the looks of it the 48th Grammy Awards and the Annual Brit Awards (both on February 8) are gearing up to be the most exciting musical awards in years.

Not just because they are going to be entertaining as hell (though the Gorillaz and Madonna performing together, as they are at the Grammys, is good enough reason to watch any show on earth), but because of the sheer calibre of talent that's been the mainstay of last year.

Since the passing of my musical naivete, I've come to see both the Grammy Awards and the Brit Awards as a snazzy presentation of all things popular. But scaling the nomination lists of both award shows has taught me that popular music released over the last year has reached the hilt.

In their 108 categories, the Grammy Awards have covered everything from Record Of The Year to Packaging. And while Kanye West, Mariah Carey and John Legend lead the fray with their eight nominations, it's the combination of acts like Greenday, Coldplay, Gwen Stefani. Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem, Paul McCartney, The Arcade Fire and many more that actually make this nominations list so much more impressive than the days when the Chemical Brothers, to their own bewilderment, won the award in the Best Rock Instrumental Category for the song, "Block Rockin' Beats".

And then there's the Brit Awards with their 15 categories that help us sum up British Music and all that's penetrated their shores. Going by their nominations, it's been an outstanding year for them. James Blunt, the highest selling artist of the year in the UK, leads with five nominations while Coldplay comes in second with four.

Other British nominations include Antony and the Johnsons, Katie Melua, The Magic Numbers, KT Tunstall, Gorillaz, Kate Bush and Paul Weller who has been chosen for the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.

On the international front, the Brits have nominated Madonna, Jack Johnson, The White Stripes, Bjork and Beck. Name one of those artists who don't deserve an award in their own field and I will fight you to the death.

As a friend told me, it's a pity that physical music sales aren't doing as well as they used to because there seems to be no stopping the label A&R departments in sourcing some of the most brilliant music that we have seen in ages.

The mass of breakthrough and revived talent is more than evident from the nominations in both the Brits and the Grammys. And if there's one thing I've learnt, it is that in the end, the winners don't matter: the music does.