James Taylor Quotes

Black music is too big and too powerful not to have its own awards show.

The weird thing about rap is that you don't get compared in the same way that athletes do, even though it's probably the most competitive sport in music. In basketball, they look at a player and say: 'This guy was the best in his prime at this sport.' But in rap it's not until you're dead or retired that people think about it like that.

At the end of the day, the Grammys are about recognizing genres that are making an impact.

There is so much good music in the U.S. and there is just a small section that gets recognised at the Grammys.

I don't think that the Grammys are in any way a just way of grading music.

I respect the Grammys, being a writer. But me being an artist representing hip hop? No.

The American Music Awards mean more to us; that's a people's award, and we're a people's band. The Grammys are the critics.

There are three things on my piano - my Best Villainess award, my Grammy, and my Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame statue.

I'm not a household word. The climate for original music is always a bit difficult.

If you don't have any ties to the music industry, you just love 'American Idol,' you can sit there and do exactly what you do in your living room, which is stare at them and judge them.

I think it has been a weird mistake to have people with their own music careers going on and judging people because when they're too critical, it affects them. They don't want to be that honest, because they need to keep their appearance up.

I love Mariah Carey. Remember the breakdown? I loved the breakdown.

But MTV relishes its vestigial role as a star maker, so every year it puts all its clout into making the VMAs the biggest, splashiest, loudest show-biz extravaganza of the year, honoring all this music for existing, after a year of paying barely any attention to it.

I don't think 'Sugar Man' is a music doc any more than 'The Social Network' is about computers. It just happens to have the best soundtrack ever.

Adele's amazing, I think the world of her and her music and I think Tinie Tempah is cool. To work with someone like Kanye West would be awesome.

Books don't live and die by awards. You don't listen to an Hector Lavoe album because it won some awards.

Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.

I preferred MTV as it used to be when it was about the music - I don't like it that now they just have reality shows. Reality TV rots people's brains.

I'm a genuine lover of music. I've always watched the Grammys from home.

The industry does have some influence on who gets other awards. With the Mercury Prize, they don't. Jon comes from the business, but his heart is still very much in the music. Currently, we have about 12 major names that have said they want to be a part of MUDDA.

It's a weird thing to have a Hall of Fame for rock. It's weird that I spent years worshiping the Cure, and here's the Chili Peppers, and then one gets in one doesn't. It's ridiculous. In my heart of hearts, it means nothing to me, but I do understand it means a lot to other people. It creates positivity.

The Grammy is the highest honor in music that we can receive, outside of having fans come and watch you every night and clap.

Award shows, like the Grammys, were tough on us early in hip-hop, not even televising our categories or splitting them up on best male or female or any of that. We had to earn them.

The Musicians Hall of Fame is chosen by thousands of your peers. So it's the real thing.

When I first started all this, it was mostly music fans that came along, Stones fans. But now, I'm being taken seriously. I've got highfalutin' art collectors and everything!