DeeDee's (not-so) Daily Drudgery

Thursday night the Dove Awards were handed out in Atlanta, and a good chunk of Christian artists, producers, and other industry types were in attendance.  Apparently, a group of industry folks, which may or may not include recording artists/singers, or people who were nominated and did or didn't win (don't make assumptions, people), created a Twitter account called @DoveJokes, and proceeded to make wise cracks about the goings-on during the lengthy show.  According to a tweet from @DoveJokes, the account was started as "playful banter between artist [sic] during the doves [sic] show."

Toward the end of the show, after the show, and during the day Friday, the majority of the tweets turned to not-so-subtly accusing Word Label Group of block voting, which would essentially imply that the ballots were stuffed in favor of Word artists over other nominees. 

While I don't condone the tone of the posts, I think that if that was the perception of a number of the attendees of the Dove Awards, it is something that needs some serious discussion in the industry.  As a person who, if the opportunity presented itself, would like to be a recording artist, if I were in attendance and came back with that perception, it would completely turn me off to the Christian music industry.  Do artists get more free promotion from radio and other media based upon winning a Dove?  I don't know.  But if there is a problem with the voting, it needs to be fixed.  Not just because it's dishonest and goes against Christian principles, but because it's an unethical way to do business. And there are various consequences of that type of behavior, both spiritual and temporal. 

Despite what many Christian music fans may think, the primary focus of the music industry, including the "Christian" labels, is making a profit.  Just because someone has put together a special club industry for musicians with Jesus-based lyrical content, does not mean it's a church community, and does not mean that ministry is the industry's primary focus. It's a big, corporation-driven industry, and at the end of the day they are in the business of Christian music, not the music ministry.

Could those with beef over the voting have handled this differently?  Of course.  If there are channels within the GMA in which to lodge complaints then they should have used them.  But, how do we know they haven't already?  Maybe they are frustrated and disgruntled by a system that's not listening to them?  Or maybe not.  We don't know.

So the fact of the matter is, we need not get involved in judging anyone involved in this -- Word, @DoveJokes, artists who won or lost.

I won't be watching the Doves on Sunday.  Not because I don't want to, but because I don't get the Gospel Music Channel.  But really, my attitude is this:  If these musicians are doing music with excellence for the glory of God, then why do the Dove Awards even matter?

That is all.