What is art?

It's Grammy and Oscar season, and you know what that means: a cornucopia of Justin Timberlake performances and accolades to all the hit movies of the year you haven't heard about until now.\nYes, there are many reasons you should be averse to these tiring, marathon-style awards ceremonies, but for some reason, you just can't change the channel. You make predictions, you gasp in shock and you analyze the victors and why they should or should not have won the category. Repeat these steps about 20 times for a total of three to four hours.\nChances are, however, you will be more familiar with Grammy nominees than Oscar nominees. Where the Academy Awards tend to be an elite collection of artistically perfected films awarded regardless of box-office records, the Grammy Awards serve a much broader community by rewarding popular artists of the year. Consider, for instance, the Grammy nominees for record of the year: Mary J. Blige, James Blunt, the Dixie Chicks, Gnarls Barkley and Corinne Bailey Rae. The nominees for the Oscar-equivalent category of best picture this year are "Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Queen."\nThere is clearly a major difference in the served audience and intentions of these two prestigious artistic awards. The question is, which is more artistically ethical? Does the fact that these films are somewhat obscure to the general public mean they are products of raw talent and passion? Is a musician's popularity based merely on the fact that radio is a more accessible form of media than cinema? Does this level off the playing field as far as who is more of a genuine artist?\nThere are people who think that the Grammys commercialize music and turn it into a product, and there are people who think that the Oscars should really award some more common movies if they want to draw a bigger audience. No one can decide who is deserving of how much artistic street cred in a world where mass media have the ability to distort artistic intent. You might not have seen "Pan's Labyrinth," and you might not think the Dixie Chicks deserve the title of "artist."\nSo this year, I urge you to decide who wins each award to you.