One Final Oscar Rant: What's The Deal With The Song Category?

After a decade of various Oscar revisions that have increased the transparency of the selection process, the music committee is starting to look like the ultimate insiders’ club.
This year saw music branch members taking in songs in two screening sessions, one in L.A. and one in New York, to decide not only what should be included, but whether it should be three, four or five nominees based on the numerical scores given by each attendee.
Out of 59 tunes deemed eligible, three nominations went to Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz — precisely the number of tunes that were submitted and precisely the number of songs in "Enchanted" that were eligible.
Disney stalwart Menken and Broadway master Schwartz are certainly in the premier league of their craft, but there’s a persistence in Oscar’s music wing that the old way was the best way — songwriter, arranger, orchestrator, singer — as opposed to the more modern and inventive use of songs in films such as “Into the Wild” and “Walk Hard.” The longtime club members seem too insistent on wanting to honor one of their own.

For every glimpse of hope — Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” Jorge Drexler’s “El Otro Lado del Rio” and Three 6 Mafia’s ditty about the rough life of a being pimp — there’s a sign that some things will never change. Last year, voters were given a ballot with three songs from “Dreamgirls” – and most of that Broadway show had been written two decades earlier — the year before saw only three nominees and the “Crash” eligibility” dust-up; and the year before that found its creak factor in “Phantom of the Opera.”
Before we tag it an old boys network — they did turn their backs on “Hairspray’s" one new tune — the two non-“Enchanted” nominees are definitely not from the old mold. “Raise It Up,” one of four tunes from “August Rush” and the one with an apparent songwriting credit of the Impact Repertory Theater, is about as unlikely an Oscar contender as “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” Were it or “Once’s” “Falling Slowly” to win, perhaps the branch would see the folly in allowing three songs from one picture to make it into the finals. The nominations suggest a love of the old-school musical, but the multiple noms merely split the voters — the lack of consensus has generally meant a victory for the outsider.
From 1990 to 2000 the tone was set as the Oscars honored animated musicals, Broadway and rock legends Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. The voters played into the nominating committee’s hands.
Then it started falling apart: They got Randy Newman off the schneid; rap beat “Chicago”; and a Spanish language tune beat a collection of warm and fuzzy songs. Suddenly it was anyone’s game.
To get to today’s class of nominees, the committee had to ignore Eddie Vedder’s lauded songs for “Into the Wild,” the multi-genre and era tracks from “Walk Hard,” and works by John Legend, Sheryl Crow and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne. Does the Academy fear a pop music hit parade or the end of the classic movie musical? Change is supposed to be good — and the folks in the documentary and shorts branches have learned.
The only winner in this is Oscar show producer Gil Cates. He gets a collection of songs that can stylistically go together, are not locked in to a visual association  and don’t require the appearances of superstar acts. Beats having to get from “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” to “Shaft.”