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Grammy Postmortem

Posted at 1:27 PM on February 14, 2011 by Mac Wilson (3 Comments)

Last night was the 53rd Grammy Awards, held at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony itself was largely unwatchable, stretching what couldn't have been more than a dozen awards over three-plus hours (the vast majority of awards were given in a separate, pre-telecast ceremony). I spent most of the evening reading Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball, un-muting the TV whenever an award was handed out or there was a performance that I wanted to watch.

The collaboration between Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers, and Bob Dylan was a real trip. I remarked on Twitter that it's rather amazing for that as popular as Mumford & Sons are (they've been one of the Current's most popular artists over the last year), the telecast would increase their exposure and they'd be twice as famous when they woke up this morning. We'll see where they (and the Avetts) can possibly go from here. Dylan took the stage to perform "Maggie's Farm"; Okkervil River's Twitter feed probably said it best:

"No snark for Dylan. I love him & I adore his [EXPLETIVE] voice & bizarre panache. Glad to be here just for that."

Cee-Lo's performance of "F*** You!" was another highlight, taking the stage dressed in an enormous furry outfit (complete with gigantic codpiece) alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and some familiar-looking puppets (in the words of Brent DiCrescenzo, "look, the licensing rights to the real Muppets are expensive. Hence the bootleg Russian versions.")

Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist, beating Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and the Machine, and Mumford & Sons, all of whom sold more records than her. It strikes me that Spalding has deliberately eschewed the corporate music industry machine, relying more on performances & collaborations to boost her profile; her victory, while startling, feels like a promising sign for the future of artistic self-promotion.

When I produced my Grammy preview for the Current Presents a few weeks ago, I listened to all the nominees for Record of the Year, and I can safely say that Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is the worst of the 5 songs. It really wasn't even close. Naturally, they won. I'll probably devote a separate blog entry to the (troubling?) recent trends in Record of the Year, but I didn't want this particular post to get too heavy.

Best Alternative Music Album was won by the Black Keys' Brothers (who also won an award for their cheekily minimalistic album art). This struck me as an upset, being that 1.) they beat Arcade Fire, who were up for Album of the Year, and 2.) the Black Keys aren't really "alternative" so much as they are "rock". (Muse wound up winning for best rock album). I figured it was a victory for major record label machinations and figured Arcade Fire had no shot for Album of the Year.

After Arcade Fire performed "Month of May", Barbra Streisand took the stage to announce the evening's final award, opened the envelope and read, "The..Ssssuburbs!!?" Seriously, it was was that bizarre. It was clear that Streisand had never even heard of Arcade Fire, was probably thinking ahead to screaming "The wait is over!" if Eminem won. But yes, it was true: Arcade Fire won Album of the Year. The band seemed genuinely shocked and humbled, to the point where the profanity delay had to be activated at one point during their speech. It was a great, stunning moment, watching a Canadian band on a North Carolinian indie label beat out the titans of modern pop.

Comments (3)

I thought the best part was when Arcade Fire, right after receiving their award, spontaneously went back to their instruments and played "Ready to Start:". It was an unplanned but perfect way to wind up the show.

Posted by eric | February 14, 2011 2:59 PM

Muppets are currently owned by Disney, but that is limited to the classic characters in "The Muppet Show". Jim Henson Company is seperate company. The Creature Shop, Fraggle Rock, and Dark Crystal are all part of this company.They still build puppets for Sesame Street. But, the Sesame Workshop owns the characters.

I was bored the other day, AND I was curuious.

Posted by Justin | February 15, 2011 8:45 AM

No offense to Arcade Fire, but I believe it was Eminem's lawsuit victory that cost him. His lawsuit over digital downloads took money out of the industry's hands and gave it back to the artists. They will now get 50-50 split from download sales. Because of this - the industry will never award him their prizes, imo.

I haven't seen Em get much thanks from his peers either, who will benefit from his victory. Nor are music fans seeming to appreciate this victory, as we now have the ability to see that our favorite artists are getting more of the money THEY earn. I sure as heck don't buy music to enrich executives. I'd rather my money went to my favorite artists - that's why I'm supporting them by purchasing their music in the first place. But it's thanks to Eminem that the artists will get more of their money when we purchase their music digitally.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Posted by Drae | February 15, 2011 10:22 AM

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