Let's Watch the Grammys! (ca. 2011)

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LAST YEAR'S THREAD: Let's Watch the Grammys! (ca. 2010)

um . . . LAST YEAR'S THREAD: Let's Watch the Grammys! (ca. 2010)

not looking forward to Eminem winning everything AT ALL

was Eminem's album really that big over there? i honestly had no idea. biggest seller of the year or something.

eminem's already lost in five or his 10 categories. he's won one (best rap solo perf, "not afraid"). jay-z on the other hand is cleaning up so far.

five OF his 10

God plz make Florence Welch shut up.

i don't fuck w/ her music but she kinda killed that imo

i missed the very beginning, is there any particular reason this random assemblage of women is opening the show with an Aretha medley?

I just hate the timbre of Florence's voice, especially when she's grouped with women who can actually sing instead of just wail.

They didn't say. I suspect it's because she has advanced pancreatic cancer? I mean. Not to be totally morbid but I 'm worried that they know something we don't and we'll be getting the news in the next day or two?

Aretha has pancreatic cancer and the Grammys marketing folks figured having a Brit, a country singer, a pop singer, a gospel singer etc would be the best way to pay tribute

Aretha!

SOme Dude's fave group

Well he liked "Hey Soul Sister"

wait did i hear that train won?

TRAIN? oh, the grammys.

hot for '11 = shoulder points

Think she made a mistake by releasing the single on Friday, because this is definitely how it should've debuted.

Nope. Still not any good. Even in an egg.

Think she made a mistake by releasing the single on Friday, because this is definitely how it should've debuted.

Apparently that was her original plan, but changed her mind because she couldn't wait.

SOme Dude's fave group

― curmudgeon, Sunday, February 13, 2011 8:22 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well he liked "Hey Soul Sister"

― curmudgeon, Sunday, February 13, 2011 8:23 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i like "Drops of Jupiter" and "Meet Virginia" too! i'm reasonably certain there are some bands i like more than 3 songs by, though.

Washington Post on awards given out pre-show:

Some other notable winners from the early portion: A humbled and honored Mavis Staples took home the award for best Americana album for the Jeff Tweedy-produced "You Are Not Alone." Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" was good enough to be nominated for Album of the Year but not good enough to win Best Alternative Album. That award went to the Black Keys for "Brothers." The Black Keys made it two-for-two over Arcade Fire by besting them in best rock performance by a duo or group. Grammys logic at its finest. Neil Young won his first ever Grammy for music, taking home the award for best rock song. (He previous won for packaging.) Young lost out to Paul McCartney in the best rock solo vocal performance, though. Jay-Z and John Legend each scored three early trophies

Neil Young's first ever Grammy for music!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/13/AR2011021301011.html

Pre-show stuff. Mavis Staples' first ever Grammy

in the grammys' defense, neil young's packaging has always been fantastic

Muse is gross, y'all.

seriously

what's with those fake fan dudes running around on stage?

Fake rioters! They're so hip. And is that a "call Me" (Blondie) sample for this old Muse song

is this streaming anywhere

I'm watching it on c h a n n e l s u r f . e u / w a t c h - c b s . h t m l

lol @ the live version of hey soul sister winning

Is that really our own ILXer Jess harvell doing the official live blog (he looks different in that photo)

http://www.grammy.com/blogs/53rd-annual-grammy-awards-liveblog

Who are these children, really? They actually appear to all be in their 40s.

bruno mars iz sooooo dreamy :')

chick is hurting my ears

thank you!

I like Janelle although I think Jannelle Monae's closet contains only white blouses and black pants

janelle needs more autotune

JM is a void of corny contrivance and the most superficial definition of 'talent' imo

I thought she sounded fine Mr. Train fan

Answering curmudgeon a few posts back -- yep, that's him.

I thought she sounded fine Mr. Train fan

― curmudgeon, Sunday, February 13, 2011 8:59 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark

what's the dorkiest artist you've ever enjoyed 2-3 singles by so i can address you with some condescending bullshit like this whenever i disagree with you?

that picture of jess looks like its post-school shooting or something. ha! what the hell!?

gaga thing was cool.

that's what jess looks like IRL, guys

but then i'm a madonna fan who doesn't really wanna watch madonna too much any more, so she'll do in a pinch.

Was curious to find out if Janelle Monáe was actually ever out of costume, and I found a couple photos on google. She cute.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oWKQxM5qwbY/TRK9DvIYfaI/AAAAAAAAAKc/VtOs2X9ItYg/s1600/janelle+monae+01.jpg

plus, jess is exactly nine feet tall.

yay miranda! even though that performance was :(

Also I think Adele's 25 was so tailored to Grammy voters' tastes that it was pretty much destined to win Album of the Year, before it was even released.

The New Vaudeville Band in 67 is particularly terrible:

Winner 1967: New Vaudeville Band for "Winchester Cathedral"[4]
The Association for "Cherish"
The Beach Boys for "Good Vibrations"
The Beatles for "Eleanor Rigby"
The Mamas & the Papas for "Monday, Monday"
The Monkees for "Last Train to Clarksville"

Channel Orange is a safe record, closer to Beck than Beyonce, much less Kendrick.

oh man up up and away is such fucking garbage, gross, over Ode to Billie Joe ffs!

Winner 1968: Johnny Rivers & Marc Gordon (producers) & The 5th Dimension for "Up, Up and Away"[3]
Bobbie Gentry and Kelly Gordon (producers) for "Ode to Billie Joe"
Glen Campbell and Al De Lory (producers) for "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
Petula Clark and Tony Hatch (producers) for "Don't Sleep in the Subway"
Ray Charles and Joe Adams (producers) for "Yesterday

Best New Artist 1975

Marvin Hamlisch (winner)
Bad Company
David Essex
Graham Central Station
Johnny Bristol
Phoebe Snow

HAMLISCH ON THE SCENE KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

look at the shit that won in the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Steviewonder_innervisions.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/Fulfillingness%27_First_Finale.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/Songs_in_the_key_of_life.jpg

1973-1976 more or less the only time the Grammys were incontestably correct.

Yep....The exception

checks out...

Best New Arist 1973

America (Winner)
Eagles
Harry Chapin
John Prine
Loggins and Messina

94 is kinda funny, the academy trying to wrap their heads around the times

Best New Artist 1994
Toni Braxton (winner)
Belly
Blind Melon
Digable Planets
SWV

Also Channel Orange was terrible.

― ornate orchestral arrangements (DJP), 13. februar 2017 18:29 (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, yeah. But it lost to Mumford and Sons...

ya seems to me the "race problem" is more of a "voters have an affinity for boring classic rock" problem

people always pull out the "it's an industry award, what did you expect!!" excuse every time this happens as if we don't have relative non-sellers like "please read the letter" and morning phase winning record and album of the year every ~5 years

voters need not have actual ill will toward people of color for the process to be functionally racist, like hello

honestly it's basically a miracle every time poc who aren't "legacy acts" win one of the big categories

ya seems to me the "race problem" is more of a "voters have an affinity for boring classic rock" problem

― frogbs, Monday, February 13, 2017 5:43 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these are not separate problems!

ding ding ding

yeah why do you suppose voters have an affinity for boring classic rock hmm

A few thoughts...

If the artists (black + white) think the voters consistently get it wrong, do what Frank did: don't participate--acceptance, performance, and attendance. The award is only validated because they're all there (no clue if this is actually possible from a recording contract perspective and understand they probably get sales bumps from performing).

I agree with the Slate piece about how to fix the problem, re: voter demographics, but couldn't they just make voters rank all five albums and use a weighted points system? Wouldn't this resolve the vote splitting phenomenon?

Highlights for me were the Sturgill and Tribe performances. The latter ("RESIST RESIST RESIST RESIST") was a welcome wake up after a series of banal messages about unity and "a time of uncertainty".

I think the Grammy's has actually done a pretty good job in recent years of spotlighting emerging artists w/ performances (thinking of Miguel and Brandy Clark in the recent past, Sturgill and Paak last night).

yeah why do you suppose voters have an affinity for boring classic rock hmm

isn't the average age of these voters like 100

are the grammy voters the same people who sold the record industry to spotify for $24 in beads, or are those different industry people?

this crotchety music forum i frequent ranked david freakin bowie over beyonce

yeah boy am i sick of records by white men always topping out ilx's 77

The New Vaudeville Band in 67 is particularly terrible:

Winner 1967: New Vaudeville Band for "Winchester Cathedral"[4]
The Association for "Cherish"
The Beach Boys for "Good Vibrations"
The Beatles for "Eleanor Rigby"
The Mamas & the Papas for "Monday, Monday"
The Monkees for "Last Train to Clarksville"

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, February 13, 2017 5:32 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, it's probably the worst song there - but I really think Winchester Cathedral gets too much heat over this. It wasn't so much of a conservative choice, more a novelty record that got way too big, and I don't think it fits in with the very otm arguments about rockism & racism that are being made here.

Looking at the list, none of the '60s and '70s Album of the Year winners look like terrible choices, although it's odd that comedy albums used to win it. Also I wonder why the Saturday NIght Fever soundtrack won in '79 when it came out in '77.

Tapestry vs. What's Going On would've been an interesting battle in '71 but the latter wasn't nominated

Come to think of it, Glen Campbell won for By the Time I Get to Phoenix in '69, though it was a late '67 release.. Grammy must have an early cutoff date

Also I wonder why the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack won in '79 when it came out in '77.

An album from fall of 2015 just won the 2017 Grammy. Grammy's have a cutoff date of September 30th. The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack came out in November of 77.

Though how Meghan Trainor was nominated for Best New Artist last year, when she had been nominated for 'All About That Bass' the year before, is beyond me.

ah, thanks

Did Lemonade being a Tidal exclusive hurt its chances by keeping it walled off from potential voters?

do the Grammys not do the CD equivalent of screeners?

do the Grammys not do the CD equivalent of screeners?

Not to my knowledge. And one musician on my timeline (a jazz trombonist) said if he'd heard the album more than once, he might have voted for it.

grammy voters are old white men yet they cannot hear music unless it is on their streaming service of choice

despite its streaming platform exclusivity lemonade was an extremely popular and widely discussed album thruout basically the entire year

and it still is

Tapestry vs. What's Going On would've been an interesting battle in '71 but the latter wasn't nominated

― Josefa, Monday, February 13, 2017 4:03 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I looked up Motown's Grammy history -- a Motown artist didn't win anything until 1969 (The Temptations' "Cloud Nine," Best R&B Duo or Group Recording).

Yeah, but how much further back do the R&B categories even go?

To the very first Grammys in 1958. The rock categories came much later. But there were lots of categories the Motown artists theoretically could have won in - pop, record of the year, etc.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/02/14/515024057/the-problem-with-the-grammys-is-not-a-problem-we-can-fix

very good

I thought based on the headline that Ann Powers NPR piece would discuss who is in the Recording Academy and why do they vote the way they do, but Powers seemed more interested in just focusing on Adele, and addressing the systemic racism she mentions in a more theoretical way.

I thought based on the headline that Ann Powers NPR piece would discuss who is in the Recording Academy and why do they vote the way they do

That would require research and thought. Powers is who you go to for politically on-trend received wisdom and maternal swells of emotion. (I like her as a person, but her big theories of pop make my gums itch.)

So, I was thinking. Given the tendency for Grammy voters to favor legacy acts, is it entirely possible for A Tribe Called Quest to get Album of the Year next year? Or would it have to depend on who their competition is?

sure, but I wouldn't count on it

Does Taylor Swift have an LP in the can?

maternal swells of emotion

ok seriously Phil?

Seriously. Half her NPR columns can be read in the voice of the Rev. Lovejoy's wife from The Simpsons.

wtf

I dislike some of Powers' published work. Her employer demands what-does-this-mean journalism often at war with events. But a 'maternal swell of emotion' is a loathsome phrase that's inaccurate and sexist at the same time.

I await your dismissing me for publishing a piece you'll accuse of yielding to a "homosexual sense of hysteria."

checking in with my usual factual flair of dispassion, i would just like to say that powers' piece today was the smartest piece i've read on this whole mess.

Ann's tweets quoted in this article by John Vilanova (whom she quoted in her piece) were more on point than her article. Although her excusing the rockism of these industry folks kinda bugs me

As outrage erupted over Beyoncé’s loss, the music critic Ann Powers offered some context on Twitter. “Grammy voters are recording industry pros: engineers, players. They like high craft. Adele was tailor made,” she wrote. “I've had many people say to me, #LEMONADE was great but not as music,” she added, suggesting that music industry insiders see albums like “Lemonade” as an achievement in pop art, but not necessarily in musicianship.

In response to a similar blow-up over Beyoncé’s loss to Beck in 2015, Beck’s defenders criticized her lyrics, production team, and instrument credits. The subtext: The highly produced music Beyoncé puts out is both unsophisticated (read: too black) and somehow less her own.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-vilanova-grammys-beyonce-adele-glass-ceiling-20170118-story.html