I didn’t watch one minute of the Grammys. (Neither did many other people) I actually forgot it was on. Plus I usually find the Grammys to be a bit overrated. Regardless here are some comments.
Best New Artist has traditionally been the kiss of death. Examples:
- Hootie and the Blowfish (1996)
- Arrested Development (1993)
- Milli Vanilli (1990)
- A Taste of Honey (1979)
Then there are a few times when they actually got it right:
- The Beatles (1965)
- Crosby, Stills & Nash (1970)
- Carpenters (1971)
- Bruce Hornsby & the Range (1987)
As far as Maroon 5 winning, I guess that’s ok. I can’t name any of their songs, although I’m sure I’ve heard them at one time or another on the radio.
Best Rock Album: Green Day. I guess things are scarce when Green Day wins an award for Best Rock Album. Their whole Dookie album is one of those Download and Delete albums. And by “Download and Delete” I mean you can usually find all the “hits” on that album on your favorite P2P software point, and it usually doesn’t matter if your hard drive’s data gets deleted; it would be easy to restore. Dookie is a dime a dozen on used Amazon CDs.
Still, I’ve heard 2 songs from American Idiot. I’m really into Boulevard of Broken Dreams; sorta describes my life right now.
I see that Wilco won for Best Alternative Album. Many many people have never heard of Wilco/Son Volt/Uncle Tupelo. Too bad. They’re missing alot.
And U2 wins for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Not that I think Vertigo is all that good. I think they’ve done better. Its one of those awards that they just hand to U2 because they are U2.
Interesting enough I did look into Wikipedia for some history of the charts for this band. There have been only a few times when U2 reached higher charts on the US charts compared to the UK charts.
- 1991 “Mysterious Ways” #13 UK; #9 US – And Mysterious Ways has staying power. I periodically hear it on 105.9, the “Classic Rock” radio station here in Nashville. You’ll also hear it periodically on VH1’s The 90s Strike Back nostalgia show. I wrote an entry not too long ago comparing “Mysterious Ways” to “Even Better Than the Real Thing. (read it)
- 1987 “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” #6 UK; #1 US
- 1987 “With or Without You” #4 UK; #1 US
The last two songs are from the Joshua Tree, possibly the greatest album of the 1980s. It has staying power at least. The only U2 Albums that you need to have is the “Joshua Tree,” “Achtung Baby,” and “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”
The rest of the Grammy Awards I don’t care about, so I won’t bother commenting on them. Oh and do you think Jack White is going for the Willie Nelson look?
Meanwhile you should check out what its like to be in the Grammys by Semisonic’s drummer (think “Closing Time”).
Other music stuff:
Turning Napster’s 14 day free trial into 252 full 80 minute CDs of free music
and…
Why Napster’s Music Subscription is so Craptacular
(via Boingboing, of course)
