My take on the 2011 Grammys

I was going to leave this comment in Russ' blog, but it got a little long so I figured it'd be better as it's own post.

I was at a birthday party and didn't get to listen that night, however I have you tubed a few of the performances since and have been listening to people comment also and it's been interesting.

I like that the performances are as much of the show as the awards themselves, watching statues handed out all night gets a little tedious and probably why I don't care for the oscars. I did like Mick Jagger and Gaga was interesting though not to my particular liking, and Fuck You was fun even though there was no need for Gwyneth, and of course Eminem tore it up. The interesting one for me was Arcade Fire... How do you have so much going on with so many band members and still sound so...Meh?

Which brings me to the actual awards. First off the Lady Antebellum song is a year and a half old and was released a week before the deadline starts, meaning it wasn't eligible. Way to legitimize yourself Grammy.

Best new artist Esperanza Spalding? Over Drake and Bieber?? I guess they should be grateful since this award seems to be a curse. I should also say this here: I am one of the few (I think) that think that Milli Vanilli should have kept the award when they won it. Not because they were any good but because the award is for the album, not the videos and concerts, so the actual musicians deserved the award.

As far as the big award... I have been hearing all day in Detroit about how Eminem got jobbed and how the Arcade Fire did not deserve the award because nobody knows who they are, I even saw some twitter arguments on whether the band was named Arcade Fire (It is) or The Suburbs (The album name), that's how unknown these guys are... People can't tell the difference between the band name and the album name. The album has actually gotten a lot of positive reviews landing on a lot of critics top 10 albums of 2010, so maybe they do deserve the award, I can't say because I haven't listened to the album but may check it out soon. Having said that... I have heard them both from the Grammys and a few months back on SNL and I was not impressed, in fact I thought they were rather crappy, but hey... Maybe they sound better on record, somehow I doubt it. The other thing that struck me is that they were ready to play out the show after they won. Seemed peculiar as I have never seen that before and to me it made the award look rigged as if the acts were told "If you play us out we will let you win".

Over all the most impressive things were the older more established acts which is not what this show was pushing. I do give the show credit for trying to push newer bands, but these bands kinda missed the mark for me and for a lot of people I see commenting.