The Grammys have always teetered on the edge of ridiculous. When Jethro Tull is winning Best Metal Album and a Steely Dan reunion album beats out Kid A, there is going to be some detractors. There is a lot that they get wrong. Their voting, which is completely secret, leads us to believe that many of said voters are out of touch. This begs the question: why would I even think about watching? Because while things are still pretty bad, they have changed just enough to get music fans more involved.
The biggest reason is simple: everyone else is doing it. Awards shows have become an event that everyone follows. Twitter has become the medium where a large portion of people sit down and live blog anything and everything, and somehow award shows have become the most important events for the Twitter experience. Even it is a little less than sincere, people watch just to feel part of the hive mind. Even the less witty of us can get in on the fun, albeit at our own expense (we probably all still remember “Bonny Bear”). As weird as it may have sounded just a couple years ago, the Grammys are something of an “event program.”
The voters have also done a good job of adding suspense for the “indie” viewer. While the voters seems to almost always go for the highest selling albums and songs each year, the continual blending between popular music and what we would consider “indie” has allowed them to be a little more adventurous. Now that Arcade Fire have won Best Album, there is a feeling that anything can happen. This year we have Kendrick Lamar, another plucky underdog with seemingly no chance to win. While he maybe doesn’t pull the same clout as Arcade Fire or Bon Iver, Kendrick gives us a ray of hope that hey, maybe these guys get it. There’s also Daft Punk, but it’s hard to call them indie darlings anymore after nearly 20 years of existence. No matter how much we talk about how the Grammys don’t matter, we all not so secretly hope that “our artists” take home awards and validate our view on music.
Album of the year includes the aforementioned Daft Punk and Kendrick Lamar, along with Taylor Swift, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Sara Bareilles (who I honestly had to look up). Kendrick Lamar is the one we should be rooting for here. It’s honestly a little surprising to see Macklemore nominated as well, until you remember that his album went platinum. And then you do a little more digging and remember that Kendrick’s album went platinum too. So maybe it’s not as surprising that he’s been nominated for so many things, underground hype or not.
Record of the Year includes Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Lorde’s “Royals” along with some truly despicable songs (“Blurred Lines” and the insanely overplayed “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons). “Get Lucky” at least makes sense because it was easily one of the best songs of the last year and a summer staple. It’s also nice to see Lorde get some love too, considering how impressive she is at only 17 years old. They could have easily gone with some safer records here, so at least we have a couple songs we can root for.
Song of the year has a similar feel to it with “Royals” up again, but this time sharing nominations with Pink, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, and Macklemore. I’ll go to bat for Mars’ “Locked out of Heaven” for being an excellent, although pretty obviously derivative song. I’d be fine with either him or Lorde winning, and even though Macklemore has taken some slack for “Same Love,” at least there is a good message in there.
Best New Artist is always one of the more bizarre categories, considering many of the artists nominated aren’t even new. This year is no different as James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kacey Musgraves, and Ed Sheeran are up. Most of those make sense, and I can even forgive Kendrick considering he didn’t have a proper release until Good Kid M.A.A.D. City. James Blake is on his second album and fourth major release, though, so calling him a best new artist is a little bit of a stretch. Although I’m not complaining that they found a way to get him nominated.
Best Dance/Electronica Album includes Disclosure, Calvin Harris, Kaskade, Pretty Lights, and of course Daft Punk. Daft Punk got nominated for Album of the Year so it’s pretty obvious they are winning here. If I had to pick one I think I’d take Disclosure, but I don’t think you can go too wrong with anyone here, at least looking at it from a populist angle.
Best Rock Album is maybe the most bizarre category of the major ones, and shows the voters problem with being out of touch. We’ve got Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and Neil Young here, along with Kings of Leon and Queens of the Stone Age. I can forgive Neil and Bowie, but it’s pretty tough to see any sane scenario where Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, a band that haven’t technically been together since the 80’s, make the final nominations. It really felt like they were just going for name recognition on most of these picks. I’d go with Queens of the Stone Age, but don’t mind Bowie getting a win either.
Best Alternative Album is by far the most impressive category, but considering that it’s pretty much built to cater to us, it’s maybe not as impressive as it should be. We’ve got excellent albums from Neko Case, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, and The National all up along with the latest Nine Inch Nails Album. It would probably make the most sense for them to go with Nine Inch Nails, but I have a feeling there are a lot of dads among the selection committee, so I’m taking The National.
I’ve been saving rap for last because I find it the most interesting, more for what isn’t nominated than for what is. Of course, Kendrick and Macklemore are up for Rap Album as well, along with Jay-Z, Drake, and Kanye West. If you’re like me, you are probably thinking: “Oh yeah! Kanye West, I forgot about his critically acclaimed album that was on top or near the top of every year end list.” He has two nominations in total in these Grammys, the other for “New Slaves” in Best Rap Song.
A lot of people, including me, have wondered why they picked artists like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist over Kanye’s Yeezus. It’s well known that Yeezus didn’t sell as strong as Kanye’s previous albums. It’s easy to come to the conclusion that they just picked albums with more sales. But Yeezus still went just as platinum as any of the other artists up for Best Album (though just making platinum is something of a downgrade for West). And it at least makes sense that none of Yeezus’ songs were up for the major awards because he didn’t release any singles from the album until it was released, and usually that run up to the album release date is the best time to get exposure for a song. To me, at least, it simply comes down to the fact that Yeezus almost seemed explicitly made to be the anti-award album. It’s purposefully grating and in your face. It’s not something a casual award voter is going to listen to once and see it as groundbreaking album. Even though you can see the reasoning, it doesn’t excuse it. In my eyes, Kanye had every right to be upset.
Looking at these categories, you can probably find at least one artist, song, or album that you enjoy. And that is why, despite everything you say, you will watch the Grammys. Or at least look at the list of winners the next day. We want “our” artists to win. We hope that someday, the Grammys will look more like our year end lists. We’ve still got a long way to go before that happens, but for now one out of five isn’t bad.
