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Post by crash46 on Feb 14, 2011 4:50:14 GMT -4
I didn't watch; I didn't even realize they were on, and I haven't cared in nearly ten years. But there is no combination of words and smilies that could come anywhere near representing how thrilled I was to hear about The Arcade Fire pulling rank for Album of the Year (while not even getting best Alternative album!). So I had to take a peek at the rest of the winners. "Bad Romance" and "Just The Way You Are" winning respective pop vocal performances over weak fields. . The pop collab going to Herbie Hancock in an upset over all those pop songs. . (Pulse is probably hootin' and hollerin' over this one too!) The Resistance getting best rock album over mostly legacy favorites of the committee. A little too much love for "Need You Now", although it's no surprise. There's always gonna be categories I don't agree with, but I can't say I'm too disappointed with much here, and as I was saying, there were some world-class highlights this year.
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Post by blahblahblah on Feb 14, 2011 12:54:11 GMT -4
I'm pleasantly surprised with the winners too. I didn't think they would give Album of the Year to indie darlings, but I guess they forgot to nominate a veteran in that category this year. And as much as I like Lady Gaga, I don't think an EP should be taking that award.
I'm also happy that Justin Bieber and Katy Perry didn't end up winning anything, although they really had no business being nominated or performing.
I was amused that they kept referring to Cee Lo Green's song as "(The song otherwise known as 'Forget You')", rather than using the fake name of it.
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Post by radical347 on Feb 14, 2011 16:26:03 GMT -4
I'll third that. I thought for the most part they were well distributed too -- meaning no really big sweeps by any particular act in any of the categories I care about, esp. in the rock categories, so The Arcade Fire, Jeff Beck, Neil Young, Muse, Them Crooked Vultures, Black Keys all got their moment. And yeah, Arcade Fire taking record of the year was pretty awesome and well-deserved. I actually don't mind the excessive love for Lady Antebellum, since the rest of the nominees in record & song of the year were essentially nonsense. (I understand the appeal of "F**k You," but being nominated for music's top two awards, really? And "Love the Way You Lie" is no song of the year either.) For "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" I guess I'm satisfied that the lessest of five evils won. It was by far the weakest category IMO, it's like they cherry-picked the absolute worst 4 songs of the year song by females and then threw in a bland, uninspired Norah Jones track just because that's what the Grammys are supposed to do. Herbie Hancock winning best pop collaboration over all the rest of that garbage in the category was awesome. Almost as awesome as Esperanza Spalding, who nobody has ever heard of, beating out the atrocities known as Justin Bieber, Drake, and Florence + the Machine for best new artist. (And the Mumfords too, who I'm cool with but I still can't root for them as they rose to fame based on an out-of-place f-bomb.) There were only two major gripes I had: "Hey Soul Sister (Live)" winning anything, let alone Train winning anything in 2011 (although that's forgiveable since I wasn't too thrilled with the rest of that category) and Rihanna taking best dance recording. She is not dance.
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Post by friday on Feb 14, 2011 18:38:24 GMT -4
Yeah, I agree with all this. I decided beforehand I wasn't going to watch the whole thing because I always seem to feel disappointed at the end (2006 was probably an exception), but I really can't complain about most of the winners. I would've liked to have seen "Empire State of Mind" win for RotY out of sentimentality, but I would've been fine with whoever won that category.
Some other thoughts:
I think Janelle Monae's pompadour trounced Bruno Mars' last night.
It was hilarious how the Grammys handled "f*** You," but I was hoping it'd win something just to see if someone would have the balls to say the unbowdlerized title on-air.
The way the Grammys handled the Arcade Fire's performances was atrocious. They let them play just one song, then they collect to Album of the Year Grammy (which everyone should've seen coming if they've watched previous shows), then send them back up to play the exit music over the credits! That made the end of last year's Oscars seem well-planned by comparison.
Oh, and regardless of what you may think about Lady Gaga's, um, "hatching," (I thought it was hilarious), it certainly beat the hell out of the only other notable egg-hatching to my memory.
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Post by radical347 on Feb 15, 2011 3:24:43 GMT -4
It was hilarious how the Grammys handled "f*** You," but I was hoping it'd win something just to see if someone would have the balls to say the unbowdlerized title on-ai.r It actually won the Grammy for "Best Urban Alternative," which seems like a good category for it, although that also seems like one of those categories that doesn't get broadcasted on air...did anyone see it to confirm/deny this? & LMAO @ that video.
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Post by blahblahblah on Feb 15, 2011 13:20:08 GMT -4
Yeah, I would have liked to see Robyn pick up Best Dance Recording instead, Usher to not win any award for an album that he had to release a half-assed EP to keep it a float, or Eminem to win most of the rap categories, but you can't expect them to get everything right.
The second performance from the Arcade Fire seemed weirdly planned indeed. For a moment, I thought they weren't supposed to perform again, but they did it anyway.
The only awards that were televised: Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Best Rock Album, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Country Album, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, Record of the Year, Album of the Year.
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Post by crash46 on Feb 15, 2011 15:08:41 GMT -4
My immediate thought was that they always seem to give the dance awards to the pop crossovers, many of which could only marginally be considered "dance" songs. But I didn't want to blurt out such an unresearched, gut feeling type of statement. Speaking of marginal qualifications, I hadn't seen the winners of the "minor" categories until I just looked at them a minute ago, but they gave Best Rock or Rap Gospel album to Switchfoot I understand their religious influence and all, but...Gospel? What the hell is that all about?
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Post by halo19 on Feb 15, 2011 16:31:39 GMT -4
^Based on what I've seen with the tag on Rhapsody and iTunes, I don't really find that shocking. However, Rhapsody lists a lot of that band's stuff as Electronic.
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Post by Pipa on Feb 15, 2011 21:40:50 GMT -4
I'll post my thoughts on the Arcade Fire's album of the year win over from Pulse: OMG I'M SO PISSED. WTF IS THIS "LED ZEPPELINS" AND WHAT IS IT DOING WINNING THE GRAMMIES. STAIRWAY TO WHAT? WHAT A JOKE, IT DIDN'T EVEN GO TOP 10. SHAUN CASSIDY GOT SO ROBBED THIS YEAR, FOR REALS.
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