Just some random thoughts and questions which came to mind watching the 52nd Grammy Awards.
- Opening Performance with Lady Gaga featuring Sir Elton John
- Lady Gaga seems to be in a battle with Beyonce to who can show the most vaginal cleavage.
- Lady Gaga has become the go-to performer of our time right now. She may not have the best songs or the most lyrically pleasing voice and she is certainly not the best piece of eye candy, but whenever she performs, no one looks away.
- I love the fact that Lady Gaga does not worry about looking good. She can be covered in ash or blood on a major broadcast without a care. Simply interested in the performance.
- Elton John hasn't lost a step and continues to be the homosexual spokesman musically. There seemed to be an honest mutual respect between the two performers.
- Couldn't help but think back to Elton's performance with Eminem. Whenever he makes an appearance it has both musical and social importance.
- Stephen Colbert
- Never changes his style not matter the performance. This is what makes him great. Whether it is the White House Correspondents Dinner or doing a tour of Iraq, he plays his character perfectly. The iPad segment was the funniest moment of the night by a large margin.
- Song of the Year
- The way I understand it Song of the Year is for the writing of the song. If this is true then how does "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" win?
- A quick excerpt:
I got gloss on my lips, a man on my hips
hold me tighter than my Dereon jeans
acting up, drink in my cup
I couldn't care less what you think
- Green Day performance
- Coming soon to Broadway: Green Day's American Idiot! Oh, wait, scratch that exclamation mark. This is nothing to be excited about. What would "Dookie" Green Day think of what we saw here tonight? For shame.
- Best Country Album
- Can we stop classifying Taylor Swift as country music? And Taylor, sweetheart, I think you are delightful but you have to lose the "I swept the CMT Awards but this is such surprise" face you have after winning every award. At some point you have to expect this.
- Beyonce performance:
- Doing her best Marilyn Monroe impression, which is nice and all, but did we need the crotch grab?
- Rhianna wants her rated-r look back.
- Do you think that guy who was lifted up by Beyonce's touch and then pushed down happy with his career?
- Enjoyed the mash up of "If I Were a Boy" and Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know". Girl power!
- Good to see Seal again
- Pink
- At first I was disappointed because we all saw this Cirque Du Soleil performance at the MTV Awards months ago, but this was much better. This incorporation of the acrobatics was much more genuine and actually added to the aesthetics of the song. The MTV Award performance felt more like a gimmick, this was special.
- Best New Artist
- I have a problem with this category. How exactly do you qualify as a "new artist"? MGMT's critically acclaimed album "Oracular Spectacular" was released in January of 2008. The Silversun Pickups has their first hit on the charts in 2007. To make things worse, neither of these two won. Instead, a band fronted by Kevin from last season's Top Chef took home the award. Madness!
- Black Eyed Peas performance
- Thank you for showing us what Muslim women will look like in 20 years (no image available, but check out the back up dancers).
- I like to look a current songs and think about what their Oldies chances are. Do you honestly expect the song to be played on 2000's radio in 25 years? It is usually a toss up, but "I've Got a Feeling" is simply a wonderful pop song which will have us dancing for years.
- Lady Antebellum
- Good job Grammy producers, nothing kills the energy from the Black Eyed Peas' performance quite like a slow jam from Lady Antebellum
- Best Comedy Album
- I bet Patton Oswalt is embarrassed to be included in a category with Kathy Griffin, Weird Al and George Lopez. Good win for Colbert.
- Don't know why it sounded strange, but I expect Ringo Starr to be introduced as something different than just "multiple Grammy winner".
- Record of the Year:
- Happy for Kings of Leon and their omnipresent song "Use Somebody". Even happier that one Followill family member stayed sober enough to give a somewhat understandable acceptance speech
- Jamie Foxx performance
- I'm gonna blame this entire performance on the alcohol. It seems like the idea was put together by Girl Talk, too many jumbled songs put together
- Ke$ha seemed thrilled to be presenting with Justin Beiber
- Hey Katy Perry, your fiance, Russell Brand, is going to look exactly like Alice Cooper in about 17 years
- Best Rock Album
- Green Day wins, but it's kinda like when Gonzaga wins the WCC. The other nominees included a Clapton Live album and AC/DC!?
- Taylor Swift
- I'm sorry, I am not a Taylor Swift hater, but Stevie Nix will always swing circles around her. This pairing made Taylor seem out of her league. It's gotta be a great feeling to have a legend sing one of your songs, though.
- Smokey Robinson, Celine Dion, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood perform Michael Jackson's "Earth Song"
- So this is what 3D TV will be like? Thanks for the headache CBS. You can take me off the pre-order list.
- Michael Jackson's kids on the Grammy's
- My brain just exploded. I can't imagine what those kids have been through. Had to watch it a couple times just to wrap my head around it. The whole thing gave me a creepy Olsen twins vibe. This is not the last we have seen of these two.
- Bon Jovi performance
- I demand an explanation as to why we have been cheated out of years of Bon Jovi Grammy performances? 2010 and they make their first appearance? This is inexcusable. They sure made up for it with what felt like a 20 minute set in which they sounded much more country than Taylor Swift.
- "Living On a Prayer", what a fantastic pop song?
- Rap/Sung collaboration
- 1.) This is a category? 2.) "I'm On a Boat" was nominated for a Grammy? 3.) Can't decide which is more confusing.
- Dave Matthews Band performance
- Ricky Martin looks like WWE superstar Santino Marella
- Best Female Vocal Performance:
- Beyonce wins for "Halo". It is her year, as proclaims the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
- In general, I am a sucker for montages. For some reason if you put pictures or video to a coordinated set of music, I will watch and be enthralled. The Grammy "In Memoriam" is, for the most part, a very classy part of the show. I cannot understand, however, when people clap for certain people who have passed away. It turns into a high school pep assembly with the most popular kids vying for the most crowd reaction. It's sad that all those honored could not just have their moment in silence from the crowd.
- Eminem, Drake and Lil Wayne performance featuring Travis Barker on drums
- I am not generally a fan of rap performances, let alone an ensemble performance. I find that most often these regress to sloppy mixes of verses and choruses with the rappers going from one side of the stage to the other. Not much going on and the lyrical stylings are not crisp. That's why this performance blew me away. It doesn't hurt that Eminem and Lil Wayne are probably the best lyricists right now, but the x-factor was Drake. Wrapping the entire performance around his song gave structure to the other performers. Drake has his moments and he hit his points well, but it did seem as though he was deferring to his elders. I would have argued this was the best performance of the night if only I could have heard all of it. CBS chose to silence more of the words than I can remember. Maybe the Eminem and Lil Wayne were not laying off the explicit content, but it did take away slightly from the flow of the performance. For those at the event, I would imagine it was amazing.
- Travis Barker is the coolest guy in music
- Quentin Tarantino is the lamest guy in entertainment, he tried way too hard during his introduction of the performance.
- Loved Lil Wayne's t-shirt which proclaimed that we should all "LISTEN TO LIL WAYNE"
- Album of the Year
- Nominees
- "I Am...Sasha Fierce", Beyonce
- "The E.N.D.", the Black Eyed Peas
- "The Fame", Lady Gaga
- "Big Whiskey and the Gru Grux King", the Dave Matthews Band
- "Fearless", Taylor Swift
- I thought this was a three person race. Dave Matthews Band was thrown in to satisfy the rock contingent, but had no chance of winning. The E.N.D produced a few hits, but was not as strong as "Elephunk". In third place, I thought Taylor Swift would not win. She wrote a wonderful album and was a bright star in the otherwise sad young, overproduced star landscape (which includes the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and their ilk). But this is a grown up category featuring two clearly superior albums.
- What will we remember 2009 as in main stream music? Who was in our social conscience more often? Who shaped the radio and Internet music streams in a greater way?
- I argue Lady Gaga did more this year than any other artist and the songs from "The Fame" dominated our ears. Others could argue their case for Beyonce.
- The Winner? Taylor Swift. Everyone likes a fairytale, whether the ending fits or not.
GRM for RAL
