Grammys

[Phoebe]

Fangirling (Buffy assures me both that this is a word and that we're doing it) over Twenty One Pilots winning for their song at the Grammys. Hope we see them onstage again. The drummer's yellow mohawk matching the dress of the singer's wife... No words. I love these crazy kids!!!

Carrie Underwood making me feel better about myself because her hair looks exactly like mine on a day when I don't have time for a shower, except hers is blonder. Jim, aghast: "Oh! Their moooves are sooooo bad!"

Chloe's dad gave her a cell phone, within an hour prompting me to inquire whether we have unlimited texting on our plan. I hear from the other room "PREPARE FOR BATTLE MOMMM!!!!" because we are playing a game on our phones despite being in the same house.

Ed Sheeran is tragically bad. Little Jim showed us his plie/saute "move" the whole song, rendering it tolerable.

[Phoebe]

Prince tribute so bad. And why Bernie Worrell and Leonard Cohen, among others, no bigger musical homage?

I do not have greater feelings for the unborn children of Beyonce than for others. Is there some reason I should?

[poorpete]

Hehehe.

Beyonce is our Queen, right?

Catching up via clips and news articles.

I watched the Daft Punk/Weeknd performance. It was alright, I love the robots, but really think they fake their way through their live performances)

I was happy that Sharon Jones got two mentions, one in en memoriam and a mention from Dwight Yokum before Sturgil and the Daptones came on stage. I'm glad the Daptones will continue their success, but sad it will never be with Sharon. She needs a "Best of" album that comes with a live performance. How does she not have a live album, she was electric live.

ATCQ, wow. Busta yelling "Agent Orange", Q-Tip yelling "Resist!", Phife Dawg being bleeped from beyond the grave, but at least we got to hear the jamacan swear "Babylon Bloodclot", which is another good nickname for Mr. Agent Orange.

[Phoebe]

That was shocking even to me! My goodness. The Prince thing did not merely disappoint but actively offended. I thought it was starting off so correctly when they featured The Time, but whoever thought of dressing up Bruno Mars as a sad, weak, pitchy, all-wrong imitation Prince? Ughhh, banish yourself. The side eye from heaven is blinding everyone down here. Should have just put Sheila E and a bunch of former band members on stage for one of the standard funk medleys they did live with Prince all the time. Sigh.

[poorpete]

I'm excited to listen to Anderson Paak's new album, which I have scheduled for week 10 of 52, impressively jazzy drumming he did.

Adele, sure, starting a song over on live tv is diva behavior, but i'm okay with it.

You're right about Bruno Mars as Prince. Unless this was in his last will and testament, it's kind of disgusting. Would have loved to see Sheela E.

Also, although I'm happy that women (specifically two women) have been rockin' the Best Album category the past decade, it'd be nice to get some rap/modern R&B in there, but there really hasn't been anything non-Adele R&B or rap since Outkast in 2004.

[Eliahad]

[Phoebe]

Yes - good for young performers to see, reinforcing not only the idea that it can be hard to get the stars aligned properly for the live performance, but that live performance is worth it and "real". Apparently news stories have criticized Adele for this supposed "flub" but my guess is that poor production support was to blame. A number of performers were obviously struggling to hear at the beginning of their songs, and one mic failed completely for Metallica. I believe the last time she performed at the Grammys, Adele had audio programs and something wrong was being piped into her earpiece while she was trying to sing. So I can understand her not wanting that to happen again, especially on a song being sung as a memorial to someone she obviously cared about.

I would like to see a different mix of albums and songs and categories than what we have at present. Seems like a lot of songs or albums should have been nominated, whether this year or in years past, that never get consideration, much less an award. And then you have really weird winners that seem almost like a "niche" award, and it's not clear they won because their art was so great but perhaps because two other frontrunners split the vote or the voters tend to prefer certain kinds of music.

That said, even though music by black artists has tended to receive short shrift over the years compared to the actual quality and talent involved, I'm puzzled by suggestions that it was "racist" and unfair that "25" won. If Drake or Justin Bieber had won, then yes, "unfair" and "ewwww, whyyyy" would have been appropriate responses. But here you have one really powerful album winning over another, and I'm not seeing the Racism in it because the one which prevailed was by the white artist.

[poorpete]

I was thinking Beyonce must feel like Hillary. She's done everything right and yet never gets the big win. If we can blame Hillary's loss on sexism, or at least talk about it, it's okay to talk about Beyonce's loss in similar terms. Contributing factor.

Anyone who has to go up against Beyonce, Adele, or Taylor Swift should be doomed, as they are powerhouses at the top of their game. That statement is true for Adele (she has never lost a Grammy), and sometimes true for Taylor Swift, but not true for Beyonce.

Another thought: her three album-of-the-year losses were to Taylor Swift, Adele, and Beck. That's two equals and one "lifetime achievement award."

Another thought: Is rock to blame? Taylor Swift is currently in the middle of a venn diagram linking Rock and Country and Pop. Adele is between Rock and R&B and Pop. Beyonce is between R&B and Pop. That might make the slightest difference. Old fogies seem to like rewarding those who give a passing nod to rock. Going back 20 years, a non-guitar-based album is hard to find. Even the last major R&B album to win, Outkast's Speakerboxxx/Love Below, was full of guitars (eg. the acoustic-guitar driven "Hey Ya"). Electronica favs Daft Punk album is full of Nile Rodgers' guitar.

Note: I have not listened to Lemonade so I do not know if there are rock songs on it, but it wasn't in her previous album.

Back to the it's not Beyonce's race and gender, I wouldn't be surprised if Esperanza Spalding wins Best Album before she does. Maybe even Solange, whose album was just as acclaimed as hers. Then again, those two talented black women were not nominated.

<whiplash>

Also, before yesterday, Taylor Swift was the only female solo artist to have two album wins. Now Adele joins her. This is progress, in some ways... in one way.

[Phoebe]

I think you're totally right about the liking for Rock and generational differences here. The old folks like their guitars. And I can see why people are frustrated when you stack up the whole list of people Beyonce lost to, but it's just bad timing. IMO Beyonce was her best album for this purpose so far, but she was going up against Beck, a voter favorite who's been around longer than Beyonce and has more solo albums, in a year when a bunch of pop-music voters were probably drawn off to Sam whatshisname and Pharrell.

I like the fact that Lemonade is all conceptually tied together as an album, which the "album of the year" should be. It's experimental and interesting and powerful, but its songs aren't the kind you latch onto the way we're used to with her other albums. Formation is probably the biggest hit and it didn't do much... Hold Up? Nice song, yes, but musically not as powerful as earlier songs of hers. Eventually I'm sure she'll win one - in a year when there's no Adele album and her competition isn't mostly other pop or R&B music.

Meanwhile Adele has an album that singlehandedly sold some crazy number of copies - someone said it was like 3% of ALL album sales when it came out - with this huge hit single everyone knows and a bunch of other good songs behind that? I don't think the award should be based on sales, but it's pretty hard to deny this best seller when so much talent is packed into the performance.

[Cazmonster]

I'm happy to see some publicity for the new Power Rangers movie.

[poorpete]

Imagine a supergroup featuring Tay Tay, Bae, and Adele.

One more counterintuitive fact. Beyonce is older than Adele, Drake, and the Biebs. Only Sturgil is older. Just fun to hear Adele listed as a safe bet for the older Grammy voters, while Bae is older, been making music longer, and debatably more well known.

Good news for her, 8 years from now she'll be Beck's age, and ready for the lifetime achievements to roll in.

Also, I think Lemonade might have been hurt by it's exclusivity. I don't have Tidal, don't have HBO, and don't buy music much anymore, so, for me, I haven't been able to hear it yet. Maybe that affected others?

[poorpete]

Found a stream of Lemonade. I withdraw my theory that Beyonce got discounted due to not participating in the rock genre. This album is eclectic!