Judging the Grammy's

The Ray Charles duet album winning is about the most embarrassing choice they could have made.  I hate it when they very transparently just suck off old (and in this case dead) people in top categories regardless of actual album quality.  

The College Dropout probably would have been my favorite of the nominees that year despite Kanye's recent antics, but I could understand them maybe wanting to wait at least a little bit before awarding him.  Not sure Green Day, Usher or Alicia Keyes would have been good winners, but at least those would have been relevant.  

Moving beyond the actual nominees this was the year of Arcade Fire's Funeral, which would have definately gotten a lot of nominates if I was running things.  Beyond that and some of the aforementioned albums 2004 was a very shitty year for music.  Just a lot of rather regrettable trends coming to a head that year.  

Record and song are even more embarrassing.  They nominated "The Reason" by Hoobastank?  Hoobastank?  That band is most definitely a book you can judge by the cover.  "Daughters" by John Mayer sucks too, fuck that song.  Also, and this may be controversial, but if they're going to nominate an Usher song they should have nominated Burn instead of Yeah.  "Float On" by Modest Mouse came out that year, probably should have nominated that.  "Toxic" has also held up pretty well.  

Picking Maroon 5 for Best New Artist is probably less embarrassing than some of their choices insomuch as they have proven to have a long lasting career that didn't fizzle out shortly after they were selected... but still, they suck and that choice sucks.

The Grammys have the same "voters get invited in decades ago and never go away" problem that the Oscars have but on steroids because the have a billion categories and have some obligation to invite people from all the different genre branches in fairly equal numbers.  So you have this huge block over voters who are old country music people and a bunch of classical music people from the 70s who are decidedly not interested in expanding their horizons and are extremely closed minded about rap.  

Lately they've been trying to cover this up by having nominations go through a committee with some sort of veto power and who basically exists to prevent boomer rockers and duet albums with dead people from being nominated anymore, but there's only so much they can ultimately do and you can pretty consistently predict the winner will be whoever has the most traditional songwriting and clear singing.

Yeah, but that "everyone wins something" dynamic is what devalues the awards so much and leads to stuff like that Simpsons joke about the bellboy not being impressed with getting a Grammy as a tip.  Sure, Kanye won a Grammy that night, but so did whoever won the "Best Polka Album" (yes that's an actual category) and so did whoever won "Best Engineered Album, Classical." At a certain point it's really just those four "mixed genre" awards that they actually present on the telecast that really mean to say something big about that year's music.

Well, Kelly Clarkson won the American Music Award. So at least there’s that.

hahaha. I honestly forgot how absurdly bad that song is. The Grammy’s have an odd fetish for U2.

1979


Saturday Night Fever wins Album of the Year. It went up against Grease. John Travolta vs John Travolta. This is like when Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II went up against Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation at the Academy Awards. Or when Disney+ subscribers had to choose between Doomsday's The Mandalorian and Doomsday's Noelle. But Saturday Night Fever reigned supreme, goddammit, and I approve.

The other nominees were Even Now by Barry Manilow. That's the album that featured Copacabana, one of thebtskink's favorite songs. Running on Empty by Jackson Browne. And Some Girls by the Rolling Stones. I know Dracula is a huge Rolling Stones fan, so he's probably pissed that Rolling Stones lost to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel won Record of the Year. Dracula wouldn't be born for, like, another 10 years but Grammy votes knew he was coming and were just fucking with him at this point. It beat Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty, Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione, You Needed Me by Anne Murray and Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. I couldn't tell you what half of these songs are by title alone.

Just the Way You Are also won Song of the Year. It beat Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees, Three Times a Lady by the Commodores, You Don't Bring Me Flowers by Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand and You Needed Me by Anne Murray. Much better selection.

1978 saw the releases of Stained Class and Killing Machine by Judas Priest, Stranger in Town by Bob Seger, Heaven Tonight by Cheap Trick, Darkness on the Edge of Town by Bruce Springsteen, Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb, Parallel Lines by Blondie, Jazz by Queen, Motor Booty Affair by Parliament, Blondes Have More Fun by Rod Stewart, The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, Destiny by the Jacksons and the debuts of Toto, Van Halen, Whitesnake, Dire Straits, Prince, Rick James, The Cars, Devo, The Police and Siouxsie & the Banshees.

Never Say Die by Black Sabbath would be the last to feature Ozzy in lead vocals until 13. PG Cooper likely has a lot to say about that particular album.

London Town by Wings came out that year, which I think is a wonderful album.

Fair to say that everyone here would choose The Cars by The Cars as the best album of `78. It came out on June 6 and did qualify for these particular Grammy's. They were actually nominated for Best New Artists, alongside Elvis Costello and Toto, but lost to A Taste of Honey.

As for Song and Record, um, I do enjoy With a Little Luck by Wings. Although I know that won't have any fans here. Grease by Frankie Valli is fucking great. That's better than Stayin' Alive. Yeah. I said. Wanna fight about it? An Everlasting Love by Andy Gibb is good too. I know thebtskink is a fan of Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? by Rod Stewart. The answer is no, Rod, I don't think you're sexy and it's insulting you would think you are. Flash Light by Parliament. Part Time Lover by Elton John. Hold the Line by Toto, which became a meme this month. Life's Been Good by Joe Walsh. Rock Lobster by the B-52's. Roxanne by the Police. Surrender by Cheap Trick. Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen.

This year was stacked.

You and thebtskink have wildly different tastes in music.

The real boldness is Rod Stewart claiming to be sexy.

That Rod Stewart song is a fucking banger, though.

Let's meet in the middle and jam to Rock Lobster.

That album mostly broke out in `79. Same with Destiny by the Jacksons.





You'd have a greater argument with the Cars. Just What I Needed, My Best Friend's Girl, Good Times Roll, You're All I've Got Tonight, Bye Bye Love and Moving in Stereo (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) were all chart toppers and helped push New Wave to the mainstream.