[Recap] The 54th Annual Grammy Awards: Pleasantly Boring
Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TimesLast night we witnessed a very safe ceremony for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The fact that I'm not as outraged about the performances and the results as I normally am has had me stewing on this all night and all morning. I'm always the one in my circle that cheers on The Recording Academy to make better decisions so they can be both relevant while not getting too caught up in The Long Tail looking for the year's very best, so why can't I feel better about last night's ceremony? I want to say they're finally coming around, but why did the whole ordeal make me feel so "meh" afterwards?
The only two real "shockers" of the night in terms of awards were Skrillex and Bon Iver. Yes, Skrillex took home three awards for Best Dance/Electronic Album, Best Dance Recording and Best Remix during the pre-show so haters can put a Grammy in it for now. At least he didn't win Best New Artist so the rest of the world could start cracking Bonny Bear jokes after Bon Iver's second win of the night (the other was Best Alternative Music Album). Also, "Thanks for the sweet hookup", Justin Vernon? Really? Glad we know you didn't come with a prepared speech. Oh, and I don't understand how Bon Iver is a "New Artist" either. Supposedly if they've never won a Grammy before then technically they're still "new"? Okay....
The big winners of the night were Adele with six awards and Foo Fighters with five. Both also killed it during their perfromances. Anyone who wants to question how Adele managed to snatch up so many awards just needs to watch her as she destroyed "Rolling In The Deep" for the zillionth time. As for Foos, they rocked "Walk" most excellently. I could have done without the deadmau5 live remix thing they failed to pull off though. Probably one of my favorite quotes from the night was from Davie Grohl after Foos won Best Rock Album:
"To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of making music is what's most important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning your craft , that's the most important thing for people to do. It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here *points to heart* and it's about what goes on in here *points to head*".
Most of the other performances were pretty solid, minus maybe whatever the heck Nicki Minaj was trying to prove to everyone during her new single, "Roman Holiday". I think someone may be butthurt that she can't come off as cracked out as Lady Gaga. Either way, I wasn't a fan before last night and she certainly did not win me over after the short film and all the "Look at me! I'm so crazy!" The Beach Boys gave me "Good Vibrations". Paul McCartney gave The Recording Academy some Kisses On The Bottom so he got to perform twice, only to find out that America's youth doesn't know who the heck he is (yes, seriously). Jennifer Hudson's tribute to Whitney Houston made me hate her less for being in all those Weight Watchers commericals in addition to it finally sinking in that Whitney is really gone.
Also, can we talk for a second about Chris Brown? I can try to get over (and fail miserably) that even though he beat the snot out of Rihanna that he still got to perform and that he also won a Grammy last night. What I can't get over, is the outcry from #TeamBreezy that stupidly announced that they would let Brown "beat on them anytime". SERIOUSLY? Is this what we've become, the internet? Face. Palm.
At any rate, The Recording Academy must have done something right, considering last night's show ranked at #2 in all-time ratings with 39 million viewers. What did you think of last night's show?
In case you missed out, The Audio Perv has all the performances for you to check out. You can also check out a full listing of last night's winners over on The Grammy's website.
