RECAP: Grammys 2010

Going into this years Grammy's I was preparing myself for the worst. After, IMHO, some of the worst nominees for the big awards in history, I found myself expecting the ceremony to be mostly terrible, and I was kinda right, but there were some highlights as well.

First the Big Awards:

Best New Artist:

Zac Brown Band

MGMT

Carrie Hilton

Silversun Pickups

The Ting Tings

So this is the hot new artist in Country, and he is touring a bunch of dates with DMB this summer. So perhaps this is the next big crossover star.

Song of the Year-

Poker Face- Lady GaGa

Pretty Wings- Maxwell

Single Ladies- Beyonce

Use Somebody- Kings Of Leon

You Belong With Me- Taylor Swift

Wait seriously? SONG OF THE YEAR? Like, best song written and recorded in the last 12 months? BEST? ugh.

Record of the Year

Halo- Beyonce

I’ve Got a Feeling- Black Eyed Peas

Use Somebody- KOL

Pokerface- Lady GaGa

You Belong With Me- Taylor Swift

Very deserved for a fantastic piece of Pop writing that never gets out of your head.

Album of the Year

Lady Gaga

Beyonce

Taylor Swift

Black Eyed Peas

Dave Matthews Band

Personally I thought DMB's Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King was an incredible record. That said you really can't say anything bad about Taylor Swift and still have a soul. She writes all her own songs (and NO other 20 year old gets to do that in Country music) she hasn't become jaded or divaish by all the praise handed to her over the last year, I would never buy her record but I see no issue with her recieving the award. And compared to the other three (besides herself and DMB) her not winning could have meant the end of music as we know it. Awesome visual of Swift accepting her award DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF LADY GAGA! MWAH HA HA HA.

Full list of winners here

AND NOW THE PERFORMANCES:

THE GOOD

Pink- I’ve always kinda dug Pink. Crazy ass cirque du soliel performance with Pink in some kind of trapeze basket contraption, OH MAN THEY DUNKED HER IN WATER TOO! Whether you like her music or not, Pink has some brass ones for sure.

Lady Antebellum- I actually met Charles Kelly from this band once and he is a great guy so it’s nice to see him gain success. “Need You Now” is a nice little country popper and the performance was simple and understated.

Bon Jovi- I liked Bon Jovi for about 5 minutes when I was 8, now they just bother me. That said, the performance is probably one of the best of the night even if it is a damn medley. They bring out Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland for “You Can’t Go Home” which is ok. Looks like the “fan vote” winner was “Livin on a Prayer” ROCK THAT TALK BOX RITCHIE! Unfortunatly it was a 2 minute version because it was part of said medley.

Dave Matthews Band- Nice sweet performance of “You and Me”joined by numerous young and old musicians. A great tribute to their fallen friend.

Maxwell and Roberta Flack- Maxwell is a fantastic voice that has always been underappreciated on the mainstream level, so nice to see him take center stage tonight. “Pretty Wings” is a great track. Segue to Robert Flack and a nice duet on “Where Is The Love”

Drake, Eminem, Lil Wayne- Great piece of hip hop theater to finish off the night, but I am SO done with auto tune.

THE "MEH"

Green Day- This "21 Guns" tune got real old in a hurry. Having the cast of the American Idiot musical perform it with them made it a lot more interesting, but it still comes of like a less interesting version of Rent.

Jaime Foxx, T-Pain and Slash- Wait…what? Funny little opera thing at the beginning. I’m so tired of auto-tune but it’s a catchy track. (George Clinton dancing in the audience is pretty classic) This performance is what a hip-hop performance should be. Just enough fun to not be boring, and there are more musicians than dancers. Slash drops in to play the riff from the end of “November Rain” and either his guitar is out of tune, he forgot how to play it or both.

Zac Brown Band (w Leon Russell)- starts with “America The Beautiful” which comes off as a little hamhanded but a nice way to show off the bands vocal ability.

Many times these celebrity duets at the Grammy’s come off as a tad sloppy and this is no exception, but it’s got a fun barroom quality to it and Leon can still play the hell out of the piano, segue into the ZBB hit “Chicken Fried” which is a nice slice of southern rock, but nothing to write home about.

Taylor Swift (w/ Stevie Nicks)- Another nice simple one in front of a basic backdrop. A bit of “Fairytale” and then segue into “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks. Swift’s voice seems to be struggling a bit tonight but the duet with Nicks is still a nice change of pace from the over-produced silliness the first hour gave us (Except for Pink, that was rad pants!). The performance finishes up with a folkier take on “You Belong With Me” that as a Faces type vibe to it.

Michael Jackson Tribute- I swear they get the strangest groups of folks together for these celebrity tributes. Usher, Smokey Robinson and Jennifer Hudson I understand but Celine Dion and Carrie Underwood? The Jackson kids accept the Lifetime Achievement award on behalf of their father, Maybe now they will stop exploiting the hell out of these kids.

Mary J Blige and Andrea Bocelli performance for Haiti- Their version of “Greensleves” on Bocelli’s Christmas album was amazing. This time it’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” Bocelli starts in Italian, then Blige comes in with all of her power. Would’ve been better if they harmonized more. Instead it kind of came off as a vocal pissing match.

THE BAD:

Lady GaGa- Unimpressive high production performance. Duet with Elton John was a snore. It’s not that Lady Gaga is bad, she’s just numbingly mediocre, and yet everyone seems to be ignoring that obvious fact.

Beyonce- Uh Oh, Beyonce brought the riot squad. And then does her “If I were a boy” song? What the hell does any of this have to do with anything? I am forever in the camp that Beyonce’s voice is not near as good as she gets credit for. But that’s just me. Segue into a cover of “You Oughta Know?” seriously? Oh nice, she chickens out on the f-word part. I’ll give it a mildly amusing smirk. That’s it. (Still don’t understand why the dancers are dressed as riot cops)

Black Eyed Peas- The only good thing this band ever did was when Will.I.Am punched Perez Hilton. Seriously they are the death of music. To be honest I went out side for a cigarette during this performance, while I was outside, I saw a stray cat run across the street that may have been a Raccoon, and that was considerably more interesting than anything BEP could have done.

So in conclusion. I think, even if you didn't agree with some of the nominees, the Grammy's were a helluva lot better when performers just played thier nominated track. The MEDLEY fest is killing the show. Some of the suprise duets were good, but showing the rehearsal footage before commercial, ruins even that surprise. Bascially, I think The Grammy's need to tighten things up, because this uears show just came off as a sloppy mess.