Keep in mind I watched 0 minutes of these awards where the biggest names in [a few genres of] music meet in one central location to hand out gold [plated] statues for a job well done. I mean, it took a lot for one of these top 40 artists to do all that work. They had to get a songwriter, a vocal couch, a good producer, and about 100+ people working in the background to make even one of the tracks a single. But let's not focus on that, let's put the focus on the face of the song.
So Trent got snubbed from the exit performance of the Grammys. Now that's not to say he really got snubbed, but more or less had credits rolling during the performance of his song "Copy of A". Now being a dedicated fan of NIN, I completely understand where Trent is coming from and the lack of attention to his "art". He puts on great performances, sells out arenas, and has put a few major awards under his belt for scoring some of Hollywood's biggest films. This lead to a warm thanks from Trent himself...
"Music's biggest night... to be disrespected. A heartfelt FUCK YOU guys." -Reznor (via Twitter)
I can see from both sides of the coin on this debacle. Trent, it's a closing ceremony for a televised event. This isn't an encore performance where the majority of your fans would be clenching to the gate for a chance to hear you close off with some great hits you have produced. Seriously, nothing is more bittersweet for a show closing than hearing Trent perform "Hurt". Sadly, this was not the crowd nor the platform.
In Trent's defense though, I can see why they would have some of rock n roll's hit names close off the evening rather than perform during the awards. NO ONE THERE WANTS TO HEAR ROCK!
I think the CBC put it best here when discussing the opening ceremonies of the Grammys.
"Strappy leotard-clad Beyoncé kicked off the show with a steamy rendition of her tune Drunk in Love, featuring enough chair-gyrating to make people wonder: Rihanna who? The undeniably sexy performance (she was eventually joined by her husband Jay Z) was perhaps a questionable choice to open the show (8 p.m. ET, still family hour!), but it definitely got juices flowing and people talking."
Unless you are cashing in on best rock song of the year, then chances are you are subjected to hip-hop, R&B, EDM and dance music for the majority of this award ceremony. Do they even broadcast the winner of rock, country, Latin, and jazz anymore? I must admit that I should be the last person commenting on the Grammys as it's been years since I've laid my eyes of the awards.
"Producer of the year, non-classical: Pharrell Williams."
Who were the challengers? Rob Cavallo? Dr. Luke? Ariel Rechtshaid? Jeff Tweedy? I know there is some music that these producers have created that I do enjoy and listen to, but I found the nominations list (or maybe even the criteria) to be a bit peculiar, if not easy solution.
Looking through the entire list of nominees and winners, we do see some diversity in the full list, but how much of that actually makes it to the television screen? Think of the diversity the Grammys would bring if they decided to spend a few minutes away from the red carpet and fashion experts to focus on some more...I don't know...MUSIC!
I do have to give credit where credit is due though.
"Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons join forces for an energetic mashup performance! Lots of censoring for this one... thanks to Lamar's rap. Lamar is going to have to take a nap after that performance. #TheGrammys tweets, 'Social media has spoken! kendricklamar and imaginedragons is the performance of the night so far!'" -Extra TV
Despite the fact I think this award ceremony is slightly rigged and should have a longer list of nominations to choose from, seeing a few of these artists perform would be nothing short of spectacular. Collaborations from Ringo & Paul, plus the quote you just read from the likes of Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar do showcase the raw talent these artists have. I mean, it's not their fault their in an over saturated and over focused genre, is it?
The one section that should be closely followed would be the losses of 2013. This really shows you what the producers were focused on. Over the course of reading AFGM or any other music news site for that matter, you will see that the rock and metal industry lost a few greats including a former Grammy winner Jeff Hanneman of Slayer. For being nominated 5 times and winning once in 2007, you think this would be an easy salute to a fallen comrade. Unfortunately not.
When questioning why someone such as Hanneman was left off the RIP list, let's recap back to 2011 when National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences president Neil Portnow addressed the glazing over of Paul Gray (Slipknot) and Peter Steele (Type O Negative):
"'In Memoriam' segment is a real connundrum, because we keep a list — and it's a sad job — of when we lose people in our industry, actually, starting this past week [for next year's awards show], because if it's very late, it's not something we can factor in. And this past year [2010] we had over 300 people in the industry pass, and many of them — all of them — important, so we have to, at the end of the day, make a selection, and you can't get everybody there, and we try to have a broad represenation of different genres and generations and so on. We're never happy with how that exactly turns out, [but] we have the list of everybody [who died] in our program book every year."
So Jeff passed in May of 2013. Was it past the deadline?
Moving past that, apparently some people were married at the Grammys? "33 diverse couples" is what I read on the recap of the show. A nice gesture to as we see the faux pas of same sex marriage being brought to the forefront. Good thing they are doing the ceremony in a liberal place such as California. I did see a tweet from comedian Wanda Sykes that capped the marriages best though...
"Five years from now. 'Remember when we got married at the Grammy's?' 'How could I forget? Pharrell wore that awful hat.'" -Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes)
Well played.
So what direction am I going with this article? Well, it's Monday. Its cold, were at our day jobs, slightly miserable to get out of a warm bed so I thought a mixed feelings rant would make me feel slightly better to wake up and start the day. There have been some major improvements over the years in terms of the Grammys, but there are always areas such as the ones I have listed above to be improved and worked on. Constructive criticism as you would take it. Then again, my constructive criticism doesn't necessarily get them any extra tweets and points in the top 40 world.
But for what it's worth, here is what I considered to be a top collaboration of the evening (despite the 'interesting' piano arrangement from Lang Lang). I am surprised they didn't leave this one till the closing credits as well (haha):
"We're not lightening up the song just for him. We're still hanging onto all the heavy parts and it's gonna be amazing. He's just an amazing pianist, and at one point he's going to be, like, weaving in and out of my guitar solo and playing parts of my guitar solo with me. That's gonna be interesting. I've never, ever experienced that ever before with anyone we've ever played with." -Hammett
This came in as a close second for my expectations. Kristofferson, Nelson, Haggard, and Shelton? Very well constructed!
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