So the Grammys were yesterday. As always, Katy Perry needed to make the show all about her and wear a lime-green dress to show of her sweater-puppies. Oh well, at least JLo followed the rules and wore something a little more tasteful than she did the last time she was at the Grammys. But with all of the great (and not-so great) fashion aside, I have to say this year the ceremony was pretty good.
Starting with the opening...yeah, Taylor Swift, please don't ever EVER sing that song on stage again...ever! And LL Cool J's "big" finale was lame as hell, a very bad way to end the otherwise great ceremony. Most of my picks for each category won, and we saw some pretty kickass performances from Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, The Lumineers, and all of the other performers who were not LL Cool J or Taylor Swift.
Now with the bulk of the show covered, let's get down to the actual awards part that took up 1/100 of the 3.5 hour show. The winners this year created one of the biggest polarized receptions I've ever seen this time of year. Fun won best new artist and song of the year for "We Are Young". On Facebook, reactions to this were either "what?! they are the worst band ever, the people who decided for them to win are deaf!" or "oh my god! fun. is the best band ever and I totally love them!" Personally, I think they deserved the awards they got, and I don't see how they're the worst band ever. "Some Nights" is a really great song, and yeah "We Are Young" was overplayed but it's still a good quality indie song. I just don't understand how people call them "unartistic" but at the same time call Maroon 5 a great band who's in it for the art of music. And that brings me to the next controversy: Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" winning Best Pop Vocal Album and Maroon 5's "Overexposed" didn't. People were actually upset that Kelly won and Maroon 5 didn't. Are you fucking kidding me?! Kelly Clarkson 1) has a WAY better voice than Adam Levine's high-pitched whining, 2) is a TRUE pop artist, not a rock to pop crossover fail, and 3) is ACTUALLY in it for the music, not to sell out and make more money. "Stronger" is an excellent pop album and I was surprised it wasn't nominated for album of the year. If you don't like Kelly Clarkson, something is wrong with you and you need to see a proctologist A.S.A.P.
*Sigh* anyway, now on to who won Record of the Year. Gotye and Kimbra won this category with "Somebody That I Used to Know" as well as the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group performance. Once again, I do not understand why people don't like this song. It's ACTUALLY good (well at least the album version is, the radio mix sucks though), and Gotye and Kimbra are classically good singers. I'm sorry if this offends anybody, but they did deserve record of the year, it's understated yet appealing music is something quite rare in the mainstream today. Once again, I know it was overplayed, but that's because so many people requested it and liked it. Also, I will point out that Gotye is ONE person, not a group as so many people falsely believe. Anyway, kudos to Gotye, Kimbra, Kelly Clarkson, AND Fun for all of their wins.
Adele once again won Best Pop Solo Performance for "Set Fire to the Rain", which was an obvious win, that song is amazing! Carrie Underwood won Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for "Blown Away", which I think she was worthy of, even if the song isn't pure country. Those are the awards that I cared the most about, so if you want to see the other winners you can go to Wikipedia or Grammy.com.
Anyway, I'll once again remind everybody that the Recording Academy decides the winners based on both quality and popularity, so they can appeal to the lowest common denominator and maintain the widespread appeal of the Grammys. It works, because it is the most tweeted music event of the year and is the highest honor you can get for music. I'm completely satisfied with the show last night, and I can't wait to see what next year has in store.
Oh, and "Babel" won Album of the Year, just in case you were wondering.
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