A week out from the most recent forgettable TV spectacle known as the 2021 Grammy Awards, the supposed controversies have already fizzled away, and even those who watched would be challenged to remember perhaps more than one award winner. Moving beyond the larger discussion of whether such an annual awards event is relevant or even necessary at this stage, it’s truly clear that some sort of cultural torch has been passed and that if a viewer is on one side of that line vs. the other, they may find they are not only bored by the modern Grammys but that they may have never even heard of any of the nominees or performers. Like, at all.
The show itself was nothing like traditional Grammy Awards of years past. In the span of just one year, seemingly, the show has suddenly morphed into what is now essentially a next-gen version of the MTV Video Music Awards (and I’m not talking about the better ones from the ‘90s, when the Grammys themselves were a downright stuffy affair by comparison). For those who didn’t see the Grammy broadcast last Sunday, it would be like turning on The Academy Awards and finding they’ve decided to make the show look and feel more like The Kids’ Choice Awards on Nickelodeon or something. Nothing about the 2021 Grammys spoke to the average viewer over the age of 30 (if even that old). The few awards that were presented were an afterthought and nearly every on-air award winner accepted awkwardly and was both difficult and uninteresting to watch in most cases.
Also like the VMAs, while many categories still exist, fewer and fewer awards are given out on air, to the point where this year’s TV show may have featured only 9 or 10, in total. Aside from H.E.R.’s Song of the Year win for the anthemic, “I Can’t Breathe,” most of the televised awards went to pop and pop-leaning artists in the R&B, hip hop, and country realms. Not only were no rock categories mentioned on TV, it was notable there were also no rock artists included in the running for the Best New Artist award either. Within the rock-based categories, and many others, it felt like the Academy attempted to over-correct for lack of diversity in recent years by seemingly recognizing women and people of color to such a degree it almost comes across as patronizing more than honest (much like the revised Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list from last year). For the handful of rock fans, or even just music listeners who take the experience somewhat seriously, here is a quick run-down of the more significant award winners from this year (not that they were mentioned on TV):
Traditional pop vocal album-James Taylor American Standard
Rock performance-Fiona Apple-“Shameika”
*(all nominees were women or women-fronted)
Metal performance-Body Count-“Bum-Rush”
(Body Count put out a record last year??)
Rock song-Brittany Howard “Stay High”
(all nominees but Tame Impala were women)
Rock album-The Strokes-The New Abnormal
(Strugil Simpson was also nominated, but he’s a country artist)
Alternative album-Fiona Apple-Fetch the Bolt Cutters
(Beck and Tame Impala also nominated)
Progressive R&B album-Thundercat-It Is What It Is
R&B album-John Legend-Bigger Love
Rap album-Nas-King’s Disease
(Detroit’s own Royce da 5’9’’ was also nominated)
New age album-Jim “Kimo” West-More Guitar Stories
(Weird Al Yankovic’s long time guitarist is finally recognized for his instrumental solo work!)
*The late Chick Corea won Best improvised Jazz Solo and Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Contemporary Christian Music Album-Kanye West-Jesus Is
King
(If ever the winner of a specific award was ever more surprising…)
American Roots performance AND American roots song-John Prine-I Remember Everything
Reggae album-Toots & The Maytals-Got to Be Tough
Musical Theater Album-Jagged Little Pill (original Broadway cast)
Best song written for visual media-Billie Eilish-“No Time
to Die”
(the movie this is from is still not out yet…)
Best recording package-Desert Sessions vol. 11 & 12
Best boxed or special limited-edition package-Wilco-Ode to Joy
Best Album notes-The Replacements-Dead Man’s Pop
Best Engineered album. Non-classical-Beck-Hyperspace
Best music film-Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
As has been the case for many years now, the performances get all the attention, and since the awards hardly seem to matter anyway, perhaps the Academy should just post a list of the awards online (like they already do the day after the broadcast) and have a show of only live performances. Maybe the list can be posted a day or a week before the show so the acts who are performing can be introduced with info about what they won? Another idea could be to have two separate shows, one on Saturday of awards and one on Sunday of performances which could divide the audience in some cases but might also lead to an overall increase in viewership between the two programs.
To be fair, this year’s broadcast did feature a
respectful and well-toned In Memoriam segment with tributes from Brittany Howard,
Brandi Carlile, Lionel Richie, and Bruno Mars, among others. That portion,
however, was the only thing that felt even half-classy about the show. For all
the fuss that was made about a few particularly over-the-top performances, most
notably from Megan Thee Stallion & Cardi B., the show itself, as a whole,
was simply more boring and forgettable than it was provocative or significant
in any way.
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