The Grammys in 2021 managed to put together a seamless, entertaining, musical television programme that also proved utterly, confusingly furious, despite a six-week delay prompted by the COVID, not to mention furious diatribes from The Weekend. How can everything be true? Read on! Read on!
1. The Broadcast Itself Was A Victory.
Give executive producer Ben Winston huge amounts of credit and make his Grammys debut: His television show moved briskly through several different stages, cut fat past years and a great deal of the filler, underlined a huge and diverse range of music and allowed the performers to be shown at their best. A typical Grammys television programme has fantastic highs and embarrassing lower levels, but the performance of Sunday night was too skillful and elegant to allow for train wrecks. Following the jumbled, zoom-intensive Golden Globes a few weeks prior, Winston showed the world how it’s done.
2. The Prizes Themselves?
Hoo boy. Hoo boy. The Grammys took a moment to acknowledge that Beyoncé had only just surpassed Alison Krauss for the most Grammys ever given to a female artist, which was unexpected. (Georg Solti, be on the lookout!) Unrecognized at that time was that Beyoncé had been through a long history of winning the big awards of the night; she has never won a year record or a year album and only once won a year song, “Single Ladies” (Put one Ring on It) in 2010. Scan the Grammys Beyoncé list and record the number of times the “R & B” modifier appears.
So it had to be Megan Thee Stallion and Beyoncé’s “Savage” when it came time to give out the final night prize? Beyonce’s “Black Parade” had already won best R & B, and her “Brown Skin Girl” had already won best music video (meaning that Blue Ivy, Beyonce’s 9-year-old daughter, has now won her first Grammy). Billie Eilish, for her part, won only the best song written for visual media for “No Time to Die.” Eilish, on the other hand, was the year’s record holder, and she spent much of her speech apologising for winning Megan Thee Stallion.
Without wishing to disparage Eilish, who handled the situation admirably, the Grammys are for you: they mark progress, make adjustments, and raise your expectations.
3. The Call For A Boycott Is Thundering.
In the run-up to the Grammys this year, The Weekend announced that he would never again submit his music for Grammys consideration after it had failed to nominate him for his After Hours blockbuster. Beyoncé took part, but did not do so, and seemed to spend as little effort on the whole affair as possible. The Grammys have a long history of snubbing Black artists during difficult times — Macklemore & Ryan Lewis beat Kendrick Lamar in the 2014 hip-hop prize categories, for example — and patience is wearing thin.
4. For The Big Winners, It Was A Mixed Bag.
Many observers expect Taylor Swift, whose album Folklore won her six grammy nominations and some of the best reviews, to be another coronation the evening. But Swift went 0 to 5 to start, only to record the year around the end of the television programme. Eilish, who dominated the awards last year, hadn’t made much of a splash the rest of the evening. In either case, the big victories sneaked up.
5. The Down-Ballot Races Had Better News.
While it was a shame to see Phoebe Bridgers go from 0 to 4, Megan Thee Stallion was the right choice for the best new artist (although it was kind of a scratcher if she wasn’t nominated last year in that class). Fiona Apple won the best rock (“Shameika”) performance and the best alternative music album from appointments in the major categories (for Fetch the Bolt Cutters). H.E.R. took the year’s song for “I Can’t Breathe,” a powerful resonant track. Kaytranada was the first black musician to win the best dance/electronic album in the 17-year history of the category, a tremendous milestone, however, given the genre’s origins.
6. Get Ready For A New Front In The Wars Of Culture!
Last year, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released one of the slightest songs ever on the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and “WAP” debuted in a greatly transgressive and explosive manner. Rest assured that “cancel culture” and Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head will have to make room for conservative couches of fainting, possibly when you read it.
7. Somehow, None Of The Performances Really Stunk Against All Odds.
With sophisticated stage management, good sound mixing, a mix of live and pre-taped moments, many stages to accommodate set changes and so on, this particular showcase enabled artists to do their best. This was the three-and-a-half hour newsletter the Grammys wanted, and both the musicians themselves and the home audience were recipients who were hungry for live music.
8. The Grammys Didn’t Forget About Places Of Struggle.
Without turning into a telethon or slowing down, the show did a nice job of highlighting a few of the many music venues that are at risk for their long-term survival. It was refreshing to see the Academy realize that the success of their industry depends not only on streaming and selling, but also on the return of live music and venues which make it possible.
9. Noah’s Treasure Deserves More Praise Than You Could Think.
The host of the Daily Show had a fairly small attendance all night long-he had no skit and his monologue was limited to a few quick jokes-but he did an intricate job of shifting the home audience through a complicated bunch of prize show machines. Award shows are usually ungrateful, and he made a hard job easy.
10. It Can Not, Finally, Be Sufficiently Reiterated: The Grammys Still Have A Lot To Do.
“If Beyoncé or Kendrick Lamar make a great record in 2021, they have to win an album of the year.” The Grammys are not trusted by their wide audience and membership, and all the efforts to correct them. You have to build trust.
This confidence can only be achieved through transparency regarding their process, membership and efforts to reflect their industry and their large global audience. The typical Grammys’ response to controversy tends to include artist-specific attempts to correct grievances from previous years. This is part of how Metallica ended up winning eight Grammys over six different years after Jethro Tull lost his famous best metal performance in 1989.
The issue was not that Beyoncé should have won the year’s album over Beck’s Morning Phase in 2015 or that Lemonade should have won the year’s album in 2017 over Adele’s 25, although both results — without a winner’s shade — were difficult to stomach. The question is that it is increasingly difficult for the Grammys to keep going without facing a major revolt by the artists whose buy-in has an apparent relevance.
In other words, you have to step up.
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