Last night was the 2014 Grammys. Here's my thoughts and recap. | |
First, let's talk TV and production. The sound kept cutting out. At | |
first, I thought they were censoring, but that's not the case. It was | |
pretty annoying. | |
Speaking of annoying, they started running ads and credits over the | |
final performance. Seriously? You spend over three hours leading up to | |
this and you're going to cover it with crap? Come on, now. | |
My only other issue with the TV broadcast is that we only saw a few | |
awards get awarded. The show was mostly performances. I don't like | |
that. I want to see the awards given. Also, with the number of | |
performances they pack into the show, it becomes more of a concert as | |
opposed to "special guest performances". There's nothing special about | |
being one of 20 or so performances. | |
OK, moving on, let's talk about these performances. Honestly, I'm | |
50/50 on them. Some were really good: Kacey Musgraves, Imagine Dragons | |
with some rapper, Miranda Lambert and Billy Armstrong, Taylor Swift, | |
Robin Thicke with Chicago (surprisingly good!), and Daft Punk with | |
Pharell and Stevie Wonder. Some were OK: Metallica with Lang Lang, | |
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the closing performance of Queens of | |
the Stone Age with NIN and Dave Grohl (though it was *great* to see | |
Grohl kicking ass on the drums again). Other performances were either | |
bad or just plain boring: Beyonce with Jay-Z (the opening act) and | |
Katy Perry come to mind. Lorde performed "Royals" and while I liked | |
the music and the live mix, the visual performance was... well, I like | |
to call it stage Tourettes. | |
However, I have to mention probably the best performance of the | |
night. Maclemore and Ryan Lewis performed "Same Love" and gave an | |
excellent performance of it. Then, Queen Latifa comes on stage and | |
actually marries 30 or so couples right there on live TV (apparently | |
she's ordained or has some other credentials that really do allow her | |
to perform weddings). There were all types of couples including, of | |
course, gay couples. This was all done to "Same Love", of | |
course. Then, Madonna came out and proved once again that she's pretty | |
much done (terrible performance). All in all, the show was good, | |
Maclemore killed it, and the whole thing was very moving. Find it on | |
YouTube or something if you can. | |
Finally, let's talk awards. This *is* an award show, after all, even | |
if the TV broadcast makes you think otherwise. I have to say, I'm | |
really pleased with the number of smaller names, indie folks, and | |
unexpected wins. Lorde, Kacey Musgraves, and Maclemore all walked away | |
with awards. Daft Punk (with Pharrel) won, among others, Album of the | |
Year for "Random Access Memories". Most importantly, Robin Thicke and | |
"Blurred Lines" (the song *and* the album) didn't get shit. | |
They were really quick with the "get off the stage music" last night | |
as well. One interesting moment that sticks out is when during | |
Maclemore's speech, he mentioned how he did all this without a record | |
label and *immediately* the music starts playing. Could be a | |
coincidence, sure, but I'm thinking there might be some conspiracy in | |
there as well. | |
Oh, and one more thing. There were some damn good jokes. Two that come | |
to mind (paraphrased and not cited because I don't remember who said | |
them): | |
"I'm honored to be in the same room as Paul McCartney and Ringo | |
Starr. The Grammys had to decide between bringing either two of the | |
Beatles or all of the Jonas Brothers back together." (Implying the | |
Grammys made the right decision.) | |
and | |
(Speaking about Daft Punk) "You know, back when I was drinking and | |
using, I used to imagine all sorts of impossible things. Then I | |
sobered up, and two robots showed up at my door wanting to make an | |
album." | |
Addendum: I have *no* idea how I forgot this when I first wrote this | |
post, but Robin Thicke surprised the shit out of me. That guy can | |
actually sing! He's a natural born crooner. When he was singing | |
Chicago's song my jaw dropped. Robin, listen to the words I'm about to | |
say: what are you doing with your life? You've got a great voice and | |
are a natural crooner. Own it. Be it. Thank me later. |