I didn’t think I’d end up doing this, but I can’t resist. I only take four awards shows seriously (Grammys, Oscars, Emmys, Tonys) and the Grammys are my favorite. I live-blogged my thoughts from the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards – share yours!

5:38pm – I am dumbfounded by people’s reactions to Arcade Fire winning the Best Album category. Hipsters who’ve been saying they’re awesome are now complaining that they’ve become ‘the new U2’ while the other half is objecting that a more mainstream artist didn’t win. In other words, no one’s happy with it.

Look, let me explain something. 99 times out of 100, the Grammy Award is given to the more talented artist, not the more popular one. A lot of people objected when Herbie Hancock won Album Of The Year in 2008 – an album that sold less than 150,000 copies – but you know what? The River was a phenomenal album. Listen to Herbie’s rendition of “When Love Comes To Town” with Joss Stone & Jonny Lang and tell me I’m wrong. Just try.

Same thing here. Lady Gaga’s talented (albeit overrated), and Katy Perry’s popular, and Eminem still sells albums almost like Napster never even existed. But none of them had an album, an ALBUM, that was as well-written and well-rounded as The Suburbs by Arcade Fire. Gaga’s Fame Monster wasn’t as good as her first album, and Eminem hasn’t done anything creatively “wow” since 8 Mile. (And if you try and tell me Katy Perry had the best album of the year, you’re revealing yourself as a narrow-minded person who accepts what’s popular as what’s good. Perry had a couple good songs, like “Firework” and “Teenage Dream,” but two songs don’t make an entire album great.)

Long story short? Get over it. And certainly don’t judge an album you haven’t listened to. If you want to see the most popular artist win, go watch the VMAs or the Billboard Music Awards. If you want to see the most talented win, then you can watch the Grammys. (And for the record, I’m not even an Arcade Fire fan. I just recognize that “Wake Up” is a fantastic song and The Suburbs is phenomenal album.)

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7:00am – I re-read the list of winners and nominees for each category, and I still agree that the only snub was for Cee-Lo Green not winning Record Of The Year. I would’ve liked to see The Band Perry win Best Country Song for “If I Die Young,” but to be nominated when you’re still relatively unknown (they lost to Lady A) is amazing. I was happy to see Carolina Chocolate Drops, John Legend & The Roots, Ray LaMontagne, and The Black Keys win Grammys, they all deserved them. And I 100% agreed with Crazy Heart winning the Grammy for Best Soundtrack – “Glee” does some great music, but none of their performances are Grammy-worthy.

11:35pm – FYI, there are 109 Grammy categories and they only televised eight of them.

11:30pm – Here’s the complete list of Grammy Award Winners & Nominees. My only big complaint is probably for Record Of The Year – Cee-Lo Green deserved that one. I even agree with Herbie Hancock’s “Imagine” winning Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, believe it or not. It’s a little amazing that Justin Bieber didn’t win anything, but he’ll get his chance another year. He’s young, but clearly talented. I also would’ve preferred BT to win Best Electronic Album (La Roux won), but BT’s done better albums in the past and he’ll do even better ones in the future. Continue reading →