The Grammys | 2011

The Grammys | 2011

This isn’t usually my thing, thing and I have found myself being a critic of award shows over the last year, merely because of how ‘manufactured, they all seem to be (trust me, I would love to be in those meetings where they decide that Tray Songs* should win best male artist… I MEAN COME ON!!???).
*or any other artist you feel is not so deserving…yet.
NOT to say that this award show isn’t manufactured, BUT its The Grammys. And with a staggering 109 categories, the variety is a mouth watering experience for music lovers!

So will get right to it and give you a few highlights on some of the nominations and categories I’m interested in.

Record Of The Year (includes artists and producers)

• Nothin' On You - B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars
• Love The Way You Lie - Eminem Featuring Rihanna
• F*** You - Cee Lo Green
• Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
• Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

Really glad for Lady Antebellum, new act this year and the SoundOnSound review on the mix for their album was pretty cool. The rest very popular this year, ESOM has won many awards already so won’t be shocked if they take this.

Album Of the Year

• The Suburbs -Arcade Fire

• Recovery -Eminem
• Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
• Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
• The Fame Monster – Lady GaGa

Now, where to tart, Lady Antebellum again, GOOD JOB! Eminem keeps doing it, and I feel this album was brilliant, producers like dr.Dre, Just Blaze, Lil Wayne etc, great representation of hip hop I feel. Lady GaGa and Katy Perry (my definition of pop corn music although as a performer I think GaGa takes the crown) either way, the numbers speak for themselves and so ay, credit to them.

Best New Artist

• Justin Bieber HHUUUUHHH?? Oh well.

• Drake

• Florence & The Machine

• Mumford & Sons

• Esperanza Spalding

Drake, there is something different about this one, and y’all know it! Great stuff. Florence & The Machine, I keep saying I want to produce music like hers, great performer too. Mumford & Sons, first heard them late 2010, these guys take indie to a whole other level, and huge congratulations to them. Anyone who is big on producing acoustic music, string instruments, it’s a must have.
Esperanza Spalding – Pure Genus. That’s all.

Best Female Pop Vocal

• King Of Anything -Sara Bareilles

• Halo (Live) - Beyoncé

• Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones
• Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
• Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

These ladies can actually sing, (thank god) but I think we all know who the winner is?

There is much more, and I have only hit the tip of the ice berg, but a few highlights for me are
- John Mayer (battle studies) Nominated for top pop vocal album. Justin Bieber is there too (my world 2.0) guess he has done well!?
- Best Electronic/Dance Album (very important category for me) and really impressed at what BT has done over th past few years, his album (These Hopeful Machine) deep and inspirational, very musical, and really fun! Hope he wins.

- Best rock performance by group or duo with vocals. Both Muse and Kings of Leon nominated, they did well last year.

- Best Metal performance. Its great to see Lamb of God, Slayer, Korn and Megadeath there. If you know me you know this is quite my music.

- Its great to see Ryan Leslie and Janelle Monea on the Best Contemporary album category (Transition and ArchAnderoid respectively)

Best Rap Album

• The Adventures Of Bobby Ray -B.o.B
• Thank Me Later -Drake
• Recovery –Eminem
• The Blueprint 3 -Jay-Z
• How I Got Over -The Roots

This is a tough on..? Really great albums.

- Still on a hang-over from Power of One, but great to see Israel Houghton nominated again another album (Love God. Love People).Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel album.
- Hans Zimmer, 2 nominations for Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media (Inception & Sherlock Holms). These were both great movies, and listening to the scores again, Zimmer is top class. In this category are also Danny Elfman (Alice In Wonderland), James Horner (Avatar) and Randy Newman (Toy Story 3)


That’s it from me for now. There I so much more I have not touched on like the Jazz and Latin categories, orchestra and spoken word etc. so please indulge yourself here:

http://www.grammy.com/nominees

You know that saying, Beauty I in the eye of the beholder?....hmm, wonder what the music one is??

Long Horn ([(-_-)])

And Happy New Year!