Some people may say it every year, and the odds are, it was also said this year: “The Grammy Awards are boring.”

Perhaps the performances are not as spectacular as one would expect, the results are too predictable, and the speeches are extremely cheesy. We’ll give you that.

However, this year, the Grammys can make for a good discussion. And here are some points which could be interesting to debate:

Who was the real winner?

Of course, we are aware that Sam Smith didn’t leave empty-handed as he brought back four gramophones over five nominations, which is quite an achievement for such a young artist. However, while he may have been victorious on turfs on which he was among the leading contenders, (as in one of the top 3 nominees in each category), another great artist has also amazed us by winning three of the five Grammys for which he was nominated. We are, of course, talking about Beck.
Now, when Beck was called up on stage to receive the Album of the Year award, people started to freak out.

https://twitter.com/CommonWhiteGrls/status/564635280482009088

Obviously, he wasn’t expected to win at all: up against Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Pharrell, the odds were quite slim. But then again, this cannot be called an “upset”. Sure, all the other nominees have had a huge influence on the current decade’s music industry, but let’s not forget that Beck himself had his glory days… which are far from over. In fact, this guy ruled over the 90s and had a huge influence during the early 2000s. He’s been dubbed “The new David Bowie” by many critics, is one of the few remaining multi-instrumentalist in the industry, and is looked upon as one of the greatest geniuses of modern music, right up there with people like Thom Yorke.

Of course, Beck hasn’t marked the newer generation as much as the more recent artists on the nominees list for Album of the Year, and Morning Phase was his first album since 2008’s Modern Guilt, which did sort of go under the radar. So the fact that his victory has been contested by the younger audience is absolutely natural, however, no one can question his worthiness of such a prestigious award.

Did and should plagiarism accusations influence the wins?

As dozens of websites and magazines have pointed out over the past few weeks, Sam Smith got a bit too inspired by Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” in the process of creating the song of the year “Stay With Me”. Resemblances and similarities cannot be denied. 

 

So, obviously, the fact that Smith won so many awards partly or entirely thanks to this particular song can be a matter of debate. Of course some may say that the hugely talented young artist has been sanctioned, first by having to pay royalties to Tom Petty but also, in terms of recognition, by having the Album of the Year award “taken away from him”. Let’s remember though, that this particular song has been named both Song of the Year and Record of the Year (two of the “Big Four” awards). So, obviously, if the Recording Academy decided to name a plagiarized track as Song of the Year, then the matter hasn’t been taken seriously enough. Of course, this has upset many people, to the point of describing the situation as “affirmative action” or “positive discrimination” due to Smith’s sexual orientation… However, it is important to note that questioning this, or rather, those victories does not imply questioning Sam Smith’s talent. In fact, his voice is surely one of his generation’s most powerful, and his performances are unique, even live.

Are the Grammys damaging some genres?

The Grammys are hated by most purists of traditional genres. And their hatred isn’t completely unjustified. The Recording Academy awards 83 musicians, producers, bands, etc. However, only a small part of those artists are actually formally congratulated (as in shown on TV). So, clearly, some music styles receive a better treatment than others. Among noticeable absents during “Music’s Biggest Night” is the Rock N Roll family (Rock, Metal, Blues and Traditional RnB), whose fans are really, really going mad since a few decades, as they feel their favorite artists aren’t recognized enough. Sure, the occasional “Lifetime Achievement Award” often goes to a Rock N Roll pioneer (George Harrison and Buddy Guy earned it this year), but it still doesn’t compensate for all the blows the genre has received on behalf of the Recording Academy over the last few years, according to many. For example, Paramore (which are more of Pop act than a Rock band) winning the Grammy for best Rock Song with “Ain’t it Fun” instead of others such as Jack White or The Black Keys. One can also think of last year’s ceremony during which the final performance, starring Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and the great Dave Grohl, was cut short in order to respect the national TV schedule. Or the tribute to Lou Reed which barely lasted a couple of minutes. Or the fact that bands such as Queen and Led Zeppelin have never been honored by the Grammy association. And the list goes on.

Of course, the Grammys have done an amazing job in celebrating Music and its beauty and importance. However many issues remain: today’s generation do not know what RnB originally was, or what it stands for. And honestly, how many youngsters can admit listening to classical music? It’s a shame that some genres are being erased and bred away through newer branches of humanity’s finest art and most dedicated minds and souls, at the expense of others which are considered more mainstream and therefore appropriate for a larger audience…

Kanye…

Kanye West was everywhere during the ceremony. On the red carpet, obviously, at the after-party, on stage when he was, but more importantly, when he wasn’t supposed to be up there. If you did log in to your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account, you probably noticed that the rapper performed twice, and then came back up once more as a “joke” when Beck was receiving his award for Album of the Year, reminding everyone of his famous “Imma let you finish, but…” speech. Apparently, he just wanted to add a certain touch of humor… but some more skeptical watchers really believed he wanted to bring back 2009. And they weren’t completely wrong.

Some harsh comments to which Beck responded like a true genius:

“I was just so excited he was coming up, he deserves to be onstage as much as anybody. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right? […] I thought she was going to win. Come on, she’s Beyonce! . . . You can’t please everybody, man. I still love him and think he’s genius. I aspire to do what he does.”, the winner told US Weekly.

Well, at least some nice things happened, involving Kanye, as he made up with Taylor Swift more than five years after the infamous interruption.