NewsGRAMMY Award update for SDE readers
Last night was the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards and amongst the weird and wonderful categories (“Best Regional Mexican Music Album (including Tejano)” were a few that will be of interest to SDE readers…
BEST BOXED OR SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION PACKAGE went to Squeeze Box: The Complete Works Of “Weird Al” Yankovic which was a £250 vinyl set that came packaged like and accordion. Universal must have thought their £1000 Guns N’ Roses ‘Locked and Loaded’ box was a shoe-in for this category, but the nomination didn’t turn into a win. All that stock left and no award either!
BEST RECORDING PACKAGE went to St Vincent‘s Masseduction and Annie Clark was also up for BEST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC ALBUM, although that was won by Beck‘s Colors. A deserving win for a brilliant album. The competition was strong in this category because as well as St Vincent there were two ‘Utopias’ (Bjork‘s and David Byrne‘s American Utopia).
Beck also won BEST ENGINEERED ALBUM, NON-CLASSICAL for Colors, while the 35th anniversary edition of The Alan Parson Project‘s Eye in the Sky won BEST IMMERSIVE AUDIO ALBUM. Not sure why this isn’t called ‘Best Surround Mix’, but anyway…
Quincy, the biog of legendary producer and musician Quincy Jones won BEST MUSIC FILM, beating Eric Clapton‘s Life in 12 Bars and Whitney. Pharrell Williams took home the PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, NON-CLASSICAL gong.
Sony’s Bob Dylan sets have won BEST HISTORICAL ALBUM for two out of the last three years, but not this time around (Dylan wasn’t even nominated). Voices Of Mississippi: Artists And Musicians Documented By William Ferris was the winner. To compound the misery, this same compilation also beat Bob Dylan’s Trouble No More Bootleg Series in the category in which it was nominated: BEST ALBUM NOTES.
Sting and his ‘good friend’ Shaggy won BEST REGGAE ALBUM which may or may not be controversial, but I had it down as an SDE favourite of 2018, so I’m pleased.
Black Panther won BEST SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA while The Greatest Showman won BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA.
That’s it, for this brief SDE GRAMMY update. If you need to know more, such as who won BEST CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC ALBUM then the full list is on the GRAMMY website.
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omg the grammys such a utter load of bullshits in only one night. every year an achievement for the human idiocy
Agreed!
The only Grammy I care about lives in Scotland with Grampy. :P
haha well said
Locked and loaded is totally overpriced. We all now that. But definitely it’s the box set of the last years, when you have only to rate the box as itself. The schadenfreude should only go for the commercial disaster.
Nope, Bobbie Gentry’s “The Girl From Chickasaw County” was…the GNR set was overblown an d the album itself is quite overrated, as is the band…I hadn’t listened to the album in years, so I wanted to see if the desire was still there so I bought the Target 2CD version with the exclusive patch…it was just OK to me, much better bands in that ilk and better albums…to be honest, when the album first dropped in 1987, I HATED it like poison, hated Axl’s screechy voice and it sounded really sloppy and raw and not in a good way…it did grow on me like a leech in some ways, but it did not hold up and Axl became a real pain in the rear and diva when it came to recording and late for the shows…but hey, I was willing to relisten with an open mind…and not really, no surprises, new insights, gems uncovered, nothing…not worth investing tons of $$$ in a set or album or band I could not care less about…BUT Duff McKagen is a helluva nice, cool guy and he came out of punk, so I give him credit, but that’s it…Slash I hear is cool too, but I don’t buy his solo catalogue either…all in all, I’m happy I don’t feel obligated to own such a box…I’d rather have the box that won though…Weird Al’s replica accordion set with his catalogue in it…he is a genius powerpop guy in a song parodist’s clothing…Bobby Gentry and Weird Al and I am set…
Most of this is totally irrelevant to me, but this was great news: Laurie Anderson and The Kronos Quartet’s collaboration Landfall won the award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.
Woo hoo!
I see Paul turned up at the grammy’s dressed and looking like Beck
My secret life uncovered…
Some Grammys memories: Public Enemy losing to Young M.C.; Nirvana’s Nevermind losing to Eric Clapton’s MTV Unplugged; and Milli Vanilli’s Grammy win.
I was totally uninterested in the Grammys, until I read that High on Fire had won one this year. It struck my funny bone, even though they won it in the obvious and only category they could have (metal). And they seemed chuffed in the photo I saw [wonder if they made the broadcast?].
Re: Quincy, I watched and richly enjoyed the Netflix doc. He’s now doing his three MJ albums at the O2 which I’d love to see, though… perhaps not depending on who the vocalists are.
It always comes back to it, but one of the greatest moments in Grammy History was Metallica winning the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal category the year after Jethro Tull won in a bizarre, totally out of touch decision. Lars Ulrich’s first statement at the podium was to thank Jethro Tull for not releasing an album that year.
It’s nice to see them expanding the categories to include some more obscure indy acts, but I agree that as an awards show it is pretty lame for people with a wider musical palate.
The rock awards mostly went to youngish Zeppelin influenced Greta Van Fleet…and Beck got the alt-rock awards & engineered/production ones too…with “Colors”…as for the show itself, yes it made some mistakes when it was finding its feet with some categories, but it has and really, this is the only music awards show I watch every year because it’s about musical merit…and voted on by critics and industry peeps, not fans…so it’s not a popularity contest at all, nor is it about sales, unlike the Billboard awards, which just televises the acts at the top of year end lists in the trade magazine…with wide musical palette like me, it’s better than all other awards shows combined, with the Brit Awards the UK equivalent and World Music Awards covering the different world scenes…everything else is pointless, especially the many country awards shows (at least 3 of those, why??)
the grammys are the worst
I have a Miles Davis SACD of Kind of Blue that is just three channels – Front, Center, and Left. I suppose you could claim that its sound field does not surround, yet manages to immerse!
BTW Alan Parson’s Eye In The Sky 5.1 Pure Audio BR is only $14.59 at Amazon US.
Has anyone watched the Quincy Jones documentary? Those interviews he gave were great stuff. Zero fs. Also looking forward to seeing the documentary Leaving Neverland.
Who won Best Polka album? Oh I know….they’ve deleted that category a few years ago! Also never understood the difference between ‘record of the year’ and ‘song of the year’ (which in this case is the same winner this year). Way too many categories…. Even Jimmy Carter won one!
Hey, Record of the year goes to the artist and producer and SONG of the year is a songwriters award…it was an interesting show this time…nicely hosted by Alicia Keys and she was better than LL Cool J…I think she should host it from now on, as long as she wishes…and BTW, understand the error, but St Vincent’s album is called “Masseduction” not “Masseducation”…her performance with Dua Lipa was great…and DL won Best New Artist…I like how it was broken down…for the most part, Gaga won the pop awards, critical fave Kacey Musgraves won the country awards (AND album of the year with the utterly brilliant and cosmic “Golden Hour”, which a highlight among many was the delightful country/disco raveup “High Horse”…a 10” vinyl of remixes was put out on RSD last year)…the amazing Brandi Carlile won the Americana awards…the hiphop awards went to Cardi B (whom I cannot stand) for album, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino (aka actor Donald Glover) for his single “This Is America” for record & song of the year, R&B went to new artist H.E.R….I saw the list and only saw some of the show but I recorded it and will watch what I missed tonight…it was way better than last year…
Paul’s just being gazing into his crystal ball again! MassEducation winning a Grammy next year. Been one of my highlights of 2018 anyway.
I’m so glad to see the Grammys now have “The Best Immersive Audio Album.” Finally, the enthusiastic market for 5.1 surround sound has been recognized. The creation of this new category award indicates that production of 24-bit/96kHz surround sound for Blu-ray, DVD and SACD will continue.
BTW, “Eye in the Sky” 5.1 surround sound Blu-ray is a magnificent listening experience that was done by Alan Parsons himself, and very deserving of the Grammy Award!
I watched it last night on TV and I didn’t know about 75% of the artists. I thought the show was utterly uninteresting. Could be me though ;-)
@ Paul Sinclair: “If you need to know more, such as who won BEST CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC ALBUM then the full list is on the GRAMMY website.” Enjoyed that one…pure fire!
Thanks for this. I hate watching awards shows, so it’s nice to read about some of the winners. Surprised to learn that I actually own at least three of the “winning” albums – Beck, Shaggy/Sting and “Greatest Showman”, the latter of which I picked up at a charity/thrift shop for $1.00 not long after it was released.
Not to cause a stir but I’ve always found award shows/grammy’s in particular to be a bit pointless. Music is such a highly personal experience I don’t see how they can quantatively measure a “best” of anything. I mean, I guess they cast votes, but in the sense of voting wouldn’t album sales themselves already be it’s own way to measure popularity by people voting with the purchases? And, in general, popularity when it comes to art isn’t going to make something “good” to someone who simply doesn’t like it. It’s like the Rock and Roll hall of fame where it’s nominations signify self-congratulatory industry acceptance more than anything tanglible.
The GRAMMYs, in particular, are a bit of a joke. Although still interesting because they have box set / historical categories. No matter how diluted the event has become, everyone is pleased when they win one :)
Awards for artistic endeavour are always tricky things – but so is relying on sales or box office to measure worth. Cinema provides the best example: frequently, and in my opinion correctly, the likes of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, 2001, etc. are considered in the top 5 greatest films made – but if we go by inflation-adjusted box office takings or ticket sales the greatest films are Titanic and Avatar – neither of which is terribly good or necessarily standing the test of time (or even, in my opinion, terribly enjoyable).
And Joe Dolce’s Shaddap You Face would be better than Ultravox’s Vienna! Yikes!
The other way to quantify quality is by historical status – whether some 100 year after the creation the work is still admired and enjoyed. Of course, waiting a century before awarding a prize for best of 2018 doesn’t tend to suit the commercial needs of the music or film industries!
In 100 years time are we going to be lauding the work of Lady Gaga or Ed Sheeran? Many fans would say ‘of course’, but just consider that 100 years ago sheet music of popular songs, especially from the music halls (the pop music of the day), was still selling in its millions – how many music hall songs do you hear lauded widely today, played in concert halls, or get used as background music in adverts, TV or films – compared to say Stravinsky’s 1913 The Rite Of Spring or Prokofiev’s Romeo And Juliet (think The Apprentice!). Even a lot of 50 year old huge chart hits are largely forgotten by all but the cognoscenti. Watching old 1980s Top Of The Pops episodes on BBC4 I’m struck by how many top 5 and 10 hits are unheard of now and by artists who have gone a similar way – more frustratingly and saddeningly I’m also struck by how genuinely varied the charts were back then compared to now – everything from reggae to goth to metal to funk to synth to disco to soul to novelty to pure pop – it’s just a shame I was too young to appreciate it at the time!
In the here and now, I’d put more faith in a poll of good critics who may have heard 100s of thousands of album or watched similar numbers of films to give a reasonable reflection of what might be ‘the best’ of the year – even though I will know that some critics may be trying to be fashionable, other pretentious, and still others pushing whatever the current ‘agenda’ is – but at least it’s some form of guide in a world full of Amazon-type customer reviews that read ‘I’ve seen loads of films – 40 so far – and this is the best film ever made!!!’ – then you spot that at least half the other films in their 40 are also the best ever. And I can’t help thinking…. that’s not a lot of help given there’s millions of films out there! Same can safely be said for records…..
Genuine question: I understand what the word ‘compilation’ means, but what is a Compilation Soundtrack? One would presume a soundtrack album made up of previously-released songs (like a compilation), but The Greatest Showman surely is original music?
I could be wrong. Or maybe I am just being thick (wouldn’t be the first time)…
I think compilation just means songs, not necessarily previously released songs.
I think “compilation” in this case means whatever the Grammys wants it to – like how “Heavy Metal” can mean Jethro Tull….
It’s been over 30 years, just let it go, man. Just let it go.
:)
Stopped taking the Grammys seriously in 1966 when “Winchester Cathedral won Record Of The Year. Eleanor Rigby, God Only Knows, Good Vibrations, Paint It Black and Sunshine Superman (to name a few) also came out that year….nuff said!
A compilation soundtrack is any one of those multi-artist soundtrack albums released over the years, songs in a movie compiled on an album, as opposed to a score…I’m not sure if cast albums apply though…”The Greatest Showman” is a movie cast recording, as is Lady Gaga’s/Bradley Cooper’s brilliant “A Star Is Born” soundtrack (kinda like a movie version of a Broadway Cast Album), as opposed to a Various Artists one, like “The Black Panther” or back to “Saturday Night Fever”…