Were there any classical music awards?
5
Billie Eilish please learn about the challenge of climate change and perhaps write some songs about it. You would be able to reach so many people and you are so the right person to sing about this coming apocalypse. Thank you.
1
I like what Billie Eilish and her brother are doing. They're shaking up corporate music and all of the manufactured hits from people who can't sing, write or play an instrument. What they did is nothing short of amazing.
7
It appears the Grammys are rigged or at least not 100% kosher, so why pay any attention to them if they are just paid advertising?
2
I admit to old age ... so you can label me "Boomer" and switch to the fashion channel, but ...
I find it just a little disturbing in the age on Donald J. Trump and the corona virus that people have the time and money to spend on the kind of funk and flash displayed at the Grammys.
Maybe I'm just too serious.
This was the the worse grammys in terms. Too much singing from Alicia Keys (love her, but she is the host), Not enough awards presented during the broadcast. Ridiculous combinations of presenters (smokey and little big town?) And the white girl wins to the major awards.
1
It's just nonsense to diss self-promotion. They're promoting their music. Every other business person can choose to flood the airwaves with ads, -- we deal with ads EVERY moment! But music is meant to be better than that?? You're perpetuating the "starving artist syndrome" if you believe musicians and their professional associates should be more humble and just hope their work will gain attention by word of mouth.
Does the highly eccentric costume help promote the musician's fame?
Bonnie Raitt: Thirty seconds for a ditty to -
Lifetime Achievement Grammy winner John Prine.
Who nods and waves.
Cut to commercial.
Recording Academy: Dumpster fire that spreads to house on fire that ends with this self-immolation.
With any luck CBS will put a spike through the heart of this mess, and it will move to MTV where it belongs.
2
"Lizzo, a charismatic and outspoken performer who had worked in obscurity for almost a decade before her breakout last year, won three awards, but all in lesser categories."
What's a "lesser category"? It's a Grammy. Aren't they all about recognizing outstanding achievement?
8
Ah, the Grammy's. First we are subjected to a rehash of "Walk this Way" by both Steven Tyler and Run DMC. They both have something in common besides this song - they should have retired years ago. No amount of pyrotechnics or the forced enthusiasm of the musicians in the audience can hide how truly awful this performance was. With all the musical talent available to them, they went with this? What were they thinking?
Immediately after this excuse for a bathroom break, they staged a thoroughly entertaining mashup of Lil Nas X 'Old Town Road' that moved from set to set with an array of musicians. A lot of fun for everybody. Another night at the Grammy's.
3
It is interesting to compare and contrast Eilish's credits on When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? - a grand total of THREE production credits
vs.
Beyonce: Lemonade - close to 100 writers
8
Good job everyone! As a 60 something I've long moved on from pop to instrumental, jazz, and classical. But you all have fun.
7
Music binds us all together. Different genres, different ages, the ultimate in diversity. Music brings out all sorts of emotions and memories.
Given that, why in the world were last night’s Grammy’s so b-o-r-i-n-g? I can’t say it was because of Kobe Bryant’s death. The show, music and performances were set long before that. The music took second place to the performances which were extravagant but also boring.
I can’t believe how bad this year’s show was. Still nothing compares to the Tony awards for an awards celebration.
1
I am 60 years old and discovered Billie Eilish quite by accident while listening to an alternative radio program.
I recognized immediately that she is a creative artist in the truest sense. Billie does it "old school," engaging deeply, openly, and expansively in her conceptual and creative process. With honesty, passion - and not a little irony - she and her brother write their own music and lyrics, create her videos.
When asked about the very "produced" music and videos of most artists today Billie replied, "I rather die" that do my work that way. Creativity - and the authentic commitment to creativity - like hers, is almost extinct.
Someone in this paper recently described her music as "off kilter." Billie's music and lyrics aren't off kilter, they are a mirror of the paradigms, perceptions, illusions, delusions and dysfunctions...we "grown ups" are normalizing more and more each day.
We're off kilter...and Billie is calling us to task for it. (You'd better give it another listen, dude.)
Eilish is a genius ahead of her time. And, Grammy's or no Grammy's...I hope she keeps on doin' it just the way she's been doin' it.
Congrats Billie!
Sincerely, Your Middle Aged Fan Girl
31
@Kelly Grace Smith, I'm 66, and I love her too. She's the first recording artist I've been excited about in years.
6
@Kelly Grace Smith Totally agree. She's got it all.
4
@Kelly Grace Smith ...or she just might be another Flavor Of The Month. It's increasingly hard to tell these daze.
2
Sorry, but how many more idiotic awards shows to we have to cram in every year? It's only January, and there have already been at least four of them. It's beyond absurd, it's a waste.
7
Bad Guy is not taken very seriously, especially because Billie Eilish is so young. I think it’s worth a look.
In associating physical injury and sex, Bad Guy clearly evokes sadomasochism. And in Eilish’s claim of enjoying the whole thing the song glorifies consensual kinky sex. The song portrays such sex in a positive light and so Eilish seems to be turning MeToo upside down. In short, she depicts a woman commonly viewed as a victim as taking pleasure in the pain.
I see ‘Bad Guy’ as turning victimization into power, crediting kinky women for their peculiarity and their dark but fun-loving and confident self-expression.
The message can be viewed as mocking MeToo but I think it puts a new slant on the whole thing. Either way it’s well beyond a teenager. So I suspect that someone else, perhaps her brother, more likely her parents, are the brains behind the operation.
My bottom line is that glorifying kinky sex and turning MeToo upside down is welcome irreverence and I hope the second chapter is as good as the first.
4
@michjas I don't think the song is meant to be sexualized like this. She was a minor when she wrote/sang this. Kind of weird to think of it that way to be honest.
4
@K Kind of naïve to think that minors don’t have sex or write about having sex. Eilish was the one who sexualized it.
Have you seen the video for Eilish's award winning video? Allow me. https://youtu.be/DyDfgMOUjCI
Just one question. What has happened to popular music? As a child of the 60's, I'm a fan of melody, lyrical coherence and cadence, none of which is remotely present in Eilish's oeuvre. I'm reminded of the Rate-A-Record segment on Dick Clark's American Bandstand where the criteria was simple. It works if it's got a good beat and you can dance to it. You couldn't dance to this if your life hung in the balance.
7
@TyroneShoelaces
Her music doesn't belong in the category you're describing.
2
Who cares since the show is simply for entertainment and fixed anyway. The awards are meaningless. I have never watched once and never will. It’s like the oscars just another way for the industry to make a buck and promote their product. Say who’s this Billie guy anyway? Never heard of him.
5
It was pretty interesting to watch the marketing media blitz applied to Billie Eilish last year. And now she's the recipient of 5 Grammys.
7
When will the Grammys organization learn to differentiate between Latinos, Latin Americans and EUROPEANS like Rosalia or Alejandro Sanz. Spanish is NOT the same as Latino. It was ironic that a Latino -Puerto Rican Ricky Martin, gave the award to the amazing Rosalia who deserves an award, just not one destined from people from the Spanish-speaking Americas and Caribbean. Just as Spain colonized the much of the Caribbean and what is now Latin America, now they colonize an awards category and render Latinos invisible..
3
If flavor of the moment, Billie Eilish is the best of what is out there in music today. The music is in truly sad shape.
8
Who are the winners we missed on the Grammys circus telecast? Gary Clark Jr. 2 awards, Chemical Brothers 2 awards, Marc Anthony / Koffee / Keb' Mo' / Esperanza Spalding / Brad Mehldau / Chick Corea / Elvis Costello / Patty Griffin / Sarah Jarosz / Hildur Guonadottir, composer “Chernobyl,” / Angelique Kidjo / Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Kronos Quartet. What a show that would have been. No wonder people who love music are tuned out. Props to Tyler The Creator and Alicia Keys nonetheless.
10
@Corby Add the Regional Roots album winners Ranky Tanky. A performance of Good Time would have been a treat.
1
@Corby
To leave out whole categories of inspired music while paying tribute to great music but focus almost exclusively on "the popular crowd" -- is not good music education. The Grammy awards show could be like an ambassadorship which represents everyone, and could be an awesome, serious tribute show.
2
The Grammys and the other award shows are frauds. They are nothing more than excuses for TV shows, boring TV shows at that.
How can you vote for best of anything unless you've heard everything?
2
Longing for the day when “song of the year “ actually involves musicians.
9
I was rooting for Lana and Ariana, but was still pretty happy when Billie swept the big categories. Gen Z cometh!
I love Billie, I'm seeing her live in March, but Lana Del Rey is my favorite artist and I honestly believe she should've won at least one of the categories that NFR was nominated for. Billie even cites Lana as an inspiration and she is snubbed every year. Lana has paved the way for alternative women for the last 8 years.
4
GRAMMY Red Carpet Live, a live entertainment special hosted by Nancy O’Dell, Kevin Frazier, Keltie Knight and Eve from 4pm to 8pm was really awful. I wanted to see what celebrities were wearing, but the conversations were so dull and phoney that I decided to catch the outfits on YouTube later... Really CBS that's the best you can do?
2
Neither me or you can speak for the total credibility of the Grammys or Deborah Dugan. As my late father used to say, "the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle." I choose to just continue to believe in the healing power of music. There were some genuine moments of that last night.
9
Its unfortunate that the main show about music has become so divisive, like everything else. I agree with Alicia that music unites us all, just not right now.
9
Deborah Dugan the CEO of the Grammys said just four days ago in the Times that the Awards were crooked and it was “riff with corruption” She said that the ballots was fixed. I love music. I liked to see the Grammy Awards every year. But as Dugan let it be known the Grammy Awards is “ripe with corruption." There’s zero credibility and the “prestigious symbol of peer recognition” is a farce.
Dugan even spilled the beans on all the graft on the Board of the Awards and millions of dollars in stolen money. She has even claimed that she was sexually harassed once she came forward by a top executive there. The Grammy Awards are now unwatchable to me and illegitimate. Its like listening to Trump and the GOP senators at an impeachment trial and hoping for the truth to be told. It ain’t coming. RIP Grammy Awards.
13
I've been a BIllie and Finneas fan since they sat on my porch as teenagers with their dad (my oldest friend) and mom and made music. As she and Finneas played in NYC at small clubs, at age 14/18, I thought, "those two have got something special." And then, in early 2018, at a small performance in a gallery, I asked Finneas when they were going to the Grammy's. I'd seen one of Billie's videos, which she directed. I brought a series of friends to those small performances for years. Finneas said, "when we get nominated." Watching them, knowing their parents. What wonderful, modest, thoughtful people. That is a privilege. That's good parenting, and immense natural talent. And they're not alone. The other performers last night introduced me to music I would otherwise not be listening to. I'm 62. Billie got me to listen to Tyler the Creator and her and FInneas' other influences. I no longer am satisfied with the same old. People, let yourselves be transformed. These new artists are opening doors, not just for themselves. For us. I'm grateful.
99
@Ames I am a 71 year old white female and I was glad to be introduced to all the performers. Thanks for your personal insight into Billie and Finneas. I believe they wished some of their Grammys could have been shared with others. They have that level of empathy. I am glad for big sized people dancing, I am glad for a black gay man, I am glad for Grant dramatizing how it feels to be told "Run, run, Go back to where you came from". Alicia Keys convinced me to watch it all: a woman of natural beauty and character, authentic in all she presented, especially joining in harmony with Boys to Men. There were elephants in the room, most of which I don't know about, but I do think, that before we make a messianic martyr out of CobyBryant we should pause to remember the #Me Too moment in his life.
14
Cool. Good for you Tyler, the Creator.
2
Tanya Tucker deserved to win. A real country singer, who's been doing this since she was 13 years old.
22
I’m With Her won for Best American Roots Song so it can’t be all bad.
11
She has a voice and a brain. Her music is, however, over-produced in line with current unfortunate trends.
Hopefully she'll drop the studio gimmicks to become an artist.
5
@David Henry Overproduced? — in a bedroom, with her brother and no one else: no studio executives? Are you sure you've got the right duo?
36
@Ames. Her voice is digitally filtered every which way in virtually every track I have heard. Which is fine, but how can one not hear all of that vocal filtering? Most of her singing is a version of whispering so there has to be lots of amp pushing it in the tracks.
11
@Ames You’d be amazed at what can be done outside a traditional studio setting. It was possible when my band was doing it over 35 years ago, so imagine what one can do now.
2
Not sure whether anyone else experienced this, but I received a clear signal that I was out of touch and beyond old. I saw the award show, the music stopped speaking to me. Too noisy if not loud, too flashy if well choreographed, well meaning if meandering, just high pitch riffs that went from syrupy to tuneless. Tanya Tucker was the saving grace with a dated ballad. If 1980s Grammys were a visit to see Rembrandt and Monet, 2020 Grammy is visit to PTA meeting with art from 7-year olds and finding meaning in stick figures. Ugh.
43
Well deserved. Eilish is a vocal genius, couple this with relevant lyrics (that other's are too frightened to write) and severely sick beats and we don't stand a chance.
24
Change can be hard. This Grammy show was worth the move forward, full of fresh talent and new energy.
Maybe the show was a little rough, not because of Alicia Keyes, a salve for all; not because of addressing Kobe’s death, which felt necessary and soothing; but because all the fresh and new was needed and it’s ok if it wasn’t super polished. WAY more interesting than the same old over-produced suffocating nostalgia, which should not be the focus anyway, IMHO, simply as a fan of the fresh and new, whatever one’s age.
19
While I enjoyed many of the performances, & Alicia Keys was a wonderful host, over all this Grammy Awards felt disjointed to me. It just didn’t seem to flow smoothly. I waited patiently to hear Bonnie Raitt sing Angel from Montgomery, only to hear only one verse; & John Prine, who was then recognized for a lifetime achievement award, wasn’t even invited on stage. Disappointing.
32
@Deborah Extremely humble, John Prine maybe didn't want to be on stage for an award. But I agree, I wanted to hear the whole song.
Her two favorite songs of mine were written by Nashville cats. The other being, I Can't Make You Love Me, by Allen Shamblin and Mike Reid.
10
@M If popular music has been a refuge at all, Bonnie Raitt has been a very special treasure. A little bit of a departure for her was a album she did with her father, Broadway star, singer John Raitt.
Treat yourself to two tunes here, from a different country.
https://youtu.be/Uhe4zEQ_JMs
3
Nobody cares. Only the nominees and winners.
36
I'm 69 years old and have been watching the Grammys for decades, and this was probably the best one yet. I love Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Tyler the Creator, Lil Nas X and many of the old favorites. The tribute to music education honoring the longtime Grammys producer was a bit overdone, but that is what the Grammys always are, and really, one of the worst things that has happened to K-12 education in my lifetime is downgrading music and art education in the schools.
After a terrible day, the Grammys were a salve for the soul.
100
Yawn. Manufactured, over produced, and tiring unoriginal acts that churn out dollars for their record companies dominate the Grammys. Who. Cares.
59
@Matt You nailed it. The Grammys are so utterly irrelevant to true artistic endeavor and quality. Most of the artists and their songs will be trivia questions in only a few years, particularly "Best New Artist" winners - look it up on Wikipedia.
24
Lizzo, Tyler the Creator, Old Town Road, Ariana and Rosalia! Fantastic performances this year. Time for the old guard to relinquish their power and let the new generation take the reins.
43
Also Fka twigs should have sang. Usher worn different pants. And DJ Khalid kept his mouth shut and let a John Legend do all the talking. (H.E.R. Is perfection)
17
Gary Clark Jr’ “This Land” anthem should be the songs Trump hear as he’s voted out of office!
79