46th Grammy hits and misses
• Nuts and bolts of the Grammy Awards
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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| Jason Mraz should've been nominated for the Grammy's Best New Artist award, Advertiser entertainment writer Derek Paiva asserts.
Gannett News Service |
But hey ya! At least OutKast will be in the house to perform, perhaps collect a few of the six Grammys they've been nominated for, and lower the CBS audience age demographic by a couple of decades in the process.
Also on board for live sets: White Stripes, Prince, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, Beyoncé, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, 50 Cent and Foo Fighters.
Some of the music industry's most popular acts are on board for prizes this year, including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, OutKast and Pharrell Williams with six nominations apiece. (Williams has three for his solo work and three with the Neptunes.)
We're guessing you're probably eager to know who's got the buzz to win tonight. Not to brag much, but we got 8 of our 11 Grammy picks right last year. (Thanks for mucking things up Mr. Springsteen, Eminem and Coldplay!)
So despite the fact that we're courting some serious bachi by boasting about our predictive prowess, here's our take on who'll win, who deserves to win, and, darn it, who should've received a nomination for Grammys 2004.
Album of the Year
Nominees: "Under Construction," Missy Elliott; "Fallen," Evanescence; "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," OutKast; "Justified," Justin Timberlake; "Elephant," White Stripes.
Who will win: "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" OutKast. Grammy desperately wants to appear down with what the kids are listening to. "Speakerboxxx" fills that bill nicely, has sold more than 7 million copies in 19 weeks of release, and really is a dazzling piece of musical craftsmanship.
Who deserves to win: "Elephant," White Stripes. The only problem with "Speakerboxxx" taking the top prize? Jack White's utterly brilliant rock manifesto was the best CD of the year.
Should've been nominated: "Hail to the Thief," Radiohead. "Fallen" is basically one great if monumentally overplayed hit ("Bring Me to Life") and 10 tracks of goth-rock filler. "Hail" was the third best CD of 2003, after "Elephant" and "Speakerboxxx."
Record of the Year
Nominees: "Crazy in Love," Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z; "Where is the Love," The Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake; "Clocks," Coldplay; "Lose Yourself," Eminem; "Hey Ya!" OutKast.
Who will win: "Clocks," Coldplay. A splitting of the hip-hop and R&B vote between the four other nominees almost guarantees Coldplay the win here. And with three Grammys bagged in two years, Coldplay is now a bona-fide favorite with voters.
Who deserves to win: "Hey Ya!" by OutKast — because in a year when an unprecedented four Record of the Year nominees boasted hip-hop in their blood, "Hey Ya!" was the best single on any format. Period. It was damn fun to shake it like a Polaroid picture to, as well.
Should've been nominated: "In Da Club," 50 Cent. Yo shawty, several hundred music critics' best-of-2003 lists can't be wrong.
Song of the Year
(A Songwriter Award)
Nominees: "Beautiful," Linda Perry, songwriter (Christina Aguilera); "Dance With My Father," Richard Marx and Luther Vandross, songwriters (Luther Vandross); "I'm With You," Avril Lavigne and The Matrix, songwriters (Avril Lavigne); "Keep Me in Your Heart," Jorge Calder—n and Warren Zevon, songwriters (Warren Zevon), "Lose Yourself," J. Bass, M. Mathers and L. Resto, songwriters (Eminem).
Who will win: "Beautiful," Christina Aguilera. Grammy's a sucker for lyrically pedestrian anthems championing positive self-image; and songwriter Linda Perry writes this stuff in her sleep. If there's an upset, it'll come from the equally schmaltzy "Dance," a song made memorable only by Luther's elegant voice.
Who deserves to win: "Lose Yourself," Eminem. Lyrically, no other nominee here matches Em's incendiary hip-hop battle cry. Released in October 2002, however, the chart-topping "Lose" is simply too absent of buzz to win.
Should've been nominated: "Clocks," Coldplay. Lyrically and musically, a pop masterpiece.
Best New Artist
Nominees: Evanescence, 50 Cent, Fountains of Wayne, Heather Headley, Sean Paul.
Who will win/Who deserves to win: 50 Cent. Fountains of Wayne are one of my current musical faves. But with two CDs under their belts before the brilliant "Welcome Interstate Managers," they're hardly new artists. With "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" the biggest-selling CD in an abysmal year for the music industry, our Fitty has already pumped nine shells into this one.
Should've been nominated: Jason Mraz. Mraz's woefully underappreciated "Waiting For My Rocket to Come" was one of the freshest debut CDs of the year.
Best Pop Vocal Album
Nominees: "Stripped," Christina Aguilera; "Brainwashed," George Harrison; "Bare," Annie Lennox; "Motown," Michael McDonald, "Justified," Justin Timberlake.
Who will win/Who deserves to win: "Justified," Justin Timberlake. Timberlake will win in a category once notorious for ignoring the actual pulse of the pop music landscape. He'd better cry a river of thanks to producers The Neptunes and Timbaland for helping him deserve it.
Should've been nominated: "Waiting for My Rocket to Come," Jason Mraz. Filled with moments of blissed-out pop brilliance and sweet slacker balladry tied together by Mraz's warm, soaring voice, "Waiting" (and its hit single "The Remedy") deserved more Grammy notice.
Best Rock Album
Nominees: "Audioslave," Audioslave; "Fallen," Evanescence; "One By One," Foo Fighters; "More Than You Think You Are," matchbox twenty; "The Long Road," Nickelback.
Who will win: "Fallen," Evanescence. Wake me up after "Fallen" wins. Call my name and save me from witnessing another freakin' kudo for this CD.
Who deserves to win: "One By One," Foo Fighters. The only worthy nominee in the entire batch, and another terrifically crafted collection of Foo.
Should've been nominated: "Elephant," White Stripes. One, because it deserves to win here. Two, because as a CD that redefines rock as much as "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" redefines hip-hop, "Elephant" might have been saved from a baffling nomination for ...
Best Alternative Music Album
Nominees: "Flight Test," The Flaming Lips; "Hail to the Thief," Radiohead; "Untitled," Sigur R—s; "Elephant," White Stripes; "Fever To Tell," Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Who will win: "Elephant," White Stripes. Because Evanescence truly rawks, while White Stripes are just ... alternative.
Who deserves to win: "Hail to the Thief," Radiohead. They're a tad more alternative than White Stripes, right? Right?
Should've been nominated: "Get Up," The Postal Service. The dreamiest synthpop love songs you'll ever hear, and truly ... alternative.
Best R&B Album
Nominees: "Worldwide Underground," Erykah Badu; "Bittersweet," Blu Cantrell; "So Damn Happy," Aretha Franklin; "Body Kiss," The Isley Brothers Featuring Ronald Isley aka Mr. Biggs; "Dance With My Father," Luther Vandross.
Who will win/Who deserves to win: "Dance With My Father," Luther Vandross. Even without the sentimental vote that all but guarantees it the Grammy, "Dance" would rank as one of the R&B legend's best works ever.
Should've been nominated: "Soul Sessions," Joss Stone. A British teenager interpreting vintage R&B with the conviction of a seasoned adult and the pipes of a young Gladys Knight. Stone's reimagining of White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl" as a soul torch song is a stroke of mad brilliance.
Best Contemporary R&B Album
Nominees: "Chapter II," Ashanti; "Dangerously In Love," Beyoncé; "Love & Life," Mary J. Blige; "Comin' From Where I'm From," Anthony Hamilton, "Chocolate Factory," R. Kelly.
Who will win/Who deserves to win: "Dangerously In Love," Beyoncé. Given Mary J's unexpected downward creative spiral, Ashanti's perennial mediocrity, Hamilton's virtual anonymity and an R. Kelly win scaring the bejesus out of Grammy voters, Beyoncé gets the Grammy in spite of being ballad challenged.
Should've been nominated: "Justified," Justin Timberlake. Sure, he's whiter than Martha Stewart¨ crescent moon paint. But "Justified" did rank No. 22 on Billboard's year-end Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album Chart, far above Ashanti's and Blige's CDs.
Best Rap Album
Nominees: "Under Construction," Missy Elliott; "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'," 50 Cent; "The Blueprint — The Gift & The Curse," Jay-Z; "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," OutKast; "Phrenology," The Roots.
Who will win/Who deserves to win: "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," OutKast. The OutKast juggernaut continues.
Should've been nominated: "Electric Circus," Common. The underground hip-hop vocalist alienated more than a few fans of his smooth-flowing jazz rap by, among other things, plugging into his previously hidden inner-Hendrix. Still, "Circus" is bolder and more out-there groundbreaking than anything on 50's "Get Rich."
Best Country Album
Nominees: "Cry," Faith Hill; "My Baby Don't Tolerate," Lyle Lovett; "Run That By Me One More Time," Willie Nelson and Ray Price; "Live And Kickin'," Willie Nelson; "Up!" Shania Twain; "Livin', Lovin', Losin' — Songs Of The Louvin Brothers," various artists.
Who will win: "Cry," Faith Hill. Why not Shania, you ask? Because it's difficult for country fans to perceive you as country when you're chilling lady-of-the-manor style in Switzerland's La Tour-de-Peilz. Hill, at least, still lives somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon.
Who deserves to win: "My Baby Don't Tolerate," Lyle Lovett. Lovett's first CD of original material in seven years — and one of his best to boot (if you don't count 1992's "Joshua Judges Ruth") — just might upset here.
Should've been nominated: "Wildwood Flower," June Carter Cash. With a little help from family and friends, Cash's hauntingly earthy voice — in her youth as on this final album, an instrument comparable to no other — makes "Wildwood" an intimate, often heartbreaking masterpiece.
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Nominees: "A Wonderful World," Tony Bennett & k.d. lang; "The Last Concert," Rosemary Clooney with Matt Catingub and the Honolulu Symphony Pops; "Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook," Bette Midler; "As Time Goes By...The Great American Songbook: Volume II," Rod Stewart; "The Movie Album," Barbra Streisand.
Who will win/Who deserves to win: "The Last Concert," Rosemary Clooney with Matt Catingub and The Honolulu Symphony Pops. With or without Bette Midler's pleas for Grammy voters to cast their ballots for the real deal instead of her own elegant tribute, Clooney finally wins her first golden gramophone.
Should've been nominated: "Michael Bublé," Michael Bublé. A twentysomething throwback to the days when vocal gods such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald roamed the Earth, Bublé brings swingin' class and sass to pop standards, Van Morrison and even Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love."
Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.
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Nuts and bolts of the Grammy Awards
What's eligible: Recordings released in the United States between Oct. 1, 2002, and Sept. 30, 2003.
Who can vote: Members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, an organization open to music industry personnel involved in the creative and technical processes of recording. Record labels are not allowed to vote.
Fields and categories: The Grammy Awards have 28 fields (pop, rock, country etc.) and 105 categories within those fields.
First Grammy Awards ceremony: 1958 (Album of the Year: "The Music From 'Peter Gunn'" — Henry Mancini; Record of the Year, Song of the Year: "Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare) — Domenico Modugno.
Most nominations in a single year: 12. By Michael Jackson in 1983, and Babyface in 1992.
Most Grammys won in a single year: Eight. By Santana for "Supernatural" in 1999; and Michael Jackson for "Thriller" (Seven Grammys) and "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (One Grammy) in 1983.
Most career Record of the Year Grammys: Paul Simon, with three wins.
Most career Album of the Year Grammys: Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder, with three wins apiece.
Youngest Grammy winner: LeAnn Rimes, 14, for Best New Artist in 1997.
Never won a Grammy: Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Talking Heads, Supremes, Bing Crosby, Neil Young.
Did win a Grammy: Hootie & The Blowfish, Men at Work, Captain & Tennille, The Dazz Band, Rick Springfield, Survivor, Sir Mix-A-Lot, A Flock Of Seagulls, Vaughn Meader.
Why Lenny Kravitz rocks: Four consecutive Male Rock Vocal Performance Grammys from 1999 to 2002.
Grammy refusals: One. Sinéad O'Connor declined her Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy in 1990 for "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got." Said O'Connor: "As far as I'm concerned, it represents everything I despise about the music industry."
Grammy recalls: One. Milli Vanilli was stripped of its 1989 Best New Artist Grammy following revelations that the duo did not actually sing on it's recordings.
