GRAMMY 2005

[Bruno]

Best new artist: Maroon 5

Their song "This Love" is just great, I can't get it out of my head. Also, their cover of "She will be loved" is good. Both songs are played very often by German radio stations.

I always thought, they were from the UK, because they sound so young, fresh and unpolished. Now I've read, that they are from California.

I guess, I will buy their album SONGS ABOUT JANE now. Also, I will buy the record of the year: Genius loves Company, by Ray Charles and various artists.

Bruno

 

[jimac51]

Bruno-You may also want to seek out a 1997 Warner/Reprise(not sure if this had a release in Europe) release under their original name,Kara's Flowers. This "New Group" has been around for 10 years. As popular as they are today,it still took BMG well over a year to break this band. I remember seeing this album in Best Buy ads for around six dollars. There is also a Maroon 5 seven track acoustic EP which includes a cover of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell".(Personally, I'm still waiting to see if "Highway to Hell" ever shows up on one of those Kidz Bop albums where real kids sing current pop fare). Mac

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Lame, lame, lame. That's the best way to describe the Grammy Awards this year. No wonder the ratings were terrible. It was great to see Brother Ray get those awards (where were they when he was alive???), but it's pretty clear what's wrong with the music industry. Poor songwriting, poor vocals, poor recordings. But the industry will blame the consumers as usual. The one act I did like was Los Lonely Boys, but they were part of that God-awful opening conglomerate that just didn't work. Too much image onstage, not enough talent. And so it goes...


Capt. Bacardi
...completely unimpressed, online...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Agreed. I haven't cared much about the Grammys in quite a while. The Oscars will be more interesting this year. At least there's a bit of a horse race there....the Grammys were going to be all about Brother Ray this year. Fitting, but predictable. Like you said...they shoulda been honoring him years ago.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

If anything, I found the awards themselves to be rather predictably dispersed. Again, they went to the sentimental well with Ray picking up most awards he was nominated for. They do this constantly and it's getting really old. I doubt the people who voted for the record even bothered to listen to it.

Ed

 

[walterphil]

not that i'm a big grammy fan in general
but there was some good there

i was glad loretta lynn won country album of the year
because it is really a superb album.

i'm glad green day won for best rock album also
because i haven't heard an album that great in years.
so exciting, thoughtful, and rockin'.

and i thought melisa ethridge was brave and beautiful.

walt

 

[Dave]

I don't think The Grammy's have meant ANYTHING to me, since Madonna last got one...or did anything GOOD to deserve one...!

Ray Charles was long-overdue to receive one, I'm sure, so it's just as well he WAS awarded POSTHUMOUSLY...!

I know neither Michael Jackson nor Prince have, lately, done anything spectacular...least not the thing we give Grammy's for...!

Wondering how long before they become The GRANNY Awards...?!


Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I doubt the people who voted for the record even bothered to listen to it.

Probably right, considering that the Ray Charles album that won all the Grammys actually got bad reviews pretty much across the board. They were awarding his career though, not just that album.

 

[walterphil]

prince's last album, "musicology" was pretty decent

 

[jfiedler17]

Agreed that the opening segment with the five different acts was a really ill-advised idea, especially the very end with all the songs being sung simultaneously, which gave me a serious headache.
I thought it was a really lousy Grammys for the most part. Most of the performances were terrible, IMO, and too often off-key [did they even bother to rehearse "Across the Universe"?]. The overhyped J-Lo/Marc Anthony duet was a big mess of nothing and looked more like a Telemundo soap than a musical performance, and even the U2 performance was shockingly lackluster and ended on a real thud. I'm not much of a Green Day fan, but they did put on a good performance, even if it looked like it belonged more on an MTV Video Music Awards show than the Grammies. (Actually, I think the Grammies were trying quite blatantly this year to ape the VMAs.)
And the nominee lists in the major categories were pretty terrible - how did U2 not get nominated for Album of the Year or Record of the Year? How did Norah Jones' Feels Like Home get overlooked for Album of the Year?
How did comeback-artist-of-the-year Prince not get a single nod in any of the major categories? How did The Killers and Franz Ferdinand and Scissor Sisters - all nominated in other categories - all manage to miss the cut for Best New Artist? (Although I do like Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved" is a great record - and was glad they won that category.)

Not to mention that Queen Latifah made a really dull host. The ceremony was strangely devoid of any really funny moments or one-liners, aside from maybe the playful banter between Loretta Lynn and Jack White when she went to pick up her trophy.

There were some redeeming moments for me, though. I'm a big John Mayer fan, so I loved seeing him pull off the surprise win for Song of the Year for "Daughters."
And I enjoyed seeing Ray get recognized, even though NARAS admittedly went just a little overboard with it, and it would've been much nicer to see them give him this kind of recognition while he was still alive.

Jeff F.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

GawdAwful!!!

 

[Dave]

GawdAwful!!!

Yes, I'll be real careful when I pick up "mine"...! ...IF I even bother showing up...!! aughalone:


Dave

 

[jimac51]

Ray Charles wasn't exactly neglected by the Grammys:he received three in 1960-two for "Georgia On My Mind" and one for "Let the Good times Roll". 1963 saw one for "Busted". 1975 saw another one. The problem with this particular album is that,while not nearly as embarrassing as some moments on Sinatra's DUETS I and II,it is a far from perfect album. Mac

 

[Dave]

Hey, everything NOW is about "Da Drugs, Da Hood, Da Crib...Da GHETTO...!!!!!"

Nothing but (c)rap...! The drum machines and synthesizers and "beat-boxes", and all that 'effort' (as opposed to REAL INSTRUMENTS!) going into one song (such as the artist's name repeated over & over again...) makes you wonder what the rest of the CD must sound like... And the *#$@&!-Words are "edited out" on the "Non-Parental-Advisory" versions, by at least "lowering the volume-signal" when they're about to come on...or maybe dubbing in "good words" in their place... Well...?

It will be a wonder if we have a "Favorite Music, 2005-thread", and I know it will be whatever "good stuff" is out there...!! (...That probably DIDN'T get a Grammy!)

Well, at least SOME "good ol' Classic A&M-Product", IS coming out... I can turn to that and listen to it, and whether it's POPULAR or not, makes no difference! It may have been "undreground" then, it might still be now, but "underground" is what I always have and always will listen to!!!

Oh, and Wacko-Jacko has the Flu, so that should shut him up for a while, too...!


Dave

 

[Steven J. Gross]

When I attended the Grammys in '84, it was a bore to sit through the show back then....now -I think I would not bother. The party was worth it it though.

 

[Boy_Viramundo]

Well...I'm glad most of you've already said it, because I saw the Grammy's and it was pathetic. Gwen Stefani's new solo debut cd is really great and she should have won an award for it. Melissa Etheridge did do a really good job. They really botched that Beatles tune.

boy v.

 

[Mr Bill]

Well, if you thought the Grammy's were bad... fasten your seatbelts for the Oscars!

The best Hollywood could come up with for a host was foul-mouthed and unfunny comedian Chris Rock! That's even worse than Whoo-Pie Goldberg!!! Hollywood used to be about "class" but I guess not anymore...

--Mr Bill
still happily stunned that they didn't nominate that Moore Mockumentary for anything while Passion got a few noms...

 

[Bruno]

I didn't see the show, so I can't comment on it.

I didn't know that the Maroon boys are recording for ten years already, but I don't care. Sometimes it takes time to break through.

I was never fond of Ray Charles, but this duet album seems interesting to me. I'll tell you, if I like it, when the postman has delivered it together with SONGS ABOUT JANE.

I totally agree with your opinion about this Gangsta music. It's just vomitable, but the kids are buying it. Can't understand it.....

Bruno

 

[walterphil]

awwww mr billllll
i love chris rock
he may be crass
but he has heart

 

[Steven J. Gross]

The Oscars is a bad match for Rock, IMO.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Who cares? He'll do a lame monologue at the beginning, then after the first 1/2 hour he'll just introduce presenters by reading poorly written cue cards.

 

[walterphil]

of course i loved carson doing them
and i thought whoopie did a decent job

but i could never stand billy crystal

chris rock couldn't do worse

 

[jfiedler17]

I didn't know that the Maroon boys are recording for ten years already, but I don't care. Sometimes it takes time to break through ...

I totally agree with your opinion about this Gangsta music. It's just vomitable, but the kids are buying it. Can't understand it.....

They may have recorded under another name before, but at least Songs About Jane was technically the first Maroon 5 album, so the Best New Artist nomination makes some kind of sense .. unlike, say, Shelby Lynne's Best New Artist trophy a few years back.

As for the commercial giant that is gangsta rap? A big reason for its dominance .. I run a mobile DJ business with my brother and have deejayed countless high school dances, and, as much as I don't like most rap (there are some rap records I like, though), we still find ourselves
playing a lot of rap, even when it's not requested, because, to be honest, there's not much pop/rock in the mainstream that's very danceable. (And being danceable is a big factor in how much most younger listeners will take to a record.) Most rock records being made these days are extremely lumbering, and what few uptempo rock songs there are lean so much towards heavy metal that they just provoke mosh-pitting instead of actual dancing, so it's hard to find good dance material that's not rap and is mainstream. And I mention the latter because all the teenagers we've ever entertained are just not interested in dancing to any record that they haven't already heard a million times on the radio or on MTV (translation: "any record that's not ultra-trendy"), so trying to play something extremely danceable that's not ubiquitous, like most Kylie Minogue records or Scissor Sisters or just about any record on the Billboard club/dance charts, is a great way to kill a dance. We've tried, but rather than acknowledge we're playing heavily danceable club music and continuing to dance, the kids just give us dirty looks or come up to our table in droves and say, "We don't know this!". So, unless you want to risk getting the kids all ticked off at you for playing something not heavily-MTV-endorsed or clearing the dance floor for playing something that's mainstream but not danceable, rap is just the thing to play. So I'm much more of an expert on rap than I care to be, but, it works at parties and it gets me paychecks, so ...

And as for the Oscar discussion, I do like Chris Rock, but I agree that he is a really wrong fit for the Oscars, and they'd be better off sticking with someone like Steve Martin, who's my personal fave award-show host.

Jeff F.

 

[walterphil]

steve's great
but bad face work

hard for me to watch now

why can't people just age?

at least they would still look like themselves

nice little essay on rap

if i were a dj i'd play my 90's classics
like m people and ce ce peniston (A & M!)
black box & crystal waters & robin s & salt n pepa
and i'm sure PROMPTLY would get tossed out of the club!

but i love that stuff. dance music was so good in the 80s-90s

 

[Dave]

nice little essay on rap

if i were a dj i'd play my 90's classics...and i'm sure PROMPTLY would get tossed out of the club!

...but i love that stuff. dance music was so good in the 80s-90s

Yes, ORIGINAL stuff...! I am not knocking that... I just think running a "backing-track" of an old song and singing something "new" to it or making up "new" lyrics to an "old" song can be completely UNIMAGINATIVE! That is another think that dominates today's music scene... If we're running out of THAT many ideas--C'mon there were DOZENS of songs that had certain "lyrics" and "clichés" that made their way into these new songs--then...

Well, another thing I heard about these new songs, too: They don't have a 'complete ending' or "fade"...they're CUT-OFF!


Dave