Jay for president. | | | | Praying: Kesha, Camila Cabello, Andra Day and Julia Michaels at the Grammys, Jan. 28. 2018.
(Christopher Polk/Getty Images) | | | | | rantnrave:// How many music fans can you manage to piss off even after diversifying (sort of) your field of nominees and making it more pop-friendly; after inviting pop stars like KENDRICK LAMAR and KESHA to deliver powerful, timely messages; and after making an all-around effort to get with the times? A lot, it turns out. In other words, GRAMMYS being Grammys... Like ADELE a year before him, BRUNO MARS was a gracious winner. He stanned for his fellow nominees. He acknowledged his forebears. He was funny. He delivered a stellar performance with CARDI B. Unlike Adele, he's non-white and steeped in hip-hop culture. He makes flawless pop, the kind that can (and did) win the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. He's the kind of reliable entertainer who has been winning Grammys since the beginning of recorded time. He never doesn't hit his mark. And it wouldn't be a stretch to argue that the other four other nominated albums and the other four nominated singles were all better than his. And I don't mean more culturally relevant or more au courant, though they're arguably those things, too. I mean, simply, better pop records. Hitting your marks is great, but it's not what any great artist is going to be remembered for... Pre-show favorite Kendrick Lamar was confined to winning in genre categories early in the show, while JAY-Z has now been nominated 10 times in the big-four categories and lost every time. The more things change... A grand total of one woman, ALESSIA CARA, won a Grammy on air, and women didn't fair much better in the untelevised part of the ceremony. The night's two best speeches were by women: JANELLE MONÁE on "Time's Up" and CAMILA CABELLO on dreamers and immigration. The two worst, by a mile, were RECORDING ACADEMY president NEIL PORTNOW's and Grammy producer KEN EHRLICH's answers to backstage questions about the lack of female winners and why the only woman nominated for Album of the Year wasn't offered a solo performance slot. Apologies would be appropriate today... SZA is officially owed... Four astonishing performances: Lamar's richly detailed and choreographed opening salvo; LUIS FONSI and DADDY YANKEE's rootsy, BIEBER-less "DESPACITO"; Kesha's angry, cathartic, tear-inducing "PRAYING," and KHALED, RIHANNA and BRYSON TILLER's pop-tastic "WILD THOUGHTS." Five if you include Mars, which I'm happy to do. Maybe PINK, too. And CHILDISH GAMBINO... Lamar should have hosted the show. Thank the Grammy gods for not giving JAMES CORDEN a monologue... Shoutout to DAVE CHAPPELLE for his shoutout to Grammy-snubbed A TRIBE CALLED QUEST... If you want to know how far rock has sunk as a commercial force, the fact that Best Comedy Album made the telecast and no rock category did should tell you all you need to know. There were two great rock moments on TV this weekend: CHRIS STAPLETON's live slots on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, both with surprise guest STURGILL SIMPSON... LOGIC and BONO praised the world's "s***hole countries" during their performances (and were bleeped more than I just bleeped them)... CHUCK BERRY is one of the most important musical figures of the past 100 years, with an influence that extends from 100 percent of rock music to a good deal of hip-hop, R&B and country. And in the #MeToo era, he's a complicated figure, to say the least. GARY CLARK JR. and JON BATISTE's 70-second tribute acknowledged none of this... NATE CHINEN on the jazz and blues Grammys... Shoutout to SONOS for using GRAMMY day to promote the cause of net neutrality, and putting its money where its mouth is by shuttering its stores for the day... The case for bringing the Grammys to ATLANTA. Or NASHVILLE... AIMEE MANN, you're a winner! | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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| With “Havana,” Camila Cabello emerges as a solo artist on her own terms. | | |
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| The Swedish streaming giant plots world domination, but it must navigate the obstacles that result from cutting corners in its quest for rapid growth. | | |
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| Nominations for Kendrick Lamar and Luis Fonsi suggested the Recording Academy was finally recognizing new values. Sunday's wins told a more familiar story. | | |
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| Passing the “Music Bus” bill would go a long way to helping musicians earn a better paycheck. | | |
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| The Copyright Royalty Board has ruled to increase songwriter rates for interactive streaming by nearly 50% over the next five years. Equally important, the CRB simplified and strengthened the manner in which songwriters are paid mechanical royalties, modifying terms in a way that offers a foothold in the free-market. | | |
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| With bilingual remixes soaring, meet the emergency language coaches being called in at the last minute to help artists roll their R’s. | | |
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| Oli Warwick investigates the labels and artists taking the dub reggae template and infusing it with abstract modern sounds. | | |
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| Julius Eastman's music is a pulsing minimalism reminiscent of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass. Its mystery echoes the life and career of this black, gay composer. | | |
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| Kesha's emotional performance was the highlight of Sunday's 60th Grammys. This is how it happened. | | |
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| The breadth hip-hop's impact across metrics both quantitative and cultural now marks a new era. “We didn’t change anything,” notes Kevin “Coach K” Lee, one of the founders of revered Atlanta label Quality Control, about why rap is hitting its stride now. “We just kept it real. It just started connecting. Now it’s going to start expanding.” | | |
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| Considering the success Post Malone's had blurring the edges of hip-hop, pop, and country, it might not matter how you label him. Post just wants to make music--even if he's making it on the toilet. | | |
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| Jody Gerson is making another rare statement in the music industry, vowing to "not knowingly sign an artist who has committed a violent crime against women, or anybody else." | | |
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| At 12:01 a.m., after all the hands had been shaken, and all the hugs exchanged on the Saturday Night Live set in New York's Rockefeller Center, you didn't know what to do with yourself. Okay, now you're supposed to just nestle into bed and act like that didn't just happen? | | |
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| The rapper’s Grammys appearance will be her highest-profile performance to date. Where does her career go next? | | |
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| The "Album of the Year" award should indicate the year's best music. But Washington Post music critic Chris Richards tells NPR's Michel Martin that the Grammys are bad at predicting album popularity. | | |
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| It looked like Kesha's performance would be the only showing of #MeToo at the Grammys. A group of 15 mid-level industry executives who call themselves Voices in Entertainment decided that wasn't enough. | | |
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| Between Chengdu and Shenzhen last year, the relentless Chinese four-piece told us-as they tell everyone-that they wanted to "bring their Worldwide Shit to the entire world." This year, they'll get their chance. | | |
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| The creative industry often gets tetchy, especially with conflicts between artistes and their record label | | |
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| Success takes a village, and while the record-breaking hit " Despacito" began with Latin pop singer Luis Fonsi, he'll forever be associated with the song's three other writers - Justin Bieber, Erika Ender and Daddy Yankee - and co-producers Andres Torres and Maurico Rengifo, who together created the most-streamed song of all time. | | |
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