I also thought the Tina Turner tribute was terrible. it felt meaningless. And why Proud Mary? Why not simply The Best, a song she said she wanted to be remembered for the most- a song of positivity and celebration. Of course I'm biased.
I cried watching Joni Mitchell. She was one of the reasons I became a songwriter. When I was fourteen I bought her "Lady’s of The Canyon" songbook and taught myself how to play guitar with it. Joni sung in a really low octave. I guess that happens to singers when they get older. I thought the segment was very touching. And God bess Brandi Carlile for getting her back out there and helping to preserve her legacy. She did that with Tanya Tucker as well.
I also think that putting Billy Joel performance’s after the last award was a let down. And the tune was -meh.
Personally I thought Annie Lennox was disappointing. She kind of warbled her way through the song.
I will say I loved that the show (for once) was dominated by Female nominees and winners It was definitely empowering and unique to see them out in full force. Overall I though it was cool show.
Holly Knight
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You nailed this. I was at the show watching and was completely perplexed. It felt so out of touch with what the public and especially young people actually care about and listen to. Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan, and Tyler Childers - 3 artists who are selling out stadiums and arenas this summer, were nowhere to be found. Just same old, same old for the most part...
Keith Levy
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You’re so right about what qualifies as a “hit” right now. When Miley Cyrus was performing “Flowers” and whipped out “Why are y’all acting like y’all don’t know this song?”, it was because a lot of them probably didn’t! The country people down front likely hadn’t heard it. Same for hip-hop. Even R&B and pop were probably 50/50. Nobody has to listen to anything from artists or genres we don’t love anymore. There hasn’t been a “song of the summer” in, what, 15 summers?
Tim Wood
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I didn't watch the show, but I must respond to something you wrote.
"I know kids who don't listen to music. Period."
I teach guitar and piano at a successful arts academy just outside of Nashville, TN. I would ask new students, "What kind of music do you listen to?" I have lost count how many times I have heard, "I don't really listen to music."
I've stopped asking.
Steve McClain
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Bob, The telecast was so long and at times very boring. The standouts for me was #1 Joni. It was a very emotional performance that was reflective thought provoking and brought tears to my eyes. I was happy to see Larkin Poe get their well deserved Grammy in the pre telecast.
Fast Car also as you stated was a stand out and one of the best of the night.
I also liked Billy Joel’s “Turn the light on”. It may not be a smash hit, but I think it’s the best song he’s written in many years and a perfect set up for his upcoming stadium shows with Sting. He can’t hit the high notes like he used to, but he’s still got it.
I like Taylor Swift, but I think it’s way past overload. Her win was just advertisement for her new album which I’m sure will probably sell a million or more. Sometimes you just need to take a break.
Alan Oreman
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The only time when an array of once-in-a-lifetime transformative artists appeared on the show was during the “In Memorium” sequence where we saw some of the greatest, irreplaceable artist of the later half of the 20th Century, who are leaving us daily.
Sadly and unfortunately, NO ONE currently plying their “craft” in the spotlight (except for barely a few of those remaining from the last Century) can hold a candle to their greatness.
George Gilbert,
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Did you somehow miss that last night's Grammys was the confirmation that women now dominate the music industry and we are all better for it?
Mark McLaughlin
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Re: Square Pegs
And Jami Gertz. We put Devo on the show once. I actually thought The Grammys did a lot right. More than I can say for The Academy Awards. I’ve been part of both and I hope the AA’s were watching.
Bill Gerber
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Bob. Wrong. Best Grammy in years!!! You didn’t mention Miley?!? The whole show was worth her win, her speech and performance. Fast Car gave me goosebumps. It was an awesome show. And not to pull rank, but my friends all agree. Everyone was texting each other, like the old days.
Lizzz Kritzer
P.S. Trevor Noah was SPOT ON. Funny without being mean. Actually, he was brilliant. And how about all the females represented???
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Miley for me was the real deal!
Harvey Leeds
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Hi Bob. Jon Pareles in the New York Times calls the "In Memoriam" segment one of the best. I thought it was disgraceful and one of the worst. It was not about those we lost, it was about the performers. Not sure how many names we missed on the screen as the camera panned to Stevie or Annie or Fantasia.
And my pet peeve is that now, two years after we lost him, Danny Kalb, founder of the Blues Project, has been ignored. Keep up the great work!
Rich Moylan
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Why is an emaciated woman suggesting to the entire country that she isn't wearing any underwear?
She needs to eat something and STFU
No class
Madeline Depnnte
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Always spot on with your comments! As a massive Prince fan I loved seeing Wendy and Lisa on stage and I love Annie/Eurythmics but ceasefire? Really? How about “release the hostages”??
I’m a huge Billy Joel fan - first album was Glass houses when I was ten. I personally like the new song a lot but I had a sense of sadness watching him close the show…getting closer to the borderline.
Nathan B
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I’m just thrilled that Laufey won her first Grammy. Her career is already caught fire in such a short time, now even more so. She’s a real talent. I would have not even heard of her until Spotify suggested I listen to her in March of 2022 before her first full album was released. 2 years later, 2 tours later. 2 albums later she’s a Grammy winning artist who writes her own songs and sings live without the need of background dancers or props. A real singer songwriter. We need more of that!
Russ Turk
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Billy Joel sang that last song because it was my Jim's favorite song and it made the show really personalized to me.
I think in the afterlife they're able to direct things like that and this was Jimmy's moment to get billy Joel to play his favorite. Kind of woo woo I know, but I imagine Jim's name on that list right next to Jimmy Buffett .
I bawled because my jim sang that probably have as much as Billy Joel has sang it. Sometimes even better
Lina Lambert
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Agreed about the awkward order of the acts. First Grammy Show I can remember where tears flowed easily, and not just once!
Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs? Fuhgeddaboudit!
Joni was awesome!
Annie Lennox with Wendy & Lisa? I want in on that tour!
And very touching to see the Grammys include Jeffrey Foskett in their memoriam.
Robby Scharf
Beverly Hills, CA
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Great rant. I’ve always watched Grammys as a musical outsider. My music made rare appearances. But it’s always fun to experience the disconnect. We sat there thinking the music was mostly more meaningless than usual and the real talent was either on the road or were handed their awards pre-show. The writhing and gyrating was gross. And just when you needed him to wrest the Grammy from Taylor’s self-promoting hands Kanye wasn’t there! You don’t watch commercials? You don’t know what fun you’re missing! You’ve never seen the “How can such a tiny prick be so powerful” commercials? No, it’s not about Trump. You’ve never seen the balloon woman singing and dancing about her A1C? The drug ads are a window onto our collective bad health as Grammys was to bad taste. You referenced sound. I watch on a pretty big surround sound system using a roof antenna for broadcast TV. It has by far the best sound and picture and looks amazing on sports. The degradation cable produces is major. However, the sound last night even using the best ATSC tuner absolutely sucked: compressed, murky, distant and completely lacking in transparency. The sound on The Ed Sullivan Show 60 years ago was 1000 times more immediate and transparent and it’s captured on videotape & transferred to discs so you can hear for yourself. Easy to hear, but then vacuum tubes and simple signal paths were involved. It’s gone so far in the wrong direction. movie sound mostly sucks today too. I’m surprised there wasn’t an “It Never Rains In California” joke last night from an elderly presenter who knows the tune…..
Michael Fremer
TrackingAngle editor
The Absolute Sound Editor at Large
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I know how much you hate the award shows, but you have to give the ‘24 Grammies this: They pulled off a thousand small miracles.
Three and a half hours and not one technical issue I could spot. Yes, I grew tired of the too-long video segments with their repetitive animations, but I also knew that—while those were playing—a small army of technicians was performing an elaborate ballet; moving sets into place and wiring up the next act. And they got it right. Every. Single. Time.
You might say that getting the tech right is table stakes for being in this business, but—when most concerts don’t get the sound for ONE band dialed in until the 3rd or 4th song, these guys did it for different bands and configurations all night. The sound, lighting, and camera work were spot-on. Those of us who know what it takes to put a show like this together, appreciate that. These guys are the pro’s pros.
I agree, though, that there were a dozen creative misses:
You’re right that Trevor Noah’s opening monologue was way too long. (He’s done OK as an Emcee, but this year it felt like he was shilling for the Academy just a little too hard. I miss LL Cool J.)
“The Best is Yet to Come” for the death sequence? (Who thought that was a good idea?)
I thought the Tina Turner bit was OK, but longer than it needed to be. Likewise for the Tony Bennett tribute. (Is it just me, or is singing a duet with a dead guy just creepy?)
The telecast abandoned jazz and classical music a decade ago, but metal?
And they shouldn’t let Jay Z talk on live TV. Ever.
But they also got a bunch right:
Joni Mitchell (even though it was painful to watch… and Jacob Collier on piano was a brilliant add)
Celine Dion (a nice surprise and forever elegant)
Afro-Beat (something new? Yay!)
The Vegas Sphere (and I think there might have been a band in there, too)
And—BTW—what was “Black Cars,” if not a Ken Erlichean “Grammy Moment?”
Living in the far north, this was fun to see. Just my 2¢.
=R=
Rick Cornish
Ely, MN
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Spot on. Thanks for saving me 3+ hours that have little to do with artistry and substance. I've been told even dubious shows like The Voice now have production numbers, for amateur artists? I stopped watching SNL before I stopped watching the Grammys but both were a long time ago.
Commercials are too painful. The reality is, you can watch a staggered start of a recorded footbal game in about 24 minutes, lopping off unexciting plays, filler and ads. It looks like you could easily watch the Grammys in about 15 if you skip the crap.
John Brodey
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Answering the question of why hijack it for personal reasons....WHY NOT?! That's all it's good for. In a few (maybe as much as 10) years the Grammy's will likely be cancelled for something else, done online for much less money. Taylor is the only one smart enough to squeeze what little value left out of them.
Stephen Tatton
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and no mention by you of Annie Lennox hijacking the program for a cease-fire call with absolutely no mention by her also of the poor hostages STILL some THREE months later held in captivity??
J. Cohn
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Best Rock Performance Boy Genius Not Strong Enough? WTF. I am also a Billy Joel fan and I thought the new song had excellent lyrics and was poignant. But on an album it would be just another track. Not a standout single but decent for sure. You’re right music was everything for us. Life affirming music. Now not so much , but I still have a huge collection to listen to again and again
John Emms
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Always appreciate your take on all things music and more often than not agree with your views. I take exception to your thoughts on the new Billy Joel song, however. I haven't had a song hit me this powerfully in a long time. Now granted, at 51 years old, I'm not the target demo for the Grammy's or who would understand what a "hit" song is in today's market. You are right in so much as this will not be a hit, but man, what a great return from Joel. The vocal melody has embedded in my brain after only two listens. My 13 year old daughter played the song for me on Friday (because at this point, she is on top of the music world than I am). The emotional reaction was immediate for me.
Perhaps it's knowing a bit of the public history of Mr. Joel, his history on the marriage front, as well as his dealings with depression. While I haven't had the same experiences that Billy has had, I hear so much emotion in the vocal line and the accompanying music. Someone who has screwed up love before hoping that he didn't screw up again. Who can't relate to that? Maybe not on the romantic front, but Lord knows there are times when I realize I'm screwing up in the same way I've screwed up previously with the fear that I didn't catch it in time. Man, that is universal.
I couldn't love this song more and for a 74 year old who hasn't written this kind of music (at least publicly) in decades, well it's a gift and I for one am beyond grateful for the song. It touches me deeply in a way I haven't felt in quite a long time.
Chris Fitzgerald
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Nailed it again Bob.
Your final insight on the actual tastemakers migrating to streaming TV is 100% right on. I would also add that you would probably find people like Mo Ostin and David Geffen in tech or streaming TV only these days, there’s no $ in music by comparison, and we have lost our commerce brain trust to other mediums.
Perhaps that has to do with the fact that TV and Film have cohesive unions that protect the creators. They were also an industry that embraced streaming technology far more quickly and gracefully than music did. Ive been saying for years that Streamers like HBO and NETFLIX have run creative shops more akin to Warners in the 70s. Network TV still pays more (Thank you again Unions!), but all that said, the next one who figures out AI will be the winner here.
Sadly, all the stuff that excites me about those Union protections in Film and TV are a band aid on a gunshot wound. But they have staunched the bleeding for a lot longer than music cared to. The Lucian Grainge article in the New Yorker was pretty interesting on the topic of AI. Id love to hear your thoughts on that. The Grammys are a nod to the past that only wants to celebrate the future through that traditional business view. Its through the looking glass Bob, I hope everyone enjoyed the champagne and got their labels to foot the bill for the statues (billed back to the artist of course)...
Scott Sharrard
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What I saw was a snapshot of where we are today. The art reflects the culture of the times. That culture appeared to be about ME, ME, ME, and ME. I must say that Miley Cyrus held the stage like a star, can really sing, and needed no dancers or cages to pull off a great performance. But then she said “The only reason I’m doing this is so I can watch myself tomorrow on the Grammys.” I liked that she told the truth, but ouch.
Mariah came out and stood in front of a giant image of…Mariah. Ouch.
As far as Taylor Swift is concerned, my daughter-in-law, 12-year old granddaughter, and the Swifties momentum finally overtook me last month and I thought, “Well, give her credit for making her own way and the fact that she changes her music as needed for the moment is just her art form.” But last night’s first remarks kind of killed it all for me. Of all the things she might have said, to speak to young women everywhere, she chose to drop her new album date and then said something like, “I will now go post a picture of my album cover.” It also seemed important for her to tell everyone that this was her 13th Grammy. I finally realized her true greatness, her true authenticity. She’s an authentic marketing machine.
That’s what the show seemed to be about—how many awards can we win. It used to be the award was a nice bonus reflection on how important the music was. Now it’s like bowling trophies.
But maybe it was always like bowling trophies. I remember when Bob Dylan won his first Grammy. We Columbia Records guys were in the audience thinking, “Wow, they finally got around to giving Bob a Grammy (something like 1979). It’s a little late for that. By the way, Bob Dylan means more to the world than the entire Grammy Award thing.” Even he got a chuckle out of it. His speech (for those of us who understand Bob speak) was disguised. It pretty much meant, “Are you kidding me?” Followed by “F*ck you guys.” And, finally in speak that everyone understood, he said something like, “You know my dad always told me when something nice happens for you sometimes you should just simply say thank you and leave it at that. So thank you.” Ah, integrity, remember when we had that?
I liked it when the music and the artist was more important than the award.
Paul Rappaport
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I’m tired of Taylor Swift but terrified to say that to anyone.
Agree that the rain is and continues to be the winner. Stay Safe.
Went to see American Fiction last night instead of watching the Grammys - incredible flick - hope in the entertainment biz.
All the best
Zach Sutton
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Thanks for the insightful analysis as always. I have one pushback concerning Taylor Swift making her new album announcement and no, you're not a loser for having your opinion. I just happen to disagree with you. You always preach that an artist has to speak to their fan base and not be concerned about the masses. Well, watching the Grammy's with my wife and 2 teenage daughters you would have thought we won the lottery when Taylor made her announcement. They were all talking before the show about a Reputation Taylor's version release but they were completely taken by surprise with this news. All their phones are pinging with texts from their friends the rest of the night. Mission accomplished for Taylor and her fans.
Kevin Bennett
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Bob, admittedly I know very little about Taylor Swift, other than her cameos at Chiefs games -- but the way she totally ignored Celine Dion was shameful -- and the revelation of the secret she claimed to be keeping for two years.... the release date of her next album?? Based solely on her totally self-absorbed onstage behavior, I don't think I want to know too much else about her.
Tom Werman
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For the second year in a row, I was thinking that the only time the Grammys really get to the breadth, power, and intensely personal reach of music is the segment where they honor those who have died. They should make that a two hour program of its own and run a two night show. I bet the “memoriam” show would become the big draw…
Steve Lindstrom
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