Before the start of the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb 10, a memo was circulated to those who would be appearing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, to ensure that “problematic” situations didn’t arise from clothing (or lack thereof).

The celebrities’ response ranged from slight teasing to complete disregard.  was quoted by UsWeekly saying: Kelly Rowland“I thought about the dress code and thought about it again, and that’s about it. I respect. See, I wore clothes!” With limbs out in the open, cut-outs exposing unproblematic cleavages and panels of bare skin, the stars still managed to find loopholes around the strict dress code. Even rapper Wiz Khalifa left little to the imagination in his black and white zig-zagged striped suit, sans shirt. 

In an industry that can’t seem to catch up quick enough with the digitalisation of the media, has the Grammys show lost its direction? It’s become something of a farce of an awards show, packaged as entertainment, with the addition of more and more categories in recent years (do we really need a “Best Americana” award?), the cramming of lacklustre performances in a 3-and-a-half hour show (blowing unnecessary cash on ridiculous staging in some and severely underusing the talent in others), and let’s not forget the fact that CBS delayed the American West Coast broadcast until primetime (despite it being taped in Los Angeles. Go figure.)

As music’s biggest night, the show looks unsure of its standing as a celebration and appreciation of Music’s finest, instead of a flagrant excuse to put Mumford & Sons and their raggedy bunch of indie-pop-rock-folk-country-elctronica-urbanites on the stage for ratings.

There was also a producer’s poorly worded shout out to Justin Timberlake’s helping to fill in on stage when “something unfortunate” occurred in 2009. For those who don’t know, that was the year Chris Brown was arrested for beating Rihanna. Something unfortunate, indeed.

Grammy Nazis all over the world shudder. But this year’s Grammys bore good tidings as well. While the night was more about the show than the music, sometimes, music really is just about the music: it can sell and be creative, artistic and authentic as well.

 

Music has its place

Adele managed to win “Best Pop Solo Performance” with a ‘live’ rendition of “Set Fire to the Rain” (and was unfazed despite a Ukranian TV personality trying to pull a Kanye West on her), Gotye scored a hat trick with “Record of the Year”, “Best Pop Duo Performance” (with Kimbra) and “Best Alternative Music Album”, and Frank Ocean earned himself the award for “Best Urban Contemporary Album”, along with a standing ovation (but not from Chris Brown, of course), with his critically-acclaimed debut studio album channel Orange.

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys was in a permanently foul mood as the cameras cut to him on occasion, despite winning the “Producer of the Year” award. On the other hand, Taylor Swift (or as host LL Cool J likes to call her, T-Swizzle), was just happy to be there as she put her hands in the air for Mumford & Sons (and waved them like she just didn’t care). The show got on to a Swift start (pun intended) with a rousing rendition of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, set to an “Alice in Wonderland”/circus freakshow theme. It was a little messy and disorganised, but a great way to start the show nonetheless (she even managed to squeeze in a Harry Styles reference!). If only the camera had cut to John Mayer…

 

The kind of lovin’ that can be so smooth

In one of the most anticipated numbers of the night, Justin Timberlake, after an absence of nearly 5 years, brought retro back with a thrilling performance of his new single “Suit & Tie”. The screen went into sepia as JT & The Tennessee Kids bopped in sync, the crowd obviously glad that the Michael Jackson of our generation was back. Queen Bey’s beau, Jay-Z made a surprise appearance up the stairs from his front-row seat to some of the loudest cheers from the crowd, and the cameras then returned to colour for “Pusher Love Girl”. Timberlake worked the crowd (“Step with me, Los Angeles!”) with aplomb, his smooth operator falsetto, clean-shaven mug and slicked back coiffure bringing the house down. However, alongside performances by Miguel, Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood (American Idol actually can produce some worthy talent), JT’s vocals were nothing but mediocre. His moves and charm, however, brought sexy back.

Speaking of smooth, Miguel made everyone swoon with his super sexy rendition of this year’s Best R&B Song, “Adorn”, in spite of Wiz Khalifa’s involvement, which at best, was forgettable and unnecessary, and, at worst, offensive to the ears. Miguel began in the aisle as he moved up the stage, strangely to end off with presenting the award for Best Country Album. No matter, his vocals were so good, even the adorable country-pop superstar Kelly Clarkson couldn’t help but profess her love in her acceptance speech for Best Pop Vocal Album (“Miguel, I don’t know who the hell you are, but we need to sing together … that was the sexiest damn thing I’ve ever seen!”).

 

Tribute?

Clarkson’s tribute to Lifetime Achievement Award winners Patti Page and Carole King was another highlight of the night as she sang a medley of “The Tenessee Waltz” and “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” with nothing but a piano, guitar and her killer vocals. In fact, across the mostly draggy night, the most entertaining performances turned out to be the tribute pieces, even if some of them weren’t so much tributes. 

There was a “tribute” to Bob Marley, which included Bruno Mars playing his own song and Sting playing a Police song. Not exactly reggae, and definitely not Marley. Ziggy and Damian Marley and Rihanna then joined in and performed an adequate version of “Could You Be Loved” (an actual Bob Marley song!) It’s interesting to note, however, that the only reggae artistes on stage were, in fact, related to Bob Marley.

Next to the pseudo Marley homage that enjoyed about 7 mins of screen time, jazz icons pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and saxophonist Kenny Garrett had all of 72 seconds to tip their hat to the late, great, jazz pioneer Dave Brubeck – the same Man of whom the President of the United States Barack Obama himself said, “You can’t understand America without understanding jazz, and you can’t understand jazz without understanding Dave Brubeck.” But of course, listening to Dierks Bentley butcher the harmony on Miranda Lambert’s “Over You” was much more deserving of screen time. As was Maroon 5 and Alicia Key’s rather odd-sounding mash up of “Daylight” and “Girl on Fire”.

 

Assembling to Save the Night

But through and through, the best performance of the night was a toss up between 2 super groups assembled just for the night: Zac Brown (Zac Brown Band), Mumford & Sons, T-Bone Burnett, Mavis Staples (The Staple Singers) and Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes), led by Sir Elton John, who performed the much hyped Levon Helm tribute with “The Weight”; and LL Cool J, Travis Barker, Chuck D, DJ Z Trip and Tom Morello serving up some genre-mashing realness with a tribute to Beastie Boy MCA with “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”, following a roof-raising performance of the original track “Whaddup”.

The former group had a surprising chemistry as they belted out the classic Band offering that was definitely a worthy tribute for the indomitable musical reckoning that was Levon Helm. Similarly, the rock/rap/turntable force that was LL Cool J and co. was the best way to end the night and reminded us all that while genres may be definite, music isn’t. According to Rolling Stone, prior to the show, guitar virtuoso Morello stated simply and surely, “We’re gonna take a career’s worth of fury and put it into 4 minutes tonight.” 

If only that kind of intensity was put into all 3 and a half hours of the show.

 

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

RECORD OF THE YEAR:

Gotye feat. Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used To Know”
ALBUM OF THE YEAR:

Mumford & Sons — Babel
SONG OF THE YEAR:

fun., “We Are Young”
BEST NEW ARTIST:

fun.
BEST POP SOLO PERFORMANCE:

Adele, “Set Fire to the Rain”
BEST POP DUO PERFORMANCE:

Gotye feat. Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used To Know”
BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM:

Kelly Clarkson — Stronger
BEST DANCE RECORDING:

Skrillex feat. Sirah, “Bangarang”
BEST DANCE/ELECTRONICA ALBUM:

Skrillex — Bangarang
BEST ROCK SONG:

The Black Keys, “Lonely Boy”
BEST ROCK ALBUM:

The Black Keys — El Camino
BEST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC ALBUM:

Gotye — Making Mirrors
BEST R&B PERFORMANCE:

Usher, “Climax”
BEST TRADITIONAL R&B PERFORMANCE:

Beyonce, “Love On Top”
BEST R&B SONG:

Miguel, “Adorn”
BEST URBAN CONTEMPORARY ALBUM:

Frank Ocean — Channel Orange
BEST R&B ALBUM:

Robert Glasper Experiment — Black Radio
BEST RAP PERFORMANCE:

Jay-Z & Kanye West, “N****s in Paris”
BEST RAP/SUNG COLLABORATION:

Jay-Z, Kanye West & Frank Ocean, “No Church In the Wild”
BEST RAP SONG:

Jay-Z & Kanye West, “N****s in Paris”
BEST RAP ALBUM:

Drake — Take Care
BEST COUNTRY SOLO PERFORMANCE:

Carrie Underwood, “Blown Away”
BEST COUNTRY SONG:

Carrie Underwood, “Blown Away”
BEST SONG WRITTEN FOR VISUAL MEDIA:

Taylor Swift, “Safe & Sound” (from The Hunger Games)
BEST REMIXED RECORDING, NON-CLASSICAL:

Nero & Skrillex, “Promises”
BEST SHORT FORM MUSIC VIDEO:

Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris, “We Found Love”
BEST LONG FORM MUSIC VIDEO:

Mumford & Sons, “Big Easy Express”

You can see the complete list on the Grammys site.

 

All photos courtesy of Kevin Winter and Kevin Mazur, WireImage.com