Music award shows always seem to follow the same recipe: collect a handful of novice and veteran celebrities, showcase a few of them through live performances, highlight their fashion choices and, of course, have more celebrities tag team to present various awards to musicians. Arguably the most entertaining aspects of the night are not scheduled into the program, but rather occur in between acceptance speeches or after the show ends. In true award show fashion, the Fifty-Fifth Grammy Awards, held on February 10, 2013 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles hosted by LL Cool J, presented audiences with many predictable wins, celebrity tiffs and red-carpet style.
Attracting 28.12 million viewers, 29.5 percent less than last year, the Grammys provided audiences with performances from forty-three artists including Frank Ocean (Best Urban Contemporary Album for Channel Orange), Fun (Song of the Year for “We Are Young” and Best New Artist), Gotye (Record of the Year for “Somebody That I Used To Know”), Jack White and Wiz Khalifa with Miguel (Best R&B Song for “Adorn”). The Black Keys, who won Best Rock Album for El Camino and Best Rock Performance for “Lonely Boy,” performed alongside the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Dr. John. In a questionable circus meets Alice in Wonderland-inspired performance, Taylor Swift (Best Song Written For Visual Media for “Safe and Sound”) not so subtlty targeted British pop star (and onetime fling), Harry Styles as she mockingly sang, “I still love you,” in a slow British accent.
Mumford & Sons won Album of the Year for Babel, beating out the Black Keys, Fun., Frank Ocean and Jack White. Upon winning their award, lead man Marcus Mumford humbly acknowledged fellow nominee the Black Keys by saying, “We figured we wouldn’t win anything because The Black Keys have been sweeping up all day and deservedly so.”
Although The Black Keys received many positive responses in regards to their successful night, they faced some negative virtual criticism from Justin Bieber. After TMZ asked Patrick Carney, the band’s drummer, why he believed that Bieber’s popularity at the Grammys decreased significantly from last year, Carney said, “I dunno, he’s rich, right? Grammys are for, like, music, not for money…He’s making a lot of money. He should be happy.” Bieber responded to Carney’s comment through Twitter, writing: “the black keys drummer should be slapped around haha.” Carney turned the ensuing juvenile fight between himself and Justin Bieber’s millions of Twitter followers into a platform to express his deadpan humor. In response to, “@GomezIsShining: @patrickcarney just die…DIE,” Carney replied, “I will and so will you one day. It’s kinda scary to think about isn’t it?” Another angry Bieber fan wrote, “@_callmemaevey: lamo you’re literally a piece of sh** @patrickcarney,” to which he quipped, “Trust me i [sic] literally am not. i literally would not be able to type.”
As expected, the Patrick Carney versus Justin Bieber-Internet-community feud was not the only celebrity mishap to occur at the Grammys. During the show, Chris Brown once again drew attention to himself by remaining seated while the rest of the audience congratulated Frank Ocean with a standing ovation as he accepted the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album for Channel Orange. Brown’s on-again girlfriend Rihanna also attended and the two sat next to each other during the awards, which was questionable in and of itself.
Unlike past Grammys, this year’s show offered celebrities little to no room for fashion “experimentation,” due to a recent network ban on nudity. The CBS Program Practices team told attending celebrities that showing a great deal of skin was strictly prohibited. In its own words, CBS advised celebrities and stylists to also “please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples…please avoid commercial identification of actual brand name products on t-shirts. Foreign language on wardrobe will need to be cleared.” In other words, as the network wrote in all capitals, “Obscenity or partially seen obscenity on wardrobe is unacceptable for broadcast.”
As a result of this arguably positive, or perhaps negative, constraint on Red Carpet style, female celebrities wore a parade of very pretty somewhat ordinary-looking dresses. For viewers at home, it might have been more exciting to see the normally adventurous, slightly avant-garde looks that catch people’s attention, for better or for worse.
Although award show after award show follows the same trite blueprint, people will always continue to watch them. It seems that the mindlessness of watching the same thank you speech or seeing what appears to be a very similar performance from the “it” pop icon of the year is what attracts people to award shows. This is not a negative criticism of a genuine affinity for music awards shows, but rather an indication that people have developed a stronger obsession with American celebrity culture. It seems that as long as people are interested in who wins what or who wears whom, that fascination will most likely persist well into the future of music award shows.
Unfortunately, the Grammys seem to focus on the glamour and potential excitement of celebrities and live performances rather than the actual music itself. In the case of the Fifty-fifth Grammy awards, the media has generated more feed about the drama of the night instead of why certain artists won certain awards. By the end of the night, it seemed as if more people were talking about the possibility that Adele reacted to Chris Brown in a hostile manner after Ocean’s win, or that Taylor Swift brought along a pedestrian, “mystery” guest to the show in place of a possible new fling. The Grammys would be more enjoyable if the show included a broader range of artists and genres, and if the drama of the night did not take away from the actual music being recognized. For people who enjoy the familiar pattern of the Grammys, fear not since it seems like they are here to stay.
