Snub Central: The Grammys' 10 Most Egregious Errors
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Artist:
Written by Brittany Flynn
It's Grammy season and this year, like any other, we're looking forward to the snubs as much as the actual awards. While the Grammys sometimes get it right, they're notorious for taking a pretty short-sighted view of what's actually going on. Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, and The Who have never won the award, but Will Smith has a handful. And let's not even get started on Milli Vanilli. In anticipation of the event, we've prepared a list of the ten most egregious judgment calls made by the Academy.
1. A Taste of Honey disco their way past Elvis Costello. Blame disco for snatching this award away from the still-relevant Elvis Costello. Bell-bottom Adonis A Taste of Honey's hit song "Boogie Oogie Oogie" went on to become a Burger King ad campaign song in the late '90s. Perhaps still bitter, in 1997 Elvis Costello released a greatest-hits collection titled A Taste of Extreme Honey. Best New Artist, 1978
2. Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, and Pink Floyd all lose to someone you don't even care about. Even Kris Kross is more respected than Christopher Cross. This dude owned the 1980 Grammys, though, taking home Best Record, Best Song, and Best New Artist for a big 'ol pile of run-of-the-mill, soft-rock pap. He's the only solo artist to have gotten all four big categories in one night. What does he sing? Check out "Sailing," a song that's instantly familiar because it's (annoyingly) popped up all over the place. Look for this in the next Seth Rogan/Paul Rudd bromance with Will Ferrell covering it. Not really, but they should consider using this song if they haven't already. 1980, Album of the Year, 1980
3. Springfield vs. Springsteen. Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" took home the award over Bruce Springsteen's "The River" Because the Grammys love a good karaoke song as much as the next dude. Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1981
4. Metallica seriously lose to Jethro Tull, a band that is not heavy nor metal. Maybe the Grammys think Metal means that the band uses an instrument made of some sort of metallic substance? They probably fought for hours, decided Metallica didn't count because they don't get gnarly enough on the flute! Best Metal / Hard Rock Performance, 1988
5. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince win against Public Enemy. The song "Summertime" won over Public Enemy's entire album Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Back, which included their venture into rock with Anthrax on "Bring the Noise." Get disappointed. This isn't the last time we'll see Will Smith on the list. Best Rap Performance, 1991
6. Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" snubbed for unplugged re-tread of Eric Clapton's "Layla." Yup, the decades-old song "Layla" is a classic. And when Clapton did it acoustic the Grammys couldn't wait to give him more awards. Sadly, this was the year that grunge was changing things, and hairbands, and their even older- blues-rock brethren, were quickly becoming a hilarious atrocity of yesterday. The Grammys waited until Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head to finally hand over an award to Nirvana in 1996 for Best Alternative Music Performance. Surprise! It was the acoustic, "greatest hits" album MTV Unplugged in New York that won it. Best Rock Song, 1992
7. Will Smith returns to ruin things. A seriously heartbreaking thing happened in 1998 the family-friendly Fresh Prince won a Grammy for "Men in Black." Mr. "Jiggywitit" stepped over the Notorious B.I.G., who was nominated for "Hypnotize." Even if they didn't feel safe enough giving the award to a "gangster rapper," they could have gone with one of the other, equally qualified, nominees: Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott were both up for this award. Poo Biggie. Even his' death didn't gain him any appreciation from the Academy. Best Rap Solo Performance, 1997
8. U2, Bob Dylan, and Outkast get the diss for a fiddle soundtrack. T. Bone Burnett and Ralph Stamey accepted the award for the soundtrack to O, Brother Where Art Thou? A fiddling good time that won over the Grammy people, despite being up against the big names mentioned above. Album of the Year, 2001
9. Evanescence top 50 Cent. Back when 50 Cent was relevant and still held a lot of promise, the award for Best New Artist went to semi-goth, rock band Evanescence. Fiddy hit the stage when the band were announced as winners and shook singer Amy Lee's hand. And where are Evanescence now? Better question: does anyone care? Best New Artist, 2003.
10. Herbie "Rockit" Hancock snags top honor from many deserving nominees. Best Contemporary Jazz win for River: The Joni Letters wasn't enough. The Grammys wanted Hancock to have more, so they bestowed him with the Album of the Year award, against more notable ones: like Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, Kanye West's Graduation, Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Note to future musicians: just make an album in tribute to a legendary performer. - orry Joni Mitchell's already taken - and grab your more relevant musician friends to contribute their vocals. 2007: Album of the Year
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Comments (11)
Wrong on 2, 5 7 and 8.
Now granted, the Grammys are a joke. The majority of voters are typically older and their taste are too in comparisson to what they are voting for. Most simply check boxes based upon named recognition.
And the top catagories are done by super secret squirell committees as to who gets nominated in the first place.
I have a funny feeling, we have grammy voters on MOG, so I am going to tread lightly.
But when you have to measure what is the "Best" of the year, and your voters all come from varying disciplines within the industry, from A&R, to Producers, Engineers, Technicians, Session Musicians, Songwriters and other artist.
And then they may or may not have a like or dislike for either the Genre of music much less the specific artist themselves, and trust me, nothing can be more catty than a right brained artsy type who likes to sleep till noon and lived the "lifestyle". So they are going to be Jaded voters.
So, given the following:
A Voting populace who is right brained and artsy by nature who has lived the "Lifestyle" and is typically jaded towards various forms of music if not specific bands who may or may not have "Earned" things in their humble opinions, who also come from a huge landscape of disciplines and genres of music are expected to vote upon a huge ballot of material that can be over a year old (pre labor day I think) and you don't expect some sort of name recognition / "Fugg it" and make smiley faces on the ballots going on?
Plus, one writers view of what THEY think is kewl, and what the peers of these people, the purchasing public, the Billboard charts, the Album Sales, the Air play dictated may differ.... It is probably safe to say if an arguement is to be made that someone got "Snubbed", we have to come up with a touch stronger arguement than what was presented in # 2, 5, 7 and 8.
2. Kriss Kross was a flash in the pan gimmick consisting of two smart ass kids and backwards clothes. Christopher Cross has the talent, the ability, the years of vestment and street cred to get where he got. That album, and a lot of his music still stands the test of time. Sorry it didnt have you "Jump"ing in middle school.
5. PE's venture into Rock following Ice Ts Evil Dick concept was brilliant. But it DID NOT have the entire nation reminicsing about the first girl you kissed. And to this day, that song is played on more stereos in the summer time than all of Public Enemies albums, there is something to say about that, and the industry insiders recognized that the year it came out, and voted it so.
7. And yes, I too want Big Willey to stick to Movies from now on. But the B.I.G., like Tupac, was made more famous post death than he ever got pre death. Its a Pedastal thing, people throw them up on one, and the longer in memory the death is, the bigger the Pedestal grows, before to much longer, he and Tupac will have been the greatest Black Artist of All Time..... Don't believe the Hype.
8. It was more than album of the year, it was respect to T Bone, was respect to his ability to write and play just about anything, including blues, country, mountain, bluegrass and others. And you know what, it had a large chunk of America going back and revisiting and RESPECTING a long overdue peace of music culture here in America. The Voting Peers knew that, appreciated that, and thought we needed it as a listening public. They where right, and we did need it, far more than the crap U2 put out that year, or yet ANOTHER Dylan album sounding like Dylan has always sounded.... always.... much less .. "OutKast".
And one other thing... Layla, at least the "un-plugged" version is nerve grating, I agree.
The only thing more nerve grating is the demigod status of Nirvanna, which was just another one of those grunge bands from the North West. Honestly, its all they where. Dave Grohl was the only thing that came from it worth a fart.
Nice list. You might also like this list we did a while ago of Top Ten Bizarre Music Awards Moments
http://www.neonfiller.com/page6.htm#51952
When Toto won best 1982 record -- Rosanna -- and best 1982 album Toto IV -- on the show in Feb. 1983 -- the Grammy's became dead to me.
Nice job on the list Brit - this is sick!
Seriously? You are dissing Herbie Hancock?? Nobody who has any sense likes the Grammys, but that guy has made great music for nearly 50 years.
I'm guessing you're the same person who's put Gladys Knight, Curtis Mayfield, The Commodores, Raphael Saadiq & Sharon Jones on the homepage of MOG under "Jazz." Embarrassing.
Thanks for the props to the earlier commenters.
@hashbury: 1. I didn't do that jazz genre-izing, and 2, the herbie thing was an upset that year. i'm not dissing his career in any way.
No offense intended on the following comment Brittany.
@Hashbury: MOG is growing, and the creators have decided for better or for worse, to utilize the community for a significant portion of its content. Speaking from only my perspective, some of the paid employees and a significant amount of the unpaid contributors do not bring what one would consider "Proffesional, unbiased and educated" written opinions to the table.
And that is not neccessarily a bad thing, because what they lack in experience in writing, reviewing or simple reporting fopaux that they so often fall victim to, they make up for in passion, dedication and unlimited energy.
Do I want a mog that has proffesional writers and content editors that know the difference between Jazz and Soul, that objectively report on singers instead of fanboyish excuse infused slant opinion pieces, that equally devote the front page to all genres of music instead of just their favorites, that pick playlist that are solid builds instead of what their buddy or themselves threw together....
Sure I do. But in order to get that kind of MOG, your going to have to shelve the CodyB's immense knowledge of all things R&B, Amber's passion for seeing live shows, Anna's inate ability to pick out the coolest new band up and coming, Brittany's passion for Hip Hop. And in its place, would be bland typical coverage you get anywhere else.
So give this, and them time. Its a learning curve we are all on, and as time moves forward, the content editors and contributors will learn from their mistakes, and become better at what they do, while still maintaining their passion.
Dave has a plan, and he is sticking to it, and I am here for the long haul, it should be a great ride.
So like I did on my first post on this thread, I try to be the devils advocate, and call out where I see injustice, but I try to keep it as civil as possible, more in order to help the growth than kill the messenger.
@ Funoka Toto IV > all ! Fantastic Album and Rosanna and Africa are both fantastic songs.
There is also something to be said about what is listed as the "Top Artist Radio" and "Top Songs" on Mog, which represent what the majority of Moggers are listening to.
Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Ludacris, Owl City.....
Then look at Daily Picks (content put in by contributors and employees of Mog).
Leonard Cohen, Los Campesinos, Playlist featuring Jazz Clasics, Indie Bands, Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., tony Bennet.
They ARE making the effort to broaden horizons.
We know that Glady Knight isn't jazz, guys. A lot of the genre buttons are autopopulated from the tags put on by moggers and bloggers when they make their entires. We do a lot of retagging but we can't fix 6000 posts a day. I appreciate the high expectations, but that's not lack of professioanlism -- it's just reality ;)
As to this post, nothing i love more than something that kicks up an argument. Herbie Hnacock? Definitley a legend. That album? Easy listening pap not even remotely worthy of his legacy...
Mea culpa. The modest level of snark in the piece did not warrant such an acid response, especially concerning something that was clearly a technical oversight. I regret and retract my eariler post. Apologies.
As a peace offering, may I offer a mix of Herbie's funkiest tracks from the '70s and beyond? I started this before the Grammy post but hadn't yet finished, so thanks for the motivation.
Herbie Hancock >> Future Funk
http://mog.com/playlists/25466
Where is evanescence now? they are recording their next album, where is 50 cent now? realmente espero que se encuentre en reabilitación para que se desintoxique de toda la cocaina que tiene en el cuerpo.
the questions are... do you really know something about music? or are you just writing about your own tastes on music?