Not that the underlying thesis of this Ad Age story about the decline in ratings experienced by both the Grammys and American Idol should be a surprise to anyone–the piece cites the rise of music-related celebrities who are more famous for their personal lives than their songs and the “natural… MORE »
Posts Tagged ‘grammys2008’
Public’s Interest In Music-Related Television Waning Almost As Quickly As Public’s Interest In Music
videodrone
Mathew Knowles has responded to Aretha Franklin’s miffedness over his daughter calling Tina Turner “the Queen” during Sunday night’s Grammy ceremony. Quoth the dad of Beyonce: “As a manager I am not taking something this ridiculous to Beyonce. Beyonce referred to Tina Turner as a ‘queen,’ … MORE »
videodrone
Vince Gill on his “na na, I got a Grammy from a Beatle and you didn’t” dig at Kanye West during Sunday night’s Grammys: “He had said something about how he was gonna win Album of the Year later, and if not him, then Amy Winehouse was most deserving and not me or the Foo Fighters. MORE »
videodrone
Aretha Franklin More Annoyed With Grammy Writers Than We Are
Those of you watching the Grammy telecast on Sunday night may remember the middle-school-caliber speech Beyonce gave as an introduction to Tina Turner, where she ran down all the icons of the past who she wanted to be like before instructing the audience to get on their feet* for Turner, who she referred to as “the Queen.” Well, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin–lumped in as one of the “historical women” who didn’t quite measure up to Turner for whatever reason–was not happy with the slight, going so far as to issue a statement: “I am not sure of whose toes I may have stepped on or whose ego I may have bruised between the Grammy writers and Beyoncé, however I dismissed it as a cheap shot for controversy. In addition to that, I thank the Grammys and the voting academy for my 20th Grammy and love to Beyoncé anyway.” I seriously doubt that anyone else saw Beyonce’s coronation of Turner as a “cheap shot” (I saw of it as yet another indication that the show’s writers were clearly scrambling for last minute material), but judge for yourself with the YouTube of the performance–and the cringeworthy text of Beyonce’s intro–after the jump. MORE »
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of using pilfered passes to sneak into the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. MORE »
Grammy Producers Allowing Millions Of Americans Who Missed The Show To Catch Up Via YouTube
Perhaps chastened by the low ratings for Sunday’s telecast, the Grammy powers that be have allowed YouTube bootlegs of segments from the show to run wild, and right now the entire first page of the video-sharing site’s most popular music videos is made up of Grammy clips. MORE »
top
The Grammys’ Album Of The Year Upset: Who Should Have Won?
Judging by the reactions from my living room, my instant-messenger conversations, and the comments section on our Grammy liveblog, people were more than a little surprised when the Album Of The Year winner was announced… and said winner wasn’t Kanye West or Amy Winehouse, but Herbie Hancock, whose Joni Mitchell homage River: The Joni Letters took home the night’s final prize. I actually wasn’t too surprised by Hancock’s victory–to quote myself, “if you didn’t at least think that Herbie Hancock paying tribute to Joni Mitchell would sway at least half the people who voted for Steely Dan over Eminem a few years back you haven’t been paying attention”–but apparently a lot of people were! (Perhaps they forgot that Norah Jones and Corinne Bailey Rae and Tina Turner and Leonard Cohen were also on the album.) So let’s put it to all of you: If you had a vote in the Grammy balloting, what would you have chosen as this Grammy year’s Album Of The Year? Poll after the jump. MORE »
videodrone
Kanye West’s Grammy Staredown
While accepting the award for Best Rap Album at last night’s Grammys, Kanye West gave a clinic in How To Make The Producers Stop Playing You Off When You Still Have About Half Of Your Acceptance Speech To Get Through. MORE »
top
The Top Five Problems With Last Night’s Grammy Show (And A Few Possible Solutions)
The promise of seeing Tina Turner perform with Beyonce–and other generational boundaries get kicked in, or at least gently hip-checked–wasn’t as much of a turn-on for Joe Television Viewer as executives at CBS thought it would be: Numbers for this year’s Grammy telecast were off 12% from last year, and down an astonishing 18.82% among adults 18-49. (Well, OK, those numbers aren’t that astonishing given the corresponding drop in album sales this year. But still, not good!) So what happened? Was it the booking? Were the bus ads with just photos of Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl too subtle for potential viewers–and kind of embarrassing for the producers, since Macca wasn’t even at the telecast? Or is it just another example of music falling somewhere below ice hockey in terms of pastimes in which Americans are interested–and the music industry doing its damndest to keep its profile plummeting? After the jump, I count down the top five issues faced by last night’s telecast, from poor advertising to ill-advised demographic-chasing. MORE »
AP has the complete list of Grammy winners. Tia Carrere was robbed! [AP] MORE »
