Feb. 16--The Grammy Awards, the music industry's celebration of the limited commercial success it is still able to achieve, moved to a Monday night this year. The ratings, more or less, held up, coming just a hair short of last year's Sunday telecast in early returns. The show itself, however, had less pop-culture fizz and a few more sour or stagnant moments than in recent years.
Some thoughts from the notebook:
I'm pretty sure Adele performed. Or at least there was someone who sounded a lot like her somewhere in the middle of the blinding stage lights.
She was graceful on Twitter afterward about the microphone malfunction -- apparently, one fell onto the piano strings -- that marred her performance.
Stay in school, child stars! Ariana Grande introduced The Weeknd by singing a phrase of his. She called this technique a "pun." We English majors may have limited earning potential, but we know the difference between a pun and a reference.
Hairstyles of the frozen north. I was at first confused by The Weeknd's hair. Then I remembered: He's from Canada, and every Canadian dude goes through his mullet phase at one point or another.
The littlest surprise. From the rap album nominees, Kendrick Lamar won. But of course he won, because "To Pimp a Butterfly" was the only record from that genre to make it to the overall album of the year nominee field. Ditto for Chris Stapleton in the country category. It must be weird to be the other genre nominees, sitting there hoping for a mathematical error or that Steve Harvey will be your presenter.
Disney's Hall of Musicians. Very lifelike, those waxed performers on the stage doing "Take It Easy" in honor of the late Glenn Frey.
CBS stands for "Cross-promotional Broadcast System." It wasn't enough to bring James Corden ("The Late Late Show") on stage, to have Stephen Colbert ("The Late Show") introduce the live-from-Broadway performance by the cast of "Hamilton," to still have LL Cool J ("NCIS: Los Angeles") hosting the telecast. The Grammys' director even gave us a long look at network chief Leslie Moonves in the audience. Nothing says "relevance" to today's music fans like the lingering image of a 66-year-old broadcasting executive.
As for LL Cool J... Enough already. Five times hosting and he's become the house guest who won't move on. What seemed at first like easy charm has now shifted into cloying territory. He's serving more as coach, really, or head cheerleader for the Grammys, and this show demands a wry comment or two to keep things in perspective.
The best thing the Grammys does... is the annual award to a music educator from somewhere in the land. Always touching.
The worst thing... is the annual rant against digital music, this time backed up by an image of a penny. In case you haven't noticed, Grammys, at least four of your major young talents Monday night were products of the Internet: James Bay, Tori Kelly, the Biebs and Meghan Trainor.
New frontiers in acceptance speeches. Kudos to "Hamilton's" Lin-Manuel Miranda for his rap speech. Taylor Swift's classy, gender rallying put-down of Kanye West was way better than a Twitter feud. But Trainor could use a few more Toastmasters classes.
More 'moments' than moments. The Grammys have bought into their own hype, working way too hard at spontaneity. It's all the worse when your preternaturally affable host tells you there will be "moments," even begins the show by playing video highlights of past "moments." From there it's only a grim countdown until the exciting grouping of Sir Paul McCartney, Eminem, the reanimated ghost of Natalie Cole and a pineapple. Oh, wait. That one is next year.
But the thrill may be gone. In recent years even the failure moments have been at least entertaining in their failure. Not so much this year. Especially horrific was the bumbling homage to Lionel Richie, salvaged only by frequent glimpses of the pained expression on Richie's face. Yes, Mr. Richie, Luke Bryan really is a superstar in contemporary country.
The David Bowie tribute was a disaster. Lady Gaga burned through seven utterly obvious Bowie songs in under seven minutes. Far worse than the rote choices, her performance treated Bowie's career as an example of aerobic, rather than artistic, expression. We can be heroes, perhaps, but first we've got to get through this exhausting fitness class.
On the other hand. Stevie Wonder and Pentatonix paying tribute to Earth, Wind Fire's Maurice White was sublime: more a cappella! Also impressive were Gary Clark Jr., Bonnie Raitt and Chris Stapleton doing B.B. King. Ditto for those Web discoveries, James Bay and Tori Kelly, performing from the middle-of-the-crowd stage.
Is James Bay the love child of John Mayer, Jack White and Johnny Depp? Let's get reproductive scientists and/or TMZ on the case.
Justin Bieber's newfound artistic credibility? Still not buying it.
sajohnson@tribpub.com
