Ann Powers on the 2010 Grammy Awards: It's not all about the music

These days, visuals, media saturation and listener interaction are as crucial as the notes.

When will.i.am shouted, "Welcome to the future!" as he and the rest of the Black Eyed Peas cavorted with a blur of dancers through a medley that sounded like a military cadence mixed with an ad jingle at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, he wasn't only spouting a cliche. His bulletin announced that pop music's winning game is changing, and that the only way for the music business to survive is to jump into the pandemonium.

This year's telecast and the awards it celebrated showed how the recording industry is definitively moving beyond albums, and even songs, as the basic unit by which music is both sold and affects our lives. Music is increasingly enhanced by visual or dramatic elements that deepen or even change its messages; it intersects with other art forms, like dance and fashion, to form more complex statements, and benefits profoundly from the active engagement of fans. These perennial realities have now thoroughly transcended the idea that the literary, privately absorbed version of music -- exemplified by the records that played on the gramophone that is the Grammy symbol -- matters most.

The night's performances connected to Broadway (best rock album winner Green Day's performance of "21 Guns" with the cast of the forthcoming New York musical based on their 2004 album "American Idiot"), Cirque du Soleil (Pink's gorgeous "Glitter in the Air," which featured the soulful rock star doing an aerial routine with silk ropes), opera (Mary J. Blige's duet of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with tenor Andrea Bocelli), and the rise of social media (Bon Jovi playing a song requested by fans over the Internet.)

Plenty of artists were rewarded for good old-fashioned songcraft, including the Nashville rockers Kings of Leon, who nabbed record of the year for the yearning "Use Somebody," and country jam specialists the Zac Brown Band, who took home best new artist and performed a rousing, if overly patriotic, medley with the venerable piano man Leon Russell. But these days, the real payoff comes for artists who can augment their musical efforts with other accomplishments.

Neil Portnow, president of the Grammy-sponsoring organization the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, noted in his speech that if fans are no longer willing to pay for albums and singles -- the creeping reality in the age of illegal downloads -- the quality of music may precipitously decline. He's wrong, however. Instead, music is transforming, becoming thoroughly interwoven with other forms of expression and with daily experiences as fans hear and love it in myriad environments.

The most telling statement of the night, in fact, came from comic Stephen Colbert, who told the crowd that the Grammys were "the highest honor that the music industry can bestow, other than your song being covered by the cast of 'Glee,' " the popular TV show about a high school choir. Today's most powerful songs often reach listeners as ads -- the specialty of the Peas -- in YouTube video tributes, as with Beyonce's "Single Ladies," which won song of the year, or in other "nonmusical" contexts.

And more than ever, today's biggest stars are those who embody powerful archetypes so well that a misplaced note or two may be kindly overlooked.

That last situation applies to Taylor Swift, who continued her winning streak by taking home album of the year for "Fearless," a recording that has seemingly won every available prize in the last year. Swift, 20, is a songwriter; she thanked her record label for "letting me write every song on my album" while accepting one of her awards.

But as well-crafted as her platinum-selling tales of suburban high school life are, it's Swift's persona that really sells. This smart young woman comes across as a perky, living American Girl doll, and that appealing version of traditional young womanhood, not her music, is at the heart of her stardom.

Her singing certainly can't be credited. Appealing enough on record, it always seems to let her down live. Swift gave a strikingly bad vocal performance at Staples Center on Sunday, sounding tinny and rhythmically flat-footed as she shared the microphone with the distinctive Stevie Nicks. Swift's inability to match or support Nicks as they worked through a medley of each woman's hits stood in stark contrast to the evening's other pairings, particularly soul man Maxwell's sensitive response to Roberta Flack and Lady Gaga's bravado turn with Elton John.

That number, which opened the show, embodied pop's excitement in these days of mixed media and wildly multiple meanings. After a fantastical start that took the brazen performance artist's "Monster Ball" tour staging to a new level, she and her forebear in glitter pop sat at dueling pianos adorned with fake body parts and sang their flamboyant hearts out. The theatrics meant something -- Gaga and Elton presented themselves as freakish but self-determined mutants created by fame -- and the music was powerful.

Another artist who reached for such heights was Beyonce, who broke a Grammy record by winning six awards, the most for a female solo artist in a single night. The R&B singer showed her rock side by combining her own hit "If I Were a Boy" with Alanis Morissette's 1995 rock jeremiad "You Oughta Know."

Beyonce delivered spectacle in buckets. But she also sang from her gut and her heart. This was great music, and it was "music plus" -- plus risky theatrics and absorbing passion. This was the sound of the future. It was welcome.

--Ann Powers

Complete 2010 Grammy Awards coverage:

- Taylor Swift wins Grammy album of the year

- Fashion: At the Grammys, it's the wild bunch

- Backstage at the Staples Center: A Grammy scene Will Rogers would have loved

- Words wrapped in long silences: Lil Wayne and his rap pals charge ahead with lyrics that don't make it to listeners at home.

- 2010 Grammys: Best & Worst: Lady Gaga, Beyonce and the (sorta) magic of 3-D!

- A touching high-tech tribute to Michael Jackson

- Relive the Grammys! The Pop & Hiss live blog

- The 2010 Grammy Awards | Red carpet arrivals

- Clive Davis' pre-Grammy gala: A few high points before crowd makes early night of it

- Grammy fashion: At the Grammys, style doesn’t stop at the red carpet

- Familiar names dot Grammy jazz categories

- Notes from backstage at the Grammys 

- Nominees & winners for the 52nd Grammy Awards

- Video and interviews from the Grammy red carpet

- Live review: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Norah Jones, Dave Matthews, CSN, Elton John, Wilco and more pay tribute to Neil Young

- VIDEO: Miley Cyrus on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards

Photos: Beyonce, Green Day and Taylor Swift with Stevie Nicks. Credits: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Mark]

Oh I finally get it! Bloggers (which is what you are) love watching people lip sync. Those who actually sing you like to attack and criticize.

[santana]

I think Swift sang ok but Nicks was singing like if she was learning Swift songs for the first time.
In general I think it was ok.

The Michael Jackson Tribute was the best of all.

[Anna]

I am getting tired of the self congratulation and mediocre music.. for ever "Bouncee" there are thousands who are more talented then this overdubbed chick

[markiejoe]

So if musical performance is now all about enhanced "visual or dramatic elements", why does Taylor Swift win? She has no stage presence, she has nothing resembling enhanced "visual or dramatic elements" in her performance, she can't sing very well, is frequently off pitch, moves on stage like a wounded ostrich, and sings bubble gum.

Is this the complex and profound new direction music is going?

[YANA]

thank you for pointing out that Taylor Swift cannot sing! I cannot believe she won "album of the year last night. But then time will tell.

[Tblack]

Ann

Maybe it feels good to attend a media event like the Grammys.

However it's barely about music at all.

Every year music dies a little and this year was no exception.

Stale staged commercialism is all I saw.

Since when does new comer like Lady Gaga get the right to perform with Sir Elton John? When it's directed by large corporate interests.

The normally authentic Green Day was swallowed up in a ultra sanitized Broadway musical.

Stephen Colbert was right. Last night was about rich people congratulating themselves.

[jt]

Taylor Swift can't sing for sheet - she was off-key the entire song she did with Nicks. how does this girl win all these awards?? just giving these kudos to artists because they're cute doesn't cut it!

[boil]

it's not about music at all anymore, since the internet killed the radio star, the quality of music and musicianship is terrible in many ways.... you cannot develop a music artist over two or three albums anymore. one hit wonders, and they aren't hits anymore, as no one is buying music product. the industry has ruined itself since the advent of downloads, and poor management.

[DONALD McCREA]

this is a well written article....but, at the risk of being the lone dissenting voice out in the wilderness, i would like to fashion a rebuttal.....
life (and music) comes in cycles and the pendulum swings back and forth.....waaaay back in the sixties of the previous century, when the charts were filled with pop drivel from the likes of Frankie Avalon and Fabian, et al, there came the Beatles, and Dylan, and others who forged a revolution...and that revolution was comprised of the very same "literary, privately absorbed version of music" (played on "gramophones" yet) that you are all too willing to throw under the bus that's speeding down the road of progress....
while i have tracks from Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, etc. on my iPOD, this is not the music that i am constantly seeking out.....which is music that is driven by personal narratives that are wrought from real experience and speak deeply of life.......
i'm afraid that anything else, such as much of this pop spectacle on the Grammys with the choreography and the strobes and smoke bombs simply reeks of commerical units of product aimed at hitting demographic marks fabricated by a dying industry from the distant past, and does not beckon me into the glorious "future" which you describe....

[DickNasty]

The music industry of today has become all about shock, show, fantasy, technology and less about music,lyrics, melody and voice.

I would say 75% of the artists today can't sing a lick. They hide behind synthesizers and a light show- you can only fool the public for so long to realize you are being conned.

Beyonce is talented and can sing live not some lip synced canned performance like a lot of other performers do- no names mentioned but you know who they are.

Memo to Neil Portnow: you can stuff your condescending attitude. I think a large amount of the public is tired of being ripped off and will continue peer to peer sharing and there is nothing you can do about it. I found many of the performances last night contrived rubbish and you wonder why your industry is not doing well. Maybe you should look inside yourself to see what you as an industry is putting out and promoting as musical talent.

[Jesse]

Ann wrote a thoughtful and articulate review and made a very good case for how music for the masses has changed. I, for one, am sad that the art of songwriting is now been cast aside. I attended an amazing benefit concert for singer-songwriter Michael Ubaldini in Huntington Beach last night. Dozens of artists covered his songs and it was fantastic. Michael is a great artist and his songs are so amazing, they hit emotive paydirt even when covered by artists from other genres.

[JonyDirk]

Well...music is best served by music, NOT visuals.

Think about it. When you hear a song - without visuals - you make it your own. You interpret it by yourself, in a personal way. Maybe you attach it to a sentiment, or to a memory, or to an experience that you're having (like dancing with your love).

When you SEE music, that experience is taken away. Music is TOLD to you...and everyone else. It "looks the same" to everyone. It's DICTATED.

Now, visuals have their place. Remember THE ROSE with Bette Midler? That openning song? Bette on screen for over 3 minutes....just Bette and her microphone and her POWER!! She wasn't pretty (that hair under her arms), but she was a real performer. And how many edits where there? I think one or two. A couple camera zoom-ins, but that's about it. No wardrobe styling, no special effects...just Bette and her music. And we FELT IT. And it still plays today....to any generation. Play it to kids now and they go wow!!

Even older music videos (well, maybe not back to the days of Chuck Braverman, but 1980's MTV), gave a sense of the performer. Not a lot of tricks, just a lot of music and the performer.

What the music industry has to do - and it'll be hard, because like everything else in entertainment, it's dominated by a "herd instinct" - is to remember THE MUSIC. If not, then "wow...this dominates" will be something the dominates a smaller pile. Without musicality in music, there will be no long-lasting, enjoyable standards that stand the test of time (yes, I'm attacking such non-musicality as rap...Will there be "rap standards" in future years like the standards - from classical composers, Gerswhin, Beatles, Stones, Elvis, etc - that we enjoy today? Probably not).

That's about it...

John Arnold

[Doug in Toronto]

What does all this have to do with music? Most of these 'artists' have no concept of music anyway. Listen to Taylor Swift's off-tone assault on Stevie Nicks. Or worse, thanking her record company for "letting me write every song on my album". Or Lady GagMe looking like she was trying on a Slinky. Whatever happened to the singer / songwriter who sang about whatever he/she chose to, where the message was the song, not the look? Lost in the mad dash for video play, I guess. Spectacle over style over substance. So sad.

[Robert]

I was very disappointed in the Grammys. Not very many great acts got to perform, or ended up being winners. Kings of Leon, Third Day and Bruce Springsteen won awards, but think about this:
In the Album of the Year category, Dave Matthews band lost to Taylor Swift (who can't sing. She is tone deaf).
In the Best Pop Performance by a Duo, the great Hall & Oates lost to the Black Eyed Peas. What a joke!
And in the Best Electronic Album of the Year, the Pet Shop Boys' excellent YES lost to Lady Gaga. Good music is not nearly enough now...

[kdsnk9s]

Finally, somebody admits Taylor Swift CANNOT sing! This is the first time I have actually heard a plausible explanation as to why she is so popular and keeps winning awards when she clearly cannot sing! So I guess if your daddy has enough money, you have long enough blonde hair and teenie-boppers think you are cute, you can make it in the music world. The really sad part is she is winning awards over people who have golden voices and she is taking up space that should be reserved for people who can actually carry a tune. Taylor, my advice to you is to stick to song writing, modeling and acting, but for the sake of my ears, STOP SINGING!!!!

[O. Amaro]

I've not watched a Grammies show in years. But after watching last night's circus spectacle, I now not only know why, but am also deeply saddened at the pitiful state of the "music" industry.

Gone (at least in the broadcast) is the quality musicianship, the talented poets/singer-songwriters, and the socially-relevant writing of the past. Instead I witnessed a vapid freakshow for the thought-challenged. The icing on the cake was seeing a tone-deaf youngster winning Best Album.

I'll tune in in another 15 years to see if the industry has come to its senses.

[Jim Time]

Album of the year?!?!?!?Where's Kayne West when you need him???

[emmac]

I really wish Taylor Swift had not publicly announced she would not use auto-tune when singing live--auto-tune would probably really help her. She is aware she isn't the best singer and says that she soon realized there were a lot of other young women all wanting to be singers who could sing better than her so she had to find something else to make her distinctive--and she did, by writing.

I feel Album of the Year was hers. She put together an album where she wrote on every song on the album as a teen girl. She is also a co-producer on the album. A lot of people may dislike her live singing, but there is a reason she had the bestselling album last year and is the artist who has sold the most downloads because she connects to her core audience--teen and preteen girls who finally have someone in music they can look up to. In her concerts, the girls are singing with her--they don't care about her singing ability--they care about her songs and in essence, her.

[David Rubin]

Ann, that's a perceptive & well written article. You mentioned "media saturation". So true. Can't blame people for advertising their products but 24 hrs. a day the big commercial radio stations are pumping the songs of the big label millionaire artists while ignoring lesser known (but not lesser talented) independent artists. One of the poster's comments mentioned "...music, lyrics, melody and voice". Those four words just about sum up what great songs are really made of. Kudos to California's Don Campau for playing "fun to listen to" songs by indie artists on his radio show "No Pigeonholes".
Cheers from Canada,
David Rubin

[azmo66]

The grammys have never been about music in the first place. Its a pointless industry popularity contest. When people were up in arms over Jethro Tull winning the heavy metal/hardrock grammy back in the 90s I was laughing hysterically... not at the grammy judges/bankrollers but everyone who took this garbage seriously in the first place. Anyone who actually cares about this corporate advertising event is a musical fool. Never heard of ms. Powers til reading here godawful Coachella article last week. Now this. Apparently her job is to determine which alleged artists among corporate slew of garbage we should waste our money on. If Lester Bangs was dead he'd be rolling in his grave.

[juke]

I sure don't understand it--- Taylor Swift so clearly off-key w/ Stevie Nicks, didn't they rehearse?! also Roberta Flack didn't seem too care too much tho Maxwell was fabulous. Clearly I don't get it anymore, but then I loved Lady Gaga and Elton John---more of them and less of much of the rest--at least Lady Gaga rose to the occasion! As many other posters have noted, it's no wonder why the music industry is in trouble. whew.

[DMitch]

C'mon folks lets not be too harsh here! It's music, entertainment, art- not a cure for cancer or a solution to problems in the middle east! I've been in the music biz for a quarter century and see trends come and go - and this was one of the best Grammy telecasts in years. For all the complaints I've been reading across the blogs, Dave Matthews and Pink were undeniably amazing. As were the stellar parings of Bon Jovi performance with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland - the MJ "Earth Song" tribute- not to mention the pairings of Maxwell and Roberta Flack; Gaga & Elton John; and Mary Blige and Bocelli. They were all very good, emotionally moving, and made for good TV. I thought Taylor's vocals were lacking- but she is America's princess and her wholesome image is much needed. As Ann says she superserves her audience of young teen girls and I wasnt mad at the Album of the Year nominees. Remember the industry, and academy votes on this...people that traditionally have an elevated respect for music, musicians and artists. I also thought the producers came up with pairings and musical numbers that were timely, and that made sense. Yes, the business is changing and Steve Colbert's observations about Susan Boyle being its saviour has a ring of truth....

[Writeathome]

Still the same collection of stunts.

I record it to skim through and see if the industry has reverted back to the music yet. This is good fare for some but I will continue to be on the outside of this market.

CD Baby is a better show for me, more like family.

Starving artists are still alive and well.

[David Ehrenstein]

Taylor Swift can't sing, and Michael Jackson is n0t the biologial father of those white children.

[Mr. Gramophone]

These kids and their music. Taylor Swift isn't qualified to sit in Stevie Nicks's audience, let alone sing flat next to her. Isn't the younger generation supposed to outshine and upstage the older folks? Last night's youngsters were too sedate, too polite. None is a rock star. They need to get out more, get drunk, get laid, take drugs. The only one who gets it is Lady Gaga... As for Beyonce, her plain, emotionless reading of "You Oughta Know" only proved that she has no rock side.