Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post Reply
User avatar
babydoll
Movin' On Up
Posts: 970
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:07 pm

Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by babydoll »

What do you think about Taylor Swift winning her SECOND Grammy Award for Album of the Year?

While I personally have not listen to 1989 due to not being able to finding the whole album in its whole, I have heard the six singles out. I found Shake It Off grating, Blank Space pretty good, Style bland, Wildest Dreams bland, Bad Blood decent, and I'm warming up to Out of the Woods.

Her first album that won it, Fearless, I thought it was nice in a teen pop way. However it was equivalent to awarding the award to Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time.

It was perplexing as Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly was the best reviewed album of the year. :angry-banghead:
Nick
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3115
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:28 pm
Location: New York State

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Nick »

Obviously a mistake considering "1989" is an above average pop album while "To Pimp a Butterfly" is a landmark rap album.

But then again, it's the Grammys. Is there anyone out there who really cares about music that actually values the opinion of the Grammys?
User avatar
PlasticRam
Into the Groove
Posts: 2202
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:51 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by PlasticRam »

I think the problem is that 70-year-old white people decide the awards so black artists or black genres get snubbed. And also it is pretty gross that there's categories named 'Urban' so the Grammys are actually segregated. Like in the rap categories they do give awards to black artists, but the main categories are largely reserved for white artists. If I remember correctly, Kanye has never won a main category?

This is not exactly what I think about the Oscars, but I won't get into that.

I actually read an article which kinda exposed also the bad system they have. A reggae writer was offered a chance to vote in the Grammy reggae category so he did, but also he found out that just by taking some two week course, he could vote in all categories. So he did vote in all categories except metal and classical. This is how they pick a lot of trash artists; people voting are ignorant.
I feel like that
User avatar
Setherex
Movin' On Up
Posts: 885
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 2:57 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Setherex »

PlasticRam wrote:Since I'm very political today I think the problem is that 70-year-old white people decide the awards so black artists or black genres get snubbed. And also it is pretty gross that there's categories named 'Urban' so the Grammys are actually segregated. Like in the rap categories they do give awards to black artists, but the main categories are largely reserved for white artists.
I personally think it's much more sensible to not look at the Grammy Awards through a lens of race, or genre, or anything of that nature. The Grammys are clearly trying to appeal (in some strange, out of focus way) to those types of voters, such as the "urban" voters - which, on the broad spectrum of things, is still a generally fine, often used umbrella term in my opinion to refer to music historically established within urban communities. I hope, politically speaking, that that's a fine thing.

What my general viewpoint is, is that throwing around the hypothetical term #GrammysSoWhite isn't going to fix anything. Not that the Grammys are important enough in any form to matter all that much anyway. But the 1989 vs. TPAB problem should hinge purely on the importance of quality, and I think that's how this event will come across as in the distant future. Kendrick, at the probable height of his talent and experimental phases releases this brilliant masterpiece, renowned worldwide, and still loses to the quintessential pop product. There shouldn't be a white v. black controversy about it, barely even a tinge of urban v. mainstream in there. It's just that, on an all too frequent basis, the Grammys don't understand the importance of how the mainstream, and the urban, and the underground, and the hipster, and the abstract, etc. fields of music are evolving right in front of them. And that's just a darn shame, but it hopefully won't literally affect anything besides a week or two of American album sales in the long run.
User avatar
Setherex
Movin' On Up
Posts: 885
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 2:57 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Setherex »

A random side-note from my annual hate watch of the Grammys ceremony, but the thing that made me the most salty, actually, was Lady Gaga's Bowie tribute. It was such an over-the-top romp through his pop-centric career by the numbers that it seemed like some sort of street show vaudeville act. I imagined her sitting at a piano and singing "Life on Mars?" coupled with another well-transitioning number and blowing everyone away, something Lady Gaga constantly insists she can do but puts far too little effort into actually convincing people of.

That would be have been nice. But, sitting alongside the string of crummy tributes that they performed last night, I suppose she was, at the very least, interesting to look at.
User avatar
babydoll
Movin' On Up
Posts: 970
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:07 pm

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by babydoll »

Nick wrote:But then again, it's the Grammys. Is there anyone out there who really cares about music that actually values the opinion of the Grammys?
Excellent point made there. ;) I just guess I saw a tiny ray of hope with Beck's win over Beyoncé last year.
PlasticRam wrote:I think the problem is that 70-year-old white people decide the awards so black artists or black genres get snubbed. And also it is pretty gross that there's categories named 'Urban' so the Grammys are actually segregated. Like in the rap categories they do give awards to black artists, but the main categories are largely reserved for white artists. If I remember correctly, Kanye has never won a main category?

This is not exactly what I think about the Oscars, but I won't get into that.
I do like the separation of categories so that more people can receive the chance to win a Grammy. After all, Grammys are the prestige in the music industry. That is also my biggest problem with Taylor Swift's winning Grammy's most prestigious award twice, as she is way too young to be given that. But you are right in that black people are generally delegated to the urban categories which is unfair.

Grammys are also catering to younger people. In 2011, they nominated Rihanna's Loud and Bruno Mars' Doo-Wops & Hooligans over Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is what I'm wondering is the reason why Taylor Swift won this twice. Okay, the first one Kanye West probably did give to Taylor in a small way. :whistle:
User avatar
Listyguy
Running Up That Hill
Posts: 3012
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:34 pm

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Listyguy »

I don't watch or care about the Grammy's (I didn't even know the Swift album was eligible for this year's award), but if I had seen the list of nominees it would have been easy to guess that she would win. I can almost guarantee 25 will win it next year (if it's eligible for next year's award...again I don't know/care much about this stuff).
Also I think MBDTF was the same year as 21 (which was a death sentence) but also had to compete with Watch the Throne, which doubly fucked it over, even though one is clearly better by a mile.
User avatar
Setherex
Movin' On Up
Posts: 885
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 2:57 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Setherex »

Listyguy wrote:I can almost guarantee 25 will win it next year (if it's eligible for next year's award...again I don't know/care much about this stuff).
It is indeed, the Grammys go by a November - November year eligibility span for some odd reason. Though there are a lot of people targeting the "Blackstar" win for next year, even though it's very out of the mainstream style-wise, only because the Grammys love giving their awards as retrospective 'lifetime achievement' recognitions.
User avatar
babydoll
Movin' On Up
Posts: 970
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:07 pm

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by babydoll »

Setherex wrote: Though there are a lot of people targeting the "Blackstar" win for next year, even though it's very out of the mainstream style-wise, only because the Grammys love giving their awards as retrospective 'lifetime achievement' recognitions.
Well, I am certainly hoping "Blackstar" will at least get nominated next year if only to give Bowie a shout-out, albeit posthumously. Sadly, "25" will probably win it, period.
User avatar
PlasticRam
Into the Groove
Posts: 2202
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:51 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by PlasticRam »

Setherex wrote:
Listyguy wrote:I can almost guarantee 25 will win it next year (if it's eligible for next year's award...again I don't know/care much about this stuff).
It is indeed, the Grammys go by a November - November year eligibility span for some odd reason. Though there are a lot of people targeting the "Blackstar" win for next year, even though it's very out of the mainstream style-wise, only because the Grammys love giving their awards as retrospective 'lifetime achievement' recognitions.
would be 35 years since John Lennon's posthumous AOTY win Image
I feel like that
User avatar
Sweepstakes Ron
Full of Fire
Posts: 2723
Joined: Sat May 18, 2013 3:32 pm
Location: Here, There, and Everywhere

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Sweepstakes Ron »

So I finally listened to 1989 the whole way through... It's fine. But I still feel like EMOTION does the same thing better. Something about Taylor feels... off, to me, but I can't figure out what.
Splish splash, I was raking in the cash
User avatar
Setherex
Movin' On Up
Posts: 885
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 2:57 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Setherex »

Sweepstakes Ron wrote:So I finally listened to 1989 the whole way through... It's fine. But I still feel like EMOTION does the same thing better. Something about Taylor feels... off, to me, but I can't figure out what.
Thank God "EMOTION" wasn't nominated for any of the pop categories. Otherwise we'd have a serious conundrum of preference on our hands :music-listening:
User avatar
babydoll
Movin' On Up
Posts: 970
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:07 pm

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by babydoll »

Setherex wrote:
Sweepstakes Ron wrote:So I finally listened to 1989 the whole way through... It's fine. But I still feel like EMOTION does the same thing better. Something about Taylor feels... off, to me, but I can't figure out what.
Thank God "EMOTION" wasn't nominated for any of the pop categories. Otherwise we'd have a serious conundrum of preference on our hands :music-listening:
I find this strange as in the 2014 year-end poll, both Shake It Off and Blank Space ranked rather high, while Carly had only one song ranked for 2015. Granted, "EMOTION" overall ranked far better than "1989". But does this mean that it is the forum's consensus that Taylor had more songs that were good on her album?
User avatar
Maschine_Man
Unquestionable Presence
Posts: 642
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 4:42 am

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by Maschine_Man »

Setherex wrote: Lady Gaga's Bowie tribute.
I agree with everything you said. I was kinda excited for it because the Sound Of Music tribute she did las year was fantastic. It surprised me it was so intricate (messy) due to the short time frame they had to prepare. Like you said, it needed something simple (thinking of the videos for Heroes, Life On Mars? and Space Oddity) with just two or three song changes.
User avatar
babydoll
Movin' On Up
Posts: 970
Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2016 7:07 pm

Re: Taylor Swift Winning Grammy Album of the Year Award

Post by babydoll »

Maschine_Man wrote:
Setherex wrote: Lady Gaga's Bowie tribute.
I agree with everything you said. I was kinda excited for it because the Sound Of Music tribute she did las year was fantastic. It surprised me it was so intricate (messy) due to the short time frame they had to prepare. Like you said, it needed something simple (thinking of the videos for Heroes, Life On Mars? and Space Oddity) with just two or three song changes.
Due to the disdain against Lady Gaga's tribute, I decided to watch it. And I... That was not good. I swear she should've just started off with the opening refrains of Space Oddity, segue into Life on Mars?, then scream out something like "We could be heroes for just one day." Instead that video was too focused on her showmanship skills instead of paying tribute like Jennifer Hudson's Whitney Houston one a few years ago. Just wow.
Post Reply

Return to “Music, Music, Music...”