The Grammy Awards Thread

Regarding Morgan Wallen, my thought was that Music Row and the associated parties have let him back in for future releases and promotion. As you said, he has a tour at Livenation/Ticketmaster venues. he's been back on country radio for a few months to some extent. It's just really difficult spot for something like the Grammy's as it's, in my view, impossible to separate out "Dangerous" as an album from the (in my view justified) outrage of his use of a racial slur. The album release was sandwiched by his SNL delay due to flaunting COVID protocols in peak pandemic season and his video of the slur.

I'm going to guess that if he puts out a new album it'll be in the rotation as it would have been before.

In terms of the fans backing him...well fans back a lot of things that the industry on the whole shouldn't necessarily support. Louis C.K. still sells out tours. DaBaby has a concert tour coming up that will sell tickets. Donald Trump as a human being.
 
gaporter said:
You're rooting for Tyler over Kanye?? o_O
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HAHAHA!!! For what it's worth there are only 2 artists that I have the COMPLETE discography on vinyl. Bootlegs of old mixtapes and all. They are Tyler and Kanye. It's certainly a tough pick for me. Like choosing between mom and dad, but ultimately even tho both albums have tons of replay value for me, this is Tyler's best rapping album to date and as a rap fan I have to give it to him. Plus he had Drama make it feel like an old Gangsta Grillz tape and that nostalgia got me good
 
Jonathan Y said:
HAHAHA!!! For what it's worth there are only 2 artists that I have the COMPLETE discography on vinyl. Bootlegs of old mixtapes and all. They are Tyler and Kanye. It's certainly a tough pick for me. Like choosing between mom and dad, but ultimately even tho both albums have tons of replay value for me, this is Tyler's best rapping album to date and as a rap fan I have to give it to him. Plus he had Drama make it feel like an old Gangsta Grillz tape and that nostalgia got me good
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I agree - of course I was just poking fun at my favorite resident Kanye stan 😄 but I would like to see Tyler get it too. His album was a lot more consistent than Donda, which isn't bad but feels more like a collection of songs for fans to play around with than a true album. Plus it deserves to win just for Wayne's verse on "Hot Wind Blows" alone imo
 
gaporter said:
I agree - of course I was just poking fun at my favorite resident Kanye stan 😄 but I would like to see Tyler get it too. His album was a lot more consistent than Donda, which isn't bad but feels more like a collection of songs for fans to play around with than a true album. Plus it deserves to win just for Wayne's verse on "Hot Wind Blows" alone imo
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YESSSSSS

FUN FACT: I play that song daily
 
Welcome one and all to the second annual Needles&Grooves Grammy pool!

I am Fleetwood-Matt and I will be once again be your host this year! This year im going for an Alicia-Keys-as-the-cool-aunt-hosting-the-grammys Vibe so hopefully I pull it off!



The Rules

The rules are simple to do but annoying to explain lol, take the survey and fill out each option by how likely you think each album/song is to win (first choice for most likely, second choice for second most likely, fifth/eighth choice for least likely etc). On Grammy Night, you will get points based on how likely you said they were to win (example if you had Taylor as your 7th choice for aoty last year, you would get 7 points for that category). At the end of it all ill add up your points and the person with the LOWEST score wins! In the event of a tie I’ll do a drawing to decide who officially wins. You have until the day of the Grammys (January 31st, 2022 9am est) to submit the survey

I chose not to do all categories and instead did a select few from each “major” genre and all for of the general fields to make it easier on myself.



The Prize(s)

The person with the lowest score will receive a $30 Bandcamp gift card!!!! (well one $10 and one $20 card)



The Survey

Grammy Pool 2022

This went really well last year and I hope it goes well again this year! Good luck and have fun everyone!
 
Jon Batiste is a fantastic musician and WE ARE is a really solid album but this just feels off. Im happy that they have finally award AOTY to a black man, the first Black man since Herbie Hancock in 2008. But he is a neoliberal who makes very safe music, He's music for people who outwardly support and stand by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Over the years so many progressive and forward thinking black men and women have lost and this is the album that wins. It feels like you have to be a certain type of safe black man to win. He is proud of his heritage but isnt a threat to white power structure so they feel ok awarding him. I may be projecting but this ultimately feels tone deaf when they still refuse to give this award to artists like Kendrick and Beyonce
 
Fleetwood-Matt said:
Jon Batiste is a fantastic musician and WE ARE is a really solid album but this just feels off. Im happy that they have finally award AOTY to a black man, the first Black man since Herbie Hancock in 2008. But he is a neoliberal who makes very safe music, He's music for people who outwardly support and stand by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Over the years so many progressive and forward thinking black men and women have lost and this is the album that wins. It feels like you have to be a certain type of safe black man to win. He is proud of his heritage but isnt a threat to white power structure so they feel ok awarding him. I may be projecting but this ultimately feels tone deaf when they still refuse to give this award to artists like Kendrick and Beyonce
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I feel like you're pretty spot on in your assessment.
 
Sorry but that feels like a big ole [citation needed] on the Batiste portion to me w/r/t his personal politics, As far as I’m aware, only one of Jon or Beyoncé openly endorsed Joe Biden…and it wasn’t Jon. Not that I think it really matters to be honest but that’s a lot of assertions without backing in my view on his politics or progressivism or the like.

Like if you want to go at the Grammy Best Album voters for being allergic to rap or for being apolitical or safely liberal that’s not going to get an argument from me. They are. U2 over early Kanye or Mumford over Frank aged poorly. But that’s not really different from any very large group of voters really. And honestly…yeah, I suspect a lot of these voters are older, white, centrists or mainstream liberals. This really isn’t surprising. Heck, I’d think it was kinda weird if they did vote for a wildly progressive piece of music, as I’d be shocked if they gave it to a MAGA album.

Jon’s also put out four albums since Kendrick or Beyoncé put out one and a lot of this is being consistently present. Musically, Jon has said something in the bulk of the Trump era, which is more than we can say for many.
 
waruv said:
Sorry but that feels like a big ole [citation needed] on the Batiste portion to me w/r/t his personal politics, As far as I’m aware, only one of Jon or Beyoncé openly endorsed Joe Biden…and it wasn’t Jon. Not that I think it really matters to be honest but that’s a lot of assertions without backing in my view on his politics or progressivism or the like.

Like if you want to go at the Grammy Best Album voters for being allergic to rap or for being apolitical or safely liberal that’s not going to get an argument from me. They are. U2 over early Kanye or Mumford over Frank aged poorly. But that’s not really different from any very large group of voters really. And honestly…yeah, I suspect a lot of these voters are older, white, centrists or mainstream liberals. This really isn’t surprising. Heck, I’d think it was kinda weird if they did vote for a wildly progressive piece of music, as I’d be shocked if they gave it to a MAGA album.

Jon’s also put out four albums since Kendrick or Beyoncé put out one and a lot of this is being consistently present. Musically, Jon has said something in the bulk of the Trump era, which is more than we can say for many.
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I think Jon himself sums up his neoliberal and safe views himself on his song "WHATCHUTALKINGBOUT"

"I never been jailed, I never been popped
I never will have the message of Pac
May never have the voice that you rock
But I dare you to call me and tell me to stop
Didn't you hear the President sang?
Obama was singing "Amazing Grace"
There's so many things I'm delighted to say
Remember when the country was bae?"

Idolizing Obama's era, calling the country "bae" and acknowledging that her will never have the message of Pac feels like classic neoliberal bs
 
Fleetwood-Matt said:
I think Jon himself sums up his neoliberal and safe views himself on his song "WHATCHUTALKINGBOUT"

"I never been jailed, I never been popped
I never will have the message of Pac
May never have the voice that you rock
But I dare you to call me and tell me to stop
Didn't you hear the President sang?
Obama was singing "Amazing Grace"
There's so many things I'm delighted to say
Remember when the country was bae?"

Idolizing Obama's era, calling the country "bae" and acknowledging that her will never have the message of Pac feels like classic neoliberal bs
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Man, that seems like a massive stretch my eyes. It felt like to me even in that verse that he has to affect change in his own ways and methods, kind of alluding to his speech tonight. If Jon tried to be Tupac or Kendrick or Kanye or anyone but who he is it wouldn’t work. If acknowledging not being Pac is “classic neoliberal BS” then you have a whole lot of BS to live with. There aren’t many who can be.

As for Obama. Well. Kendrick met with Obama in the White House and their discussion was an influence in the direction of Damn. Beyoncé has actively supported the Obamas as politicians and friends for a while now. I don’t personally see much wrong with this but I’m just not buying what is being sold here about him as a person being not enough here.
 
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I don’t remember all of what I predicted, but I’m pretty sure I had Jon Batiste near the very bottom. It just seemed like a random nod of a nomination, not something that has any weight in regards to the overall conversation.

I also didn’t expect them to give Kanye anything, but I was wrong there too.

Olivia Rodrigo though seemed like the clear winner in the categories she won. And I’m happy with that.


But I do agree that more hip hop / rap needs to be acknowledged as AOTY worthy. Jon Batiste as fine as he is, is definitely a weird safe pick. It’s just not an album that I think many people even remembered existed now, let alone will it be remembered in just a year from now.

His work on Soul though is fantastic, so I’m happy to see that win.
 
I'm confused here with this Jon conversation. What I'm understanding, and I may be misinterpreting, is that Jon shouldn't of won because he's a Democrat?
 
I think the larger field this year caused a lot of vote splitting, which is what allowed Jon to take the crown. I also think for the older voters who don't put in a lot of effort AND/OR voters from non-mainstream genres, they've probably seen Jon on late night television with Colbert enough to be more than familiar with him so that's why he got the nod. I'm not super familiar with Jon's politics, but I think Jon is generally very likeable and with a single like Freedom I think that particularly resonated with a lot of people after 2 years of COVID. Honestly, I think he was a good choice given the field.
 
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen! The show is over and I must say that was quite an exciting night, Lots of obvious picks but also quite a few upsets that made the show hard to predict and this pool harder to win. Last year I had multiple people tied for first but this year we only have one winner!

With a score or 42 points our winner is 🥁🥁🥁

@Wicked Dreamer !!!! Congratulations on your win! shoot me a message with your email so i can send you your gift cards

Thank you everyone who participated, to see the full results you can check my work here (look at sheet 2)
 
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