The New York Times Jon Caramanica is unhappy with recent Grammy trends.
Look at the list he gives in his piece and tell me if you can think of a recent female winner who was mostly peddling comforting nostalgia that he doesn't list?
Look at the list he gives in his piece and tell me if you can think of a recent female winner who was mostly peddling comforting nostalgia that he doesn't list?
This year it was Adele, who won six for her work on “21” (XL/Columbia). In 2003 Norah Jones took in five for “Come Away With Me” (Blue Note), and in 1999 Lauryn Hill did the same with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (Ruffhouse/Columbia).
Coincidence? Perhaps. But for the umpteenth time, the Grammys went with familiarity over risk, bestowing album of the year honors (and several more) on an album that reinforced the values of an older generation suspicious of change. In the recent past that trend has included the Dixie Chicks’ “Taking the Long Way” (Columbia), in 2007; the Ray Charles duets album “Genius Loves Company” (Concord/Hear Music), in 2005; the collaboration-heavy Santana album “Supernatural” (Arista), in 2000; the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss collaboration, “Raising Sand” (Rounder), in 2009; and the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack (Lost Highway), in 2002. That it was done this year under a veneer of progressivism — the anointing of a modern young star as a marquee talent — only makes it more loathsome.
Notice who is missing? Think of a woman singer who made music that was mostly warmed over Stax-Memphis and won five Grammy awards for her second CD? Yes. Amy Winehouse. She belongs on that list.
Why isn't she there? I'd guess mostly because her sort of nostalgia reinforced the values Jon Caramanica wants to see reinforced.
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