Recovery was the best-selling album in the US in 2010: it sold a staggering 741, 000 copies in its first week, marking the sixth consecutive number one album for Eminem. ??“ Who coincidently is the best selling artist of the decade. And yet although nominated for 10 Grammy Awards, he walked away with only two! The star-studded album Recovery included the likes of P! NK, Rihanna, Lil Wayne and Kobe and should have run away with the award, but instead lost to The Suburbs, an album by Arcade Fire, who (before writing this article) I had never heard of. Speaking of the star-studded performers, take a minute to remember (I??™m sure it won??™t be hard) the glorious track Love The Way You Lie.
??“ The track was relevant, as I??™m sure most of us remember the Chris Brown/Rihanna extravaganza, but was so much more than just a ??? relevant??? track: it was superb! Definitely the track of the summer, and without a doubt the track of the year. The intensely hot track attracted over 290 million views on YouTube to date, and over 6. 6 million in just 24 hours.
The ??? song of the year??™ Need You Now by Lady Antebellum attracted (in comparison) a meager 15 million views. I??™ll admit, it??™s catchy, and unlike Arcade Fire I had actually heard of Need You Now before. But let??™s face it, Eminem??™s song runs in circles around Lady Antebellum??™s track. Now I understand Empire State of Mind winning the ??? Best Rap/Sung Collaboration??™ category ahead of Eminem and Rihanna. ??“ We were all singing ??? New York??? at the top of our lungs, but winning the ??? Best Rap Song??™ ahead of Not Afraid and Love The Way You Lie I don??™t want to trash a beautiful track (and hopefully you won??™t think that??™s what I??™m doing), but in my opinion what makes Empire State of Mind the track that it is, is Alicia Keys and her insane vocals alongside a catchy tune.
??“ Not taking away from Jay Z??™s rapping, but unlike Love The Way You Lie, Jay Z??™s track lacks the intense emotional performance and chemistry displayed in, not only the harmonization of the singing and rapping vocals, but also the music video of Eminem and Rihanna??™s record-breaking track. ??“ The singing and rapping is not separate, but instead inseparable. That??™s just my opinion of course, and I realize people are going to disagree, but you can??™t help but feel sorry for Eminem and the brutal way that he was robbed this year. Looking over the Grammy winners in all the sections you can??™t help but notice the way popular rap songs have lost out this year. However it isn??™t the first time the Grammy??™s have failed to appreciate Rap. ??“ Rap has only won the sought-after ??? Album of the Year??™ award twice: Lauren Hill, in 1999 whose album (we can all safely say) definitely contained more singing that rapping; and Outkast??™s 2003 album, which no one would associate with true, or pure rap.
Well, wait a minute. Eminem has won 13 Grammy awards, so what am I getting at Yes, he has won 13, but not one of those awards has been outside of the rap categories. He, alongside Jay Z (who has won 10) and Kanye West (14) have never won a Grammy outside of the rap category. ??“ Okay, that??™s not quite true: Jay Z won one of his awards with wife Beyonce Knowles for Crazy in Love, but no one is going to claim that to be a rap song: his rapping was minor as was his roll in the performance of the song. Funny that the song that did win this year??™s ??? Song of the Year??™ award was the only one (of the public-nominated songs) that no one would think to qualify as remotely rap-esque. The nominees were: Nothin??™ On You (B.
o. B ft. Bruno Mars), Love The Way You Lie (Eminem ft.
Rihanna), F*** You (Cee Lo Green), Empire State of Mind (Jay Z & Alicia Keys) and finally the aforementioned winner Need You Now by Lady Antebellum. Although I have trouble categorizing Cee Lo Green??™s track as rap (hence ??? rap-esque??™), you know where I??™m coming from. ??“ Whilst it??™s officially classed as ??? alternative??™, it??™s in the rap/hip hop direction. Something needs to change for the Grammy??™s to continue to be one of the most coveted of music awards.
The nomination and voting process, I feel, should be done by the artists themselves. ??“ Or at least a group of people who have looked at sales numbers and popularity trends and are thereby able to encourage a more culturally-relevant result. Take Justin Bieber for example: we all hate to love him and love to hate him but the boy is damn successful.
He has taken the world by storm, and the evidence of this is everywhere. ??“ Not only are all four of his albums currently in the top 40 (which hasn??™t happened since 1993), but he is also the youngest male solo artist to reach number one on the Billboard 200 since Stevie Wonder in 1963. He??™s got a 3D film out in the cinemas, his own nail polish brand (which I??™m going to refrain from commenting on) and he has surely been paid at least a million US dollars for his Super Bowl advertisement appearance. ??“ Not to mention that his haircuts make headlines.
The Biebz has got to be the most successful 16 year old out there, and yet failed to win the ??? Best New Artist??™ award, which instead went to Esperanza Spalding. Now I??™m not trying to take away from the musician, as (after a little research seeing as how I??™d never heard of her before) I found her to be very talented in her field. – Yet winning the award that she did when she recorded albums as early as 2004, doesn??™t quite make sense. To be honest I??™m quite surprised we didn??™t see a revival of Kanye West, version 2. 0.
– At least that way we would have got something that we expected.