*Good BW takes a look around, sighs, and goes into hiding.*

*Evil BW takes a peek out of his cage, then decides to come out and have some good old ranting fun.*

A year ago on my 2001 Grammy reviews, I said the following: "So what about next year? They have a new album coming out, is it conceivable? A win? Well, I wouldn't actually get my hopes up...after this year I'm not too sure how much faith I should place...but hell, I'm a positive person, I'll wager that they will win something next year! They will! And then if they don't y'all can come shout at me for leading everyone on, mmkay:D? Great, see you next year!"

Yeah...it was fun hoping for a while, ain't it?

Okay, 'fess up now...y'all don't know who Sade is either, right? Have we even heard that "comeback" song she supposedly had...? And U2...okay yes, they make good music, we all know that, so let's not take this any other way than it's supposed to be taken. Do they make POP music? Are they pop? Are their vocals pop? No? I didn't think so:).

It really does say a lot for the Grammy process these days, don't it? *shrugs* Okay, I adore Alicia Keys. I adore Alicia Keys' sex. I adore Alicia Keys and her sex. But come on...she's had one and a half hit songs that have been out for basically a year only, and she goes home with five Grammys. *NSYNC have been out for six years counting and have been nominated seven times(correct me if I'm wrong), and every time they lose to people who aren't even pop, which is their primary genre and the genre for which those awards are placed in.

Yeah...really does say a lot for the Grammy process.

Hey, maybe U2 deserved it, who knows? Maybe? But you know what...if you're gonna talk pop vocal track, "Gone" takes the cake. By far. I would have even given it to Shape of My Heart because that song laid down some worthy vocals as well. And yeah, honor your legends and respect your fogies or whatever...I love U2 too, don't get me wrong. Please don't. U2 is everything that a band should be and more. But when you're just so blatantly stripping someone of an honor that should be theirs and giving to it someone else just to honor them for...what? Being around longer? It just says a lot for the Grammy process is all I'm sayin'. You just don't put a ROCK GROUP* with one lead voice through the entire track into a POP VOCAL category, and then hand them the award over a POP GROUP and their POP song which is almost completely focused on the VOCALS.



*though of course U2 would be the first to say that they are neither rock nor pop or whatever...they are musicians, one category of music with no typecasts, period. And I fully agree with them on that and that is one of the many reasons why I do respect and like U2, so let's not even pretend to take my above statements as saying that I don't, mmkay?;)

...er well, the show itself was actually kinda boring too lol.

For some reason, though that I thought that he was hilarious last year, Jon Stewart just didn't cut it this time around. I dunno...I don't think it's for lack of trying necessarily, 'cause some of his moments were great and funny as usual but it was just...he seriously spent 75% of his screentime going "Yeah! That people who are going to perform/have just performed are so great/awesome/good!!" Not that I don't think those artists don't deserve recognition or that award shows don't need more positivity anyway, but it's like he wasn't even trying to be funny anymore. Oh he had some fun moments, but it felt kinda forced. On the other hand, his loss of virginity to Lady Marmalade comment was priceless;).
That and the fact that about 3/4th of the presenters were totally clueless as to what the heck they were supposed to be doing. Britney with Matt Perry was kinda okay. BSB with Sarah Hughes were pretty much pushing it(she likes *NSYNC more anyway, so there:p. jk). Jamie Foxx with Ja Rule and Pamela Anderson?? Stop. Now. Please.

And Michael Greene? Please, spare us. No really, spare us. No I'm kidding, spare us. Really, please spare us. I'm really not trying to be funny, just spare us.
Bad enough that he pulled the exact same thing last year with the Eminem fiasco, could he come off as any more self-righteous, condescending, or vindictative? And at a flippin' awards show, could he have picked a worser time? Yeah I know it's the recording artists' assembly...it was just uncalled for. I think stealing music is as illegal as the next copyright-violation, but I hope the dude can see, at least in retrospect, what an azz he made of himself. I'm glad he got booed.
The best part about the whole thing is that if the recording academy could lower CD prices we wouldn't have any of these issues going on lol. It's only the most basic law of economics ever...they're sitting there charging 20-some dollars for a single CD and scratching their heads wondering why sales have gone down, and when they can't find anything they blame internet-swapping. I mean while I agree that the whole Napster-Morpheus-Kazaa-Winmx situation hasn't helped things it certainly doesn't warrant an uppity lecture about fire and brimstone at the Grammy Awards!

*Lady Marmalade: When in doubt, bust out four ladies in velvet robes and lingerie;).

Despite having heard it more times than is normally possible for any human, I don't tire of this song. I just don't...I love hearing and anticipating each and every lady go into their parts with their respective personalities and styles and it's all good. Gitchie gitchie ya ya da da.

On the downside, and yup unfortunately there's always a downside, the amount of backup tracking on this performance was just horrendously extreme and noticeable. I mean I love them all of course, but there's no way that any more than 36% of those chorus harmonies were done live.

Which isn't completely their fault of course, or anyones'...all of those four girls are solo artists, not associated with any group in particular. It was just kinda (O_o)ing when you got the live band and the great voices and style carrying the song but when it gets to the chorus lines it was so not live and even Missy's part where she introduces each girl was taped over, and Christina's intro part from the track can clearly be heard even when she was doing the live parts, so ugh...oh well. I still liked it.

And "WHOA!!" at Patti Labelle lol! I love how they carried that off, with the sudden stop in the band and her hitting that sustained wailing note and then backing into a high-spirit finish, it was great. But you know...just listening to that woman screeching made my throat hurt lol. I kept expecting her to start choking on her own blood or somethin', she was going at it so hard(O_O). But at the end it was a great number, no casualties, no damage to any glass, fragile structures, or small animals in the building:D.

Ooh and before I forget to mention, I just saw Moulin Rouge a few days ago and I loved it. Music rules the universe.

I can't remember who I heard this from, but I distinctly remember one person using the term "haunting" to describe Gone. Obviously I've never disagreed with the sentiment, but hearing it live over and over again just reaffirms to me what a great, unique song it is. Hearing the changed-up lyrics suddenly flow so smoothly and seamlessly into the more familiar chordal and lyrical lines...

Flawless. And beautiful.

But then, there's more.

Nelly pops out with da baggy pants posse(^_^) and starts doing the now-familiar rap to Girlfriend, which rocks of course. Nelly has a bandage under an eye. GASP!!!!!!!!!...yeah, surprising I know. Anyway, he's off doing his thing when suddenly the huge BLING that he's wearing, being so full of BLING and BLING and also BLING and BLINGy and heavy, causes the caught-off-guard rapper to lose his balance and fall flat off the stage.

...

...no that didn't happen, but I kept expecting it to.

Anyway...*NSYNC raises out from their lil' colorful cars set at the back of the stage(later on they'll start dancing on these cars a la Girlfriend video(also a la high school production of Rent)), and start doing their thaaang and doing it good.

The Grammys are about showing the industry and the audience each individual art, style, talent, and worth of the musicians performing. Last year *NSYNC did so beautifully with TIPY...and of course it's no different this year either. I feel with this performance they also showed what *NSYNC is about and what *NSYNC is capable of delivering...that they can sit there and sound gorgeous and flawless and yes, haunting, and they can also get their groove on and put on a spectacular, entertaining live musical performance.

Now, less than a minute I ago I made an unfunny crack about the production of this thing being like Rent...but to be a bit more serious(I can never be totally serious;))*NSYNC does remind me of musical theater, particularly with this performance; just the whole production and style of them, like individual actors onstage putting their worth into making one whole great production. With the dancing and the lighting and the backup dancing crew and the ensemble style and the lighthearted tone of it all it was even more so a musical theater artform. There's even a trading-off with Nelly, like exchanging themes and styles right in middle of a song which is totally musical theater form. It's great to watch and listen and experience. I have a theory that pop music itself is sort of an offset of contemporary musical theater for the mainstream audience, and with this performance from *NSYNC it's all that much more feasible. I doubt the whole thing with this performance was intentional on *NSYNC or Nelly's part, but it sure was pulled off well.

If there's one bad thing about it though, it's that they did use a backing track. It's actually not really noticeable and yes, I can hear all their voices live 100% and agree 100% that they did perform it live...frankly it'd take a pretty tone-deaf person to point out that it wasn't live lol...but listen to their harmony lines after Nelly's second rap and it is undeniable that there was a backing track.

Also, to nitpick('cause hey, that's what I do), at first the many dancers and purple smoke where kinda distracing. I know and agree with that ultimately it added to a great atmosphere and feeling of the performance, and yeah it was to recreate the atmosphere of the video of course, but especially with the poorly focused camera angles at first it was kinda offsetting and crowded.

But once again *NSYNC has taken the challenged presented to them by the recording academy and hurled it back into their faces; regardless of whether or not the Grammys felt they were worthy, which of course they are, they've proven once again that they are worthy of any award anyone has to present with what is the heart of all musics, and that is live performance.

Begins the "kiss Alicia Keys' azz" portion of BW's reviews

...

...WELL CAN YOU REALLY BLAME ME?

Look at that. Look at her just sitting there so elegant and classy and composed with her red dress-thing and her TRANSPARENT PIANO(O_O)(O_O)(O_O) and my God, listen to that song with the orchestra and the violins and her singing and my God, she was both the big winner and the scene-stealer of the night. Well...okay there was that Outkast dude that came out in the pink dress thing and that lil' breakdance dude and of course Patti Labelle and then there was *NSYNC of course and I thought Ray and Kevin were as hilarious as always and...well um anyway.

And if that wasn't enough to make the woman worth it...good Lord, she can dance too!?

Why is it that we were never aware of the fact that she could dance? Was there some specific reasons why this particular knowledge was kept hidden from us? I mean...I'm not a particularly vengeful man of course but I would like to wreak havok upon the behind of whoever it is that kept from us this knowledge of Alicia Keys being fully capable of getting the freak on.

Somewhere in that sentence was a coherent thought of some sort, I'm certain.

What can I possibly say that won't make me sound like some gibbering cult member? Alicia astounds me on so many different levels...beauty, raw talent, and composure. I think it's just how...different from the bunch she is. We've had so many female solo artists of the same variety come at us from the exact same angle with the exact same weapons for such a long time, and Alicia is such a turn from that. Does she deserve those five Grammys she carted home, after basically a year out in the spotlight? I wouldn't know, seeing this particular show, but this performance ain't about the Grammys...it's about her and the show that she put on.

If *NSYNC is musical theater, then Alicia is opera. There's a lot of that her showmanship that parallels opera form, including but not limited to the setting, the dance, the part where she "sang at" the mandude. It's just very classical and raw and confident, and she made it look effortless. I'm very impressed.

Do I have a problem with Alicia being overhyped? I don't like the term "overhyped" or "overpromoted," really...you can never have too much of a good thing and if people get sick of it, it's really as simple as switching the channel or station, it really is.
Though again, I guess I should say that for her to win five Grammys in her first year out...I'm not saying she doesn't deserve them, but it doesn't say much, again, for the integrity of the Grammy process. And not just for *NSYNC; there are loads of acts who receive only "pity" noms and have only received these "pity" noms for many many years, and it just kinda tears you in several ways to see that. But hey, fact is when you win you gotta push other people out of the way, and the important thing is to hold to the idea that when other people win, you don't necessarily "lose."

Lil' philosophical moment with BW for a moment;).