The previous decade's list of Best Album winners at the Grammy Awards:

2010: Taylor Swift - Fearless
2009: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
2008: Herbie Hancock - River: The Joni Letters
2007: Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
2006: U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
2005: Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company
2004: OutKast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
2003: Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
2002: Alison Krauss & more - O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
2001: Steely Dan - Two Against Nature

Today the independent music community (for lack of a more newly relevant term) mourns the distinction of Arcade Fire's third record, The Suburbs (TheVine review), being named the winner of Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards.

In a shock announcement for the band and the majority of media outlets - as well as, hilariously, much of the general, hateful public - Arcade Fire "beat" out the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Lady Antebellum to take home the award at the ceremony in Los Angelese yesterday. (Despite, however, losing earlier in the night to the Black Keys for Best Alternative Album. So, best album but not best alternative album? Best album alternate to the best alternative album? What?)

I applaud the convictions of the voting Academy for presumably raising the ire of Eminem, Perry and Gaga and their legions of fans. I applaud the fact that a high-profile media coup for the staunchly independent Arcade Fire - as well as their grassroots record label Merge (borne from the elbow grease and living room floor of tireless DIY kids Superchunk) - will raise awareness of each. I applaud the fact that they'll probably make a bunch more money as a result. And I definitely applaud the idea that the numbskulls that put stock in such awards will be forced to re-think future strategies. But there's a gaping tear in the flag-waving today: no one cares about the Grammys. The band's win is a cheery, critical aberration in an otherwise irrelevant lineage of distorted folklore.

After decades of ignoring the dustiest of ceremonies, those aligned with the world of Arcade Fire and their ilk are celebrating today's news like long-standing vindication of their taste. To do so, to champion this, suggests that their taste is in tune with the Academy's beliefs; that music can be fluffed and flexed onto a shortlisted and judged for mass consumption. That, if they're right to celebrate Arcade Fire this year, they were right about Taylor Swift. About Lady Antebellum. About the Dixie Chicks. About...Santana.



It's not the first time the band have been present at the Grammys. In 2009 Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler told Uncut magazine that attending the Grammy Awards was just like it looks on TV. "Horrifying":

"We went to the Grammys and it was so shitty. You go to this venue, like a conference centre, at about 10 in the morning, and it's totally dry — no food, water, alcohol. Then, it's two in the afternoon and we haven't eaten. No one's eaten all day, and there are people in tuxedos offering $70 for a hot dog. It's a total crush of humanity trying to get hot dogs. It was a horrifying experience."

I'd like to think Arcade Fire's win signals a shift in the music business. I'd like to believe that when a relatively unknown jazz singer, Esperanza Spalding, beats out Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and the Machine and Mumford and Sons for Best New Artist, that it represents this year's voters thinking freely, unencumbered by the usual machinations of the business. Moving away from the award tropes of marketing brawn and culture bluster. Championing independent music and thought. That maybe, the Arcade Fire are just that good.

But then...this year's Grammys were the highest rating in eleven years. Twitter and Facebook are alight with Grammy speak. Booking Justin Bieber to present an award (but not having him win one) was a shrewd piece of business also. But there's no doubt an influx of fresh meat - and ensuing headlines - were a much-needed boon to the brand. We're all talking about the Grammys today.

When was the last time that happened?



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