Even the most casual music fan couldn’t have been surprised at Adele’s stunning sweep at the 54th Grammy Awards.
The British powerhouse, the topic of endless Grammy chatter for weeks until Whitney Houston’s untimely death on the eve of Sunday’s ceremony, represents all that is right with music.
Her expansive voice, her emotionally visceral songs, the purity of her motives – are all qualities that helped resuscitate the floundering music industry last year.
While Adele’s six awards, including the prestigious trifecta of song, record and album of the year (for “Rolling in the Deep” and “21,” respectively), elevate her to rare air as the youngest act to win those top three categories (she’s 23) and tie her with Beyonce for the biggest haul by a female, Adele’s Grammy jackpot was emblematic of this year’s show.
Yes, electronic-dance producer Skrillex, whose three awards included best dance recording and best dance electronic album, said during his pre-show acceptance speech, “I guess there’s no format anymore and we can do whatever we want.”
And one of the more puzzling live presentations included a rave tent with David Guetta, Deadmau5, Dave Grohl and the uncomfortably ubiquitous Chris Brown.
But so much about this show centered on the organic, from the opening churn of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s thoughtful “We Take Care of Our Own” to the final guitar face-off of Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Grohl during a breathtaking jam on “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight.”
The busy Grohl, in fact, had a tremendous night with his Foo Fighters, winning in five of their six nominated categories – and losing only to Queen Adele for album of the year. The band’s scrappy album, “Wasting Light” isn’t about polish and overdubs, but unadorned, teeth-baring rock ‘n’ roll.
The raggedy-looking Grohl offered the best acceptance speech of the night when he explained that, “Rather than go into the best studio in the world and use the fanciest computers, we made this [album] in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine.”
Singing and playing instruments is the important thing, he continued. “It’s not about being perfect or sounding absolutely correct. It’s about what goes on in here and here,” he said, pointing at his heart and head.
Even Bon Iver, the Wisconsin folkies, received a mainstream christening by upsetting frontrunner Nicki Minaj for the best new artist trophy.
But the fact that this celebration of authenticity came during a show that partially turned into a memorial for Houston was fitting.
The brief clip of her 1993 Grammy performance of “I Will Always Love You” shown at the start of Sunday’s ceremony reminded, sadly, of the unadorned power and beauty of her voice.
And when Jennifer Hudson bravely compressed her emotions to pull off a hastily assembled tribute to Houston – again with the iconic version of Dolly Parton’s monster ballad – the clarity of the moment was striking.
Of course the Grammys will always attract hordes of attention-grabbing head scratchers in the name of inciting buzz – a la Minaj’s “performance” of “Roman Empire,” which wins nothing but a Nonsense Award.
But as expertly demonstrated by Adele, McCartney, Grohl, and even double Grammy winner Taylor Swift, who does write and perform the old-fashioned way, it’s hard to argue with simple musicianship.
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