I'll admit it: there is no good reason why I insist on watching the Grammy Awards every single year. All the criticism thrown at the show and the voting process is legitimate. For four hours, overpaid musicians prance around the stage, as the show's producers try to cram as much commercial appeal into their allotted block of time as possible. The show has long since abandoned actual award giving, choosing to sprinkle less than a dozen of the hundred-plus categories into the televised production. Instead, celebrity collaborations, song mash-ups, overblown costuming and emotionless homages run the evening.The voting is done by people within the record industry, who, unsurprisingly, have a very real interest in encouraging people to buy their products. Quality takes a backseat to commercialism, which has been true since the beginning of time, but never fails to irk over-earnest hipsters (such as myself) who wish that critically acclaimed music was given a bit more exposure. Look at the Oscars. They've managed to find a wild balance between populism and critical appeal. People care about the Oscars, yet the films that get nominated aren't that different from what we find in year-end movie lists.
So, when Arcade Fire won Album of the Year last night, something totally unprecedented happened. The critics and the industry agreed on the year's best album. The Suburbs even topped the charts for a week or two in August, meaning the the consumers were (briefly) on the same wavelength. Using the numbers over at Acclaimedmusic.net, I can find only two other occasions when this has happened: Thriller's win in 1984 and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999. There are a few close calls (Sgt. Peppers, The Joshua Tree, etc), but it doesn't take some research to know that the Grammys and critics are almost always miles apart.
Unlike The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The Suburbs was not fueled by a string of hit singles. Unlike Thriller, The Suburbs is not the best-selling album of all time. Most importantly, unlike everything that has ever won the Album of the Year Grammy Award (as far as I can tell), The Suburbs was released on an independent record label. Released on Merge Records, which operates out of North Carolina, The Suburbs is the first time time that a release outside of the industry has been recognized with its highest award. Purists will note that Merge is distributed by ADA, which is majority owned by Warner Brothers, but Merge's autonomy should not be overlooked.
Does this mean the "indie kids won" last night? Yes and no. We won (yeah, I'm including myself in the indie kids) in the sense that music we love (generally speaking) has been thrust into the mainstream's attention. Those of us who champion independent music as a necessary element in ensuring music diversity have seen our best case scenario come to fruition. One of "our" bands has risen to the top of the industry without the help of major label financial backing. Arcade Fire still don't have hit singles or radio play or anything like that. But they've got the industry's top award. That has to mean something.
At the same time, if you're an indie kid who takes pride in listening to things no one else listens to, this all probably comes as a blow. Arcade Fire have been catapulted into the realm of U2 and Coldplay, those juggernaut rock bands who can sell out stadiums on name-recognition alone. Arcade Fire have been threatening to be that type of band for a couple years now, but the media attention they're receiving in the wake of the Grammys will push them over that hump. The elitists will cry foul. They'll say that Arcade Fire aren't cool now that they're popular. Hell, the band might even sign a major label contract. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. For the time being, though, I encourage everyone to celebrate the simple fact that we gatecrashed the music industry last night. This might not mean anything for the future, but it sure feels good in the present.
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