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Behind the scenes at last night’s Grammy Nominations Concert there was a lot of talk about the good old days — fond remembrances of a time when industry folk actually listened to full albums and not just the ones they worked on; when Best New Artist truly meant an extraordinary breakout from that year, not five years or five minutes ago; and when the lucky hopefuls got word at the crack of dawn, via a bare bones ceremony that had nothing to do with showy performances and everything to do with function: just a simple reading of the nominees (by a few famous faces, of course, many contenders themselves).
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Okay, maybe the early morning wake-up call wasn’t missed, but this year’s red carpet roll-out of the Grammys — a televised one-hour extravaganza consisting of live numbers and lists upon lists of potential nominees (the first ten or so maybes, then the five who actually scored the nod) presented by the likes of Ringo Starr, Katy Perry and Dwight Yoakam — had its own issues. Namely, that it didn’t know what it wanted to be: an awards show with fancy tables and marquee names or a club gig?
Two-time host LL Cool J kicked off the evening with a performance titled “The Hits of 2009,” in which the rapper-actor mused in medley about everyone from Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift to Marilyn Monroe. The tiny Club Nokia seemingly couldn’t accommodate all of the acts on the night’s bill, so Sugarland’s performance of “Coming Home” and Maxwell’s rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller ballad “The Lady In My Life,” were relegated to an outdoor stage. Perhaps Nick Jonas, debuting his new side project Nick Jonas and the Administration, was wishing he had the same fate. The band’s “Who I Am” ...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily