Something That May Mean Something: The Arcade Fire's Grammy
Two facts:
Admittedly, the Album field was weaker because one of the Album nominees wasn't actually an album. We are on record as being in awe of Lady Gaga, but clocking in at eight pop-length songs, "The Fame Monster" was closer to being an EP than it was to being an album.
I think what really stands out for me in this isn't so much that The Arcade Fire won, but that they won with a release on an independent label. Merge Records was created by Superchunk to release their own records, and has maintained an artist-friendly (and label-spartan) shop ever since. In my opinion, the fact that they won this award doesn't say so much about the label having "arrived" as it does about the diminished size of the other "major" labels; there's simply no longer a need to support the old guard the way the industry once did.
My old colleague Jerry Rubino, now holding fort over at Last.fm/Discover, mentioned via Facebook that Lady Antebellum's thank-you speech was unique in that they thanked radio for giving them so much support, and it's true that country radio has given them a lot of it. Of course, they make equivocating pop-country that really doesn't push anyone's envelope very hard, which is whey I really thought they'd take home the Album Of The Year statue.
The Arcade Fire made no such proclamation, and it's right that they didn't, because (outside of Jerry's own effort) there's not a commercial rock station that has touched Arcade Fire with a ten foot pole. That job was left to those of us who work in the margins of college and public radio - and we don't need a thank you, because we're just trying to find good music to play, and when we find it, we're happy to play it. The best thank-you we can get from The Arcade Fire is that they make more great records.
- All three of The Arcade Fire's albums have been nominated for, but have never won, the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.
- The Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" was awarded the Grammy for Album Of The Year.
Admittedly, the Album field was weaker because one of the Album nominees wasn't actually an album. We are on record as being in awe of Lady Gaga, but clocking in at eight pop-length songs, "The Fame Monster" was closer to being an EP than it was to being an album.
I think what really stands out for me in this isn't so much that The Arcade Fire won, but that they won with a release on an independent label. Merge Records was created by Superchunk to release their own records, and has maintained an artist-friendly (and label-spartan) shop ever since. In my opinion, the fact that they won this award doesn't say so much about the label having "arrived" as it does about the diminished size of the other "major" labels; there's simply no longer a need to support the old guard the way the industry once did.
My old colleague Jerry Rubino, now holding fort over at Last.fm/Discover, mentioned via Facebook that Lady Antebellum's thank-you speech was unique in that they thanked radio for giving them so much support, and it's true that country radio has given them a lot of it. Of course, they make equivocating pop-country that really doesn't push anyone's envelope very hard, which is whey I really thought they'd take home the Album Of The Year statue.
The Arcade Fire made no such proclamation, and it's right that they didn't, because (outside of Jerry's own effort) there's not a commercial rock station that has touched Arcade Fire with a ten foot pole. That job was left to those of us who work in the margins of college and public radio - and we don't need a thank you, because we're just trying to find good music to play, and when we find it, we're happy to play it. The best thank-you we can get from The Arcade Fire is that they make more great records.
posted 2/14/2011 05:00:00 PM
4 Comments:
Hi Sean,
Actually, they do get some play on 101.9 in NYC, and 104.5, the alt station out of philly. But rock and alt formats are all but dead these days, where top 40 rules the house. If they were to get played on say WPST, now that would be significant. since they got the album of the year, PST will likely start playing them, as will some other "daring" top 40 stations. They've done that in the past to their credit.
See ya soon,
Stiffy
Good point - WRXP is a commercial rock station that *is* playing The Arcade Fire. They aren't programming the way the mainstream of commercial rock stations do (and neither is Radio 104.5 in Philly) but they're certainly playing 'em.
Really great post, I'm going to steal that line about Muse too (so true!)
Just the name Lady Antebellum makes me angry. Grrr.
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