The curse of the Grammys
Currently residing in the 'Where Are They Now?' file
By Todd Leopold
CNN
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Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon EST Thursday. |
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(CNN) -- Norah Jones, watch your back.
Last year, "Come Away with Me," the singer and pianist's debut album, won eight awards. Next Tuesday, she releases her follow-up, "Feels Like Home" (Blue Note).
Jones is a talented performer, and there's no reason to assume she won't have years of success -- maybe not on the level of "Come Away with Me," which sold more than 7 million copies in the U.S., but certainly as the kind of artist who releases well-crafted platinum albums and routinely sells out 3,000-seat concert halls.
But the Grammys have a way of both diminishing artists and yet forcing on them great expectations. What's Christopher Cross doing nowadays? Does anybody still play "Toto IV" (That is, if all copies aren't sitting in the dollar bins of used-record stores or being used as frisbees)? Heard the new Lauryn Hill single?
The music industry's annual fete returns for its 46th appearance Sunday night, and this year looks to be the year hip-hop breaks through to mainstream honors. The leading nominees include OutKast, Jay-Z, Eminem and 50 Cent.
Eye on Entertainment faces the music.
Eye-opener
The thing about the Grammys is that they're resolutely middle-of-the-road -- hence the great number of major awards that have gone to artists having a big year, or simply offending the fewest number of people. (The awards air at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS.)
Sometimes, of course, those artists produce classic albums. Stevie Wonder won Grammys for "Innervisions," "Fulfillingness' First Finale" and "Songs in the Key of Life." Paul Simon picked up Grammys for "Still Crazy After All These Years" and "Graceland" (and one with buddy Art Garfunkel for "Bridge Over Troubled Water"). U2 earned a Grammy for "The Joshua Tree."
But actually honoring artists at their peaks is rare for Grammy. There are the "lifetime achievement" Grammys, the ones that went to Santana, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan long after they did their most groundbreaking work. (You have to wonder if Grammy voters thought Dylan was going to die of that heart ailment; why else vote for something as un-Grammy-like as "Time Out of Mind"?)
More often, the best stuff is missing -- and most likely it wasn't even nominated. The Clash's "London Calling"? Sly and the Family Stone's "There's a Riot Goin' On"? Nirvana's "Nevermind"?
Not Grammy's style. Better to thank Phil Collins for "No Jacket Required."
Sure, Hill won a Grammy, and so did Bonnie Raitt. But you can be sure that they would have been ignored if their albums hadn't gone platinum.
So now hip-hop is a big-selling genre, it's all over the radio, and in true Grammy fashion, the awards are finally catching up with it. (And thank goodness -- this year's nominees are actually, for the most part, good.) Most likely a hip-hop artist will win album or record of the year.
This year's winner better watch his back.
On screen
• It's taken almost 25 years, but someone's finally made a movie out of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's victory in that year's Winter Games. The movie is called "Miracle," and it stars Kurt Russell as coach Herb Brooks, the man who took a bunch of college no-names and led them to beat the Russians (and the Finnish in the gold-medal game). Opens Friday.
• Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer are back cuttin' heads in "Barbershop 2: Back in Business." Opens Friday.
On the tube
• After years of pursuit, Ed finally gets his girl. On the "Ed" finale, Ed Stevens (Tom Cavanaugh) and Carol Vessey (Julie Bowen) tie the knot -- with a circus all around them in more ways than one. 9 p.m. Friday, NBC.
Sound waves
• If Norah Jones is the epitome of taste, Courtney Love is the epitome of ... well, whatever's the opposite of Norah Jones. Her new album, "America's Sweetheart" (Virgin Records -- no jokes, please), comes out Tuesday.
• Melissa Etheridge puts out her new album, "Lucky" (Island), on Tuesday.
Paging readers
• Brian Greene, the physicist who made "The Elegant Universe" so engaging, turns to the subjects of space and time in "The Fabric of the Cosmos" (Knopf). Due Tuesday.
• Susan Cheever's biography of the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, "My Name Is Bill," (Simon and Schuster), is due Wednesday.
