The story

As a concert, the Grammy Awards are often well worth watching. Witness Sly Stone coming out of retirement, or the raucous tribute to the Clash's Joe Strummer a few years back, or even the hushed opening by a reunited Simon & Garfunkel in 2003.

But as an awards show? Not so much.

Each year, the winners of the Grammys' major categories -- record of the year, song of the year and album of the year -- often tilt toward safe, veteran acts or newcomers who sound like safe, veteran acts. Occasionally a fresh face breaks through -- Amy Winehouse took home record and song of the year last year -- but usually the winners are balladeers (Norah Jones), R&B balladeers (Alicia Keys), legendary figures (last year's album of the year winner, Herbie Hancock) or late legendary figures (Ray Charles, who won album of the year for his posthumous release, "Genius Loves Company"). Read full article »

CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this article.