Grammys: The Bands That Should Have Won

The 56th annual Grammy Awards were last night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Frankly, I don't usually watch them because there are rarely any acts that I like that are nominated. This was true of last night, but I was bored and it was on the DVR so I could skip whatever I wanted. The only people nominated that I regularly listen to were Vampire Weekend who were nominated (and won) for best indie album, which is ironic because the only real 'indie' artist in the literal meaning of 'independent' was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis who won best rap album. The other artist was Regina Spektor who was nominated for the song "You've Got Time" which she wrote and performed for the opening credits of the hit Netflix show Orange is the New Black. It was her first ever nomination and unfortunately she didn't win. However, she wasn't even there because she is 'very pregnant' so it's good she didn't have to sit through all that only to leave empty handed.

As I was watching - and fast forwarding - I noticed that there were more performances than awards given. I'm not sure when this shift started, but I only counted 16 actual awards that were handed out on the broadcast, and 20 performances. Interesting.

Anyway, if I were in charge of giving out awards for the two biggest categories, the nominees and winners would look like this:

Album of the Year:

AM - Arctic Monkeys

Evil Friends - Portugal. The Man

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Actions - Franz Ferdinand

Reflektor - Arcade Fire

Shangri La - Jake Bugg

Winner: AM - Arctic Monkeys

Song of the Year
Do I Wanna Know - Arctic Monkeys
Modern Jesus - Portugal. The Man
Entertainment - Phoenix
Diane Young - Vampire Weekend
Come A Little Closer - Cage The Elephant

Winner: Modern Jesus - Portugal. The Man