When it comes to award show season, we make sure that our schedules are free for every other Sunday in January and February. We sit through the mega-awkward Ryan Seacrest red carpet interviews; ignore the shamefully bad writing and biggest snubs — mostly because we think even good performances are art and we like seeing them recognized on a big stage. And the hyperventilating blondes in pretty dresses and Tina Fey’s pre-prepared speeches make them worth sitting through.
But then the Grammys happen, and the irritating parts become too hard to ignore: the snubs, the predictability, the Starbucks-playlist taste that surrounds the whole thing.
Entertainment Weekly has a slideshow breakdown of Sunday’s nominees, predicting that almost none of their “who should win” and “who will win” guesses actually match up. It’s actually a good year for mainstream-alt tastes — M.I.A! Radiohead! The Raconteurs! — but EW postulates that our barely-indie illusions will be shattered by Coldplay’s domination of most of the awards. We learned not to care about the Grammys long ago — all we can remember is that J.Lo wore that shocking dress once and that the bands that perform usually win when they’re standing backstage (that always bothered us) — but the fact that bands we actually like might have a presence this year makes the fact that they will all lose even more annoying.
The worst part is that Coldplay — a band whose early albums we actually think are good — will sweep with the worst album they’ve ever made. And that M.I.A won’t get much love, although Amy Winehouse’s far less awesome album made a big splash last year. Oh well, at least there’s a bright side: She might give birth in the middle of “Paper Planes”! We’ll be watching either way— will you?