Shea: Grammys a non-serious night of entertainment

It’s been a while since people have taken the Grammys seriously. For the past few… It’s been a while since people have taken the Grammys seriously. For the past few years, the show has been predictable and a poor representation of the wide spectrum of music that comes out every year.

It’s comical to watch an awards show that claims to legitimately look at every album released in 2010, and then says, “Yep. Taylor Swift’s was definitely the best. Best lyrics, best voice (a.k.a. best use of Auto-Tune), best instrumentals, best this, best that, nice hair. Way to go, Taylor Swift, you win.”

Those lovely golden gramophones are really just accessories to go with a best-selling pop album these days.

That’s not to say that the Grammys are a total waste of airtime and money. In fact, they’re just the opposite, so maybe we should stop viewing the Grammys as an awards show and instead see it as an awesome, expensive and super-fun concert.

Even though the Grammys are a bit of a joke, they’re still really fun to watch. There’s a flashy and exciting list of performers every year, fabulous dresses, great collaborations and, of course, the occasional red carpet scandal. (By the way, thanks for keeping your s*** together this year Kanye. It’s much appreciated.)

The performance highlights of Sunday night included Lady Gaga’s elaborate duet with Elton John and this year’s Grammy queen Beyoncé’s opening song. Green Day — along with the cast of the “American Idiot” musical that the band wrote and scored — performed well, too. The Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks collaboration was a little hard to watch but on the whole it was passable. Michael Jackson was also honored with a lifetime achievement award.

Sunday night Jackson’s brother Randy tweeted that he was proud of his brother and wrote, “My family would love to be there but truth is, we weren’t invited.”

Taylor Swift’s less-than-impressive performance also drew a lot of media attention. The negative response was extreme enough for Scott Borchetta, the head of Swift’s label, to make a statement.

“Maybe she’s not the best technical singer, but she’s probably the best emotional singer because everybody else who gets up there and is technically perfect, people don’t seem to want more of it,” he said according to Tennessean.com.

Even with a bit of post-Grammy backlash, critics agreed that the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards were a success. The RTT News reported that the 2010 Grammys had 40 percent more viewers than last year’s program and had over 26 million viewers total.

Despite the fact it might not be the most credible source for pinpointing real quality within the music industry, the Grammys are still pretty fun and probably worth tuning-in for.