LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 — Justin Timberlake, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, the rapper T. I. and Ike Turner were among the early victors at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, the music industry’s lovefest being held today in Los Angeles.
The Dixie Chicks received five nominations for their album “Taking the Long Road.” More Photos »
Mr. Timberlake, whose album “FutureSex/LoveSounds” (Jive) is nominated for album of the year, won best rap/sung collaboration with T. I. for “My Love.” T. I. also captured the Grammy for best rap solo performance for “What You Know.”
Mr. Dylan’s “Modern Times” (Columbia) picked up the award for best contemporary folk/Americana album, while Mr. Springsteen’s “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” (Columbia) was named best traditional folk album. And Mr. Turner’s “Risin’ With the Blues” (Zoho), his first album since 2001, was honored with the Grammy for best traditional blues album.
Other winners announced before the nationally broadcast show began at the Staples Center here — 97 of the 108 awards will not be televised — included OK Go, which won the Grammy for best short-form music video for its treadmill moves on the YouTube hit “Here It Goes Again.” The polkameister Jimmy Sturr and his orchestra won for best polka album, “Polka in Paradise” (Rounder). It was their 16th Grammy.
This year’s Grammy nominations had a heavy R&B and neo-soul flavor, with a dash of topical antiwar sentiment.
Mary J. Blige led with eight nominations for her unvarnished, hip-hop-tinged brand of R&B. But her album “The Breakthrough” (Geffen) did not receive a nod in the most prestigious category, album of the year. Ms. Blige, who has previously won three Grammys, has made the demand for respect a recurring songwriting motif. She emerged more than a decade ago with a style that departed from the slick R&B in vogue at the time, making her survival of a rough childhood and abusive relationships an integral part of her songs. But her nominated song in the record of the year category, “Be Without You,” testifies to a resilient relationship and perhaps a more hopeful state of affairs.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose double CD “Stadium Arcadium” (Warner Brothers) was the first of the longtime group’s albums to reach No. 1, picked up the second-most nominations with six. The earliest version of the band made its debut in 1983, and its primitive mix of funk and punk-rock has made it one of the most durable commercial successes in the music business. (“Stadium Arcadium” has sold more than 1.8 million copies since its release last May.) In the process, which has included highly publicized battles with drugs and the departure (and then return) of the guitarist John Frusciante, the band has earned a modicum of critical acclaim.
The most politically charged band of the moment, the Dixie Chicks, received five nominations for their album “Taking the Long Road” (Columbia), including nods in the marquee categories of album, record and song of the year. A victory tonight at the Staples Center would provide a measure of vindication. The band has been shunned by mainstream country radio since its lead singer, Natalie Maines, made an off-the-cuff remark about President Bush to London concertgoers back in 2003. Boycotts and death threats followed Ms. Maines’s comment about the war in Iraq: “Just so you know, we are ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
But the band is unapologetic about what happened, as made clear by the chorus to its hit song “Not Ready to Make Nice”: “I’m not ready to make nice/I’m not ready to back down/I’m still mad as hell/And I don’t have time/To go round and round and round.”
Despite little support from country radio and disappointing concert sales, the album has sold more than 1.9 million copies. Capturing album of the year, however, will be difficult, if Grammy history is any guide. Only two country albums — Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and the soundtrack to the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — have triumphed in that category.
Amid the melodramatic neo-soul of James Blunt (five nominations), there is also some pointed antiwar commentary in the work of other nominees. The title of Neil Young’s nominees for best rock album, “Living With War,” and best rock solo vocal performance, “Lookin’ for a Leader,” make that clear. And John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” comes at the war in a more oblique manner.
The Grammys would not be complete without a little controversy. Mr. Dylan, whose “Modern Times” garnered impressive reviews (Blender compared him to Yeats and Matisse), received no nominations in any of the most prestigious categories. Rascal Flatts’s album, although one of the best-selling of the year, was snubbed in the country album category. And Timbaland, the go-to producer of the moment and the man who guided much of Mr. Timberlake’s “FutureSex/Love Sounds” and produced “Promiscuous” for Nelly Furtado, was shut out.
Another of the year’s biggest musical influences, the hirsute producer Rick Rubin, did win the Grammy for producer of the year, but given his aversion to these sorts of record industry social gatherings, he is expected to stay clear of Staples Center tonight. Mr. Rubin, who produced nominated albums for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dixie Chicks, as well as tracks for Mr. Timberlake’s album, has been less nimble at avoiding another uncomfortable situation: he has been at the center of a tug-of-war between two record companies. Sony BMG Music has recruited him to become co-chairman of its Columbia Records label, but his boutique label, American Recordings, is still under contract to a rival, the Warner Music Group’s Warner Brothers label.
Partial List of Grammy Award Winners (February 11, 2007) Last year’s ceremony, held on a Wednesday, bumped up against the juggernaut that is “American Idol,” and the Grammys paid the price in the ratings. Slightly more than 17 million people tuned in to the telecast, down 10 percent from the 18.8 million who watched in 2005 and the lowest tally since 1995, according to Nielsen Media Research.
In this digital-cable universe of hundreds of channels, few awards shows attract the hoopla and ratings they used to. But the Grammys have fallen more than most. They once hit a high of 51.6 million (in 1984), but even in the past decade they have reliably drawn audiences in the mid-20-million range.
Executives of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences were hoping that a little bit of the old razzle-dazzle would reverse this trend. The Police, who broke up in 1984 and have played only a handful of times since, are opening the show, a likely precursor to a full tour for the trio known for hits like “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle” and “Every Breath You Take.” Earth, Wind & Fire, whose funkadelic sound reached its heights in the 1970s, are to join Ms. Blige and Ludacris for a performance of “Runaway Love.” And the Recording Academy even tried to co-opt a little of the “American Idol” magic by holding a “My Grammy Moment” contest for one lucky unsigned artist to perform with Justin Timberlake during the show. Fans voted online at Yahoo Music, winnowing the finalists from 12 to 5 to 3. They are Africa Miranda, 30, of Montgomery, Ala.; Brenda Radney, 22, of Staten Island; and Robyn Troup, 18, of Houston. The winner will be announced live on the show.
But even if the casting stunts goose the ratings, the larger travails of the music business will still loom over any good vibes emanating from the festivities. Even a doubling of sales of digital albums failed to make up for the continued downward trek of CD sales. Album sales last year dropped almost 5 percent, to 588 million, following a 7 percent drop the year before, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
One worrisome trend was the decline in sales of hip-hop albums, which had been among the stronger performers in recent years. (Hip-hop acts also received little love from the Recording Academy; no rap album received a nomination in any of the major categories.)
The best-selling album of 2006 was the soundtrack to the Disney Channel movie “High School Musical,” which sold 3.7 million copies. And Daniel Powter’s song “Bad Day” was the best-selling digital song, selling more than two million copies thanks in large part to its prime positioning on “American Idol.” Neither recording received a Grammy nomination.
To be eligible for an award, a recording had to have been released between Oct 1, 2005, and Sept. 30, 2006. The winners were selected by the academy’s more than 11,000 voting members, who are recording industry professionals with creative or technical credits on at least six albums or songs.
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