Taylor Swift accepts the award for Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys. (Robyn Beck, Getty Images) 

In another one of those Grammy shockers, Taylor Swift won the night’s biggest award – album of the year for “Fearless” -- after a nationally televised performance Sunday that pointed out how richly she didn't deserve it.

In the live face-off at the 52^nd annual Grammy Awards between Swift and Beyonce, who took home six statues, Lady B was the clear winner with a raucous medley of her “If I Were a Boy” and Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Swift, in contrast, sounded woefully out of tune in a duet with Stevie Nicks, the latest in a string of underwhelming performances on national television.

Yet it was Swift who bested Beyonce for the prestigious best-album honors. Beyonce’s consolation prize was song of the year (“Single Ladies [Put a Ring on It]”). Kings of Leon took record of the year (“Use Somebody”) and the Zac Brown Band won best new artist. Also shut out in the major categories were Lady Gaga  and the Black Eyed Eyes. Gaga jumped into a pit of fire and the Peas danced with robots, but to no avail.

As if a staggering 1003 nominations in 109 categories weren’t enough, here are a few categories of our own:

Censors working overtime: Lil Wayne, Eminem and Drake – can’t recall a more intense hip-hop performance on this most staid of awards shows. Too bad most of it was inaudible, as the foul-mouthed trio gave the guardians of public decency a migraine while huge chunks of their performance were muted. Not saying we needed to hear explicit language on prime-time TV, but it does point out how ultimately unsatisfying most live music performances on television are because of such restrictions.

Beck-ola! Jeff Beck paid homage to the late guitar great Les Paul by dancing on the strings while covering the old Les Paul-Mary Ford hit “How High the Moon” with vocalist Imelda May. She sounded heavily processed, but Beck was the real deal. If that doesn’t inspire any aspiring ax-man to junk “Guitar Hero” and pick up a real guitar, nothing will.

Best fashion choice: On a night when outrageousness was the rule, Maxwell stood out by going classic. Dark suit, tie, Marvin Gaye-like smoothness, right down to a Tammi Terrell-style duet with Roberta Flack on “Where is the Love.”

When the song isn’t very good … add lots of strings, a marching band, dance badly. Dave Matthews did all of the above in an attempt to salvage “You & Me.”

She never saw it coming: Bet when Mary J. Blige was clawing her way out of Yonkers, N.Y., in the late ‘80s she didn’t expect to find herself next to Andrea Bocelli singing a Simon and Garfunkel song on the Grammys. Chalk it up to another one of those odd Grammy programming decisions: The opera singer and the queen of hip-hop soul both looked a little awkward.

Were You Holding Your Breath …  about which song Bon Jovi was going to play in fan voting? Did anyone think it wasn’t going to be “Livin’ on a Prayer”?

Back from the dead, in 3-D: The Michael Jackson tribute was one of the set pieces scheduled for his aborted London residency. It resurfaced as one of those Grammy gimmicks that must’ve sounded good in some music exec’s glass office, but fell strangely flat in execution – especially without access to the 3-D glasses handed out to audience members at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson took turns belting out lines alongside a recording of Jackson’s voice on "Earth Song." But the blustery anthem is not one of Jackson’s finest moments: “What about apathy?” everybody! Jackson’s children, Prince and Paris, then took the stage, and their simple, direct eloquence made all that preceded it seem like so much overkill. Fighting through his nerves, Prince Jackson said it best about his father: “Through all his songs, his message was simple: Love.”

Pitch-corrector must not have been working: Taylor Swift sounded flat, especially when she jumped in to sing “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks, who also sounded off. Swift looked more confident than she has on past nationally televised awards shows, but her vocals suggested otherwise.

Comeback kid: Less than a month after brain surgery, Leon Russell banged the keys with the Zac Brown Band, a refreshing throwback to a time when bearded, potbellied Southern guys played roots rock like their lives depended on it.

How do you spell train wreck? A-U-T-O-T-U-N-E. That chaotic Jamie Foxx/T-Pain collision, which started out as mocking opera, then segued into Auto-Tune overkill. (Could someone please kill Auto-Tune now? Didn’t Jay-Z already pronounce it dead?) Not even a Slash guitar solo could save it.

Naughty, naughty? Sure sounded to me like the audio dropped out during Fergie’s rap as the futuristic Black Eyed Peas got all sci-fi on us. Actually, the censors did us all a favor, because as MC’s go, Fergie has got flow issues.

Pink performs at the Grammys. (Kevin Winter, Getty Images) View more photos of Pink's performance at the 2010 Grammys.

Cirque du Soleil goes Pink: She’s been doing the acrobatics in concert for years. But as she twirled slowly in midair while sending water from her drenched body cascading down on the well-coifed audience, all the while managing to sing (could she have been lip-synching?), Pink surely was the talk of the TV show’s first hour with her high-flying performance.

Her night? Sensing that she just might run the table on her 10 nominations early on, Beyonce came out with a performance that was all windblown fury and overkill, slamming together her “If I Were a Boy” (grabbing her junk in the process) with Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Unusually aggressive by Lady B standards, especially coming off her classy Etta James moves in “Cadillac Records.”

Makeup! Someone get me makeup! What was with the runny facepaint on Lady Gaga and Elton John in their piano duet? Pretty cool opening set by Gaga, but somebody should’ve reconsidered that hideous makeup job. Yeah, yeah, I get that she got thrown into a "fire" and came out "charred." Just looked cheap.  I really like that she's willing not to play the traditional dance-pop diva role, but this was distracting.

Savior of the music industry: Susan Boyle sold a ton of records, but she was no-show, in part because her debut was released too late for Grammy consideration. Still, in a year where the Grammys swung hard toward younger performers, it was a “48-year-old housewife in sensible shoes,” as host Stephen Colbert called her, who gave the sagging industry a late sales uplift.

Better late than never? Neil Young won his first Grammy award, for box-set packaging (“Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 [1963-1972]”). As the LA times pointed out, that ties him with Britney Spears. Seriously.

Second City flop: Tough night for artists with Chicago connections. Kurt Elling won for best jazz vocal album (“Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane And Hartman”); Kanye West for best rap song (“Run This Town”). But nominees such as Common, Wilco, Neko Case and Mavis Staples went home empty.

greg@gregkot.com

Related:

Photos: Grammy Awards 2010 red carpet

A complete list of 2010 Grammy winners

Best & Worst of 2010 Grammys

    You want “artistic excellence?” Though that’s what the Grammy Awards vow to recognize each year, you may not necessarily get it when you tune in to the 52nd annual ceremony at 7 p.m. CST Jan. 31 on CBS-TV. For every deserving winner in recent years (hard to argue with last year’s album-of-the-year winners, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss), there are a half-dozen blunders (my all-time favorite is the New Vaudeville Band’s “Winchester Cathedral” topping the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” in 1966 for best rock recording). Below, we play the perilous game of predicting how the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will vote, and point out the artistic excellence they overlooked (remember, only recordings released between Oct. 1, 2008, and Aug. 31, 2009 are eligible).

Album of the Year

Nominees: Beyonce, “I Am ... Sasha Fierce”; Black Eyed Peas, “The E.N.D.”; Lady Gaga, “The Fame”; Dave Matthews Band, “Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King”; Taylor Swift “Fearless.”

Who will win: Beyonce, “I Am … Sasha Fierce” 

Who should win: Lady Gaga, “The Fame”

Who got shafted: Kanye West, “808’s and Heartbreak”
 
Record of the Year
(Award to the artist and the producer, recording engineer and-or mixer)

Nominees: Beyonce, “Halo”; Black Eyed Peas, “I Got a Feeling”; Kings of Leon, “Use Somebody”; Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”; Lady Gaga, “Poker Face.”

Who will win: Taylor Swift “You Belong to Me”

Who should win: Lady Gaga “Poker Face”

Who got shafted: Phoenix, “Lisztomania”

The Jonas Brothers perform with Stevie Wonder at the 51st Grammy Awards show. (Mark J. Terrill, AP) View my predictions on who will win big this year HERE.

At the 52nd annual Grammy Awards on Jan. 31, it’ll be kids night – at least by the staid standards of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

In past years, the Grammys have tried to mix it up with veteran acts facing off against relative newcomers for the big prizes, or vintage stars mingling with up-and-comers in cross-generational live performances. Who can forget the Jonas Brothers trying to get funky (or something like that) with Stevie Wonder on last year’s telecast?
 
As with the JoBros-Stevie trainwreck, the old-timers usually get the better of the newcomers. Consider the most prestigious category: Album of the Year. Just in the last decade, the surprise winners have included Herbie Hancock for “River: The Joni Letters” in 2008, Ray Charles' “Genius Loves Company” in 2005 and Steely Dan's “Two Against Nature” in 2001. All of these great artists won for the wrong album; they should’ve been recognized decades sooner. Instead, they beat younger, more worthy competition with mediocre releases. When Hancock triumphed over the favored Kanye West and Amy Winehouse in 2008, awards presenter Quincy Jones said it all: “Unbelievable!”

But there’s no chance of a venerable insider usurping the pop upstarts  this year because the major categories are dominated by relatively young artists who are either just beginning their careers or in their commercial prime.

The Black Eyed Peas perform at the Grammy Nominations Concert Live. (Robyn Beck, Getty Images)

Beyonce sang about a split personality on her latest album, “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” and she and Sasha must have been pleased Wednesday after bagging 10 nominations in the nationally televised run-up to the 52nd annual Grammy Awards.

The Black Eyed Peas sang, “It’s gonna be a good night,” both at the outset and finish of the one-hour telecast -- and for the co-ed quartet, it absolutely was with six nominations.

But it went even better for Beyonce and Taylor Swift, whose eight nominations trailed only Beyonce. The two singers scored the Grammy triple play, with nominations in the most prestigious categories: album, song and record of the year. So did Lady Gaga, who garnered five total nominations.

Like the Peas, Maxwell and Kanye West received six nominations.
   
Besides Beyonce (“I Am ... Sasha Fierce”), Lady Gaga (“The Fame”) and Swift (“Fearless”), the album of the year nominees were the Black Eyed Peas (“The E.N.D.”) and the Dave Matthews Band (“Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King”). The big omission: U2’s commercially under-performing “No Line on the Horizon,” which was nominated for rock album of the year.

Nominations for song and record of the year went to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” and Swift’s “You Belong With Me.” Also nominated for song of the year were Maxwell’s “Pretty Wings” and Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Additional record of the year nominees were Beyonce’s “Halo” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.”

In the other big category, best new artist, the nominees were Zac Brown, Keri Hilson, MGMT, Silversun Pickups and the Ting Tings.

Once again, L.L. Cool J served as MC, making a game attempt to mash-up his rap vocals with some of the year’s hits -- but I gotta feeling he’s regretting that decision right about now. There were the awkward table-side interviews with various celebs and the glitch-laden roll-out of the nominees. When comic George Lopez announced the song-of-the-year candidates, a picture of Swift popped into view while he was talking about Kings of Leon. And then there was the awkward scenario of Joe and Kevin Jonas introducing a solo project by their brother Nick that sounded like a demo in progress rather than a finished song. How about a few chord changes, Nick?

Though the broadcast was only 60 minutes long, it felt twice as arduous because of the clunky timing and a decided lack of energy.  Maxwell paid tribute to Michael Jackson with a relaxed – maybe too relaxed -- interpretation of “The Lady in My Life.”

Smokey Robinson, in announcing the nominees for record of the year, which included Swift, got off the night’s best line: “And don’t worry, Taylor, Kanye West is not here.”

Local nominees included Kurt Elling for best jazz vocal album (“Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman”), Wilco for best Americana album (“Wilco [The Album]”), Mavis Staples for best contemporary blues album ("Live: Hope at the Hideout”), Common for best rap album ("Universal Mind Control"), Neko Case for best contemporary folk album ("Middle Cyclone") and the “Chicago Blues: A Living History” compilation for best traditional blues album.

Winners in the 109 categories will be announced Jan. 31 at the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The nominations by the Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences  cover music released between Oct. 1, 2008, and Aug. 31, 2009.

greg@gregkot.com

Related:

Photos: Grammy Award nominees

Photos: Grammy nominations concert

A complete list of Grammy nominees

   
    

    Robert Plant could have been doing something other than winning five Grammys on Sunday with Alison Krauss. He could’ve been out making mega-millions of dollars on tour with the surviving members of his old band, Led Zeppelin.

    The opportunity was there for the taking when Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were joined by Jason Bonham, son of the late Zep drummer, John Bonham, for a one-off London reunion gig in 2007.

    That same year, Plant collaborated on “Raising Sand,” a relatively low-key yet highly adventurous album with country-pop singer Krauss. It was a risky little effort, with both Plant and Krauss working outside their comfort zones. On Sunday, it brought home a mini-avalanche of five Grammy Awards, including album of the year, topping heavy competition such as Coldplay, Radiohead and Lil Wayne.

    But that kind of success couldn’t have been foreseen when the album was released. A Led Zeppelin reunion, on the other hand, would’ve been a sure thing.

    Veteran artists with successful brand names (Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd) can make lots of money on the nostalgia circuit. No new music is required. It’s play the hits, and go straight to the bank. Tour promoters have been salivating for decades about the prospects of a Zeppelin reunion; many predict it would be the highest-earning rock tour of all time. But Plant has adamantly refused to go along. He has instead continued to pursue a solo career, defined by its adventurous spirit. 

    It is not a career arch followed by many of Plant’s peers. Presented with the option of making easy money or creating new music, most choose the money. And who can really blame them? It’s the rock-star equivalent of early retirement.

    That’s why Plant’s determination to go his own way, to choose creative impulse over financial expedience, is one of the new year’s most inspiring music stories.

    Plant is 60 years old. He no longer needs to prove anything to anyone, having changed the course of rock history once with Zeppelin in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Krauss, 37, has had a successful career as the violin-playing singer in Union Station, a first-rate bluegrass band that has had some crossover hits in pop and country. But “Raising Sand” finds them both breaking ground and making music that doesn’t sound quite like anything else.

    Picking up where the acoustic side of the 1970 album “Led Zeppelin III” left off, “Raising Sand” burrows into the mystical side of folk and country music. Producer T-Bone Burnett proposed the project, picked the songs and assembled the band, which put an eerie 21st Century spin on 20th Century roots music.

    Plant had never sung vocal harmonies before. He had always been the golden-god front man, his voice clearly the lead instrument. But on “Raising Sand,” he and Krauss blend with understatement and empathy. Plant’s wordless harmonies on “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” give Krauss and the song exactly what they need, and it’s a goosebump-inducing epiphany. From the shake-rattle-and-shimmy of Allen Toussaint’s “Fortune Teller” to the hymn-like heartbreak of Gene Clark’s “Polly Come Home,” the performances reward close attention and rank with the best work either of these artists has done.

    Rounder Records, a venerable independent label based in the Northeast, released “Raising Sand” and it has become one of its biggest hits. Its multiple  nominations were old hat for Krauss, who before Sunday has already won 21 Grammy awards. But none were for a project quite this adventurous.

    "We ostensibly come from such different places on the musical map," Plant said in a media conference backstage Sunday. "Alison showed me so much I never been exposed to."

    That Plant is still learning new tricks is a testament to his artistry. That he’s not touring with a reunited Led Zeppelin is a sign of enduring integrity. That’s a lot of money to be passing up, even if “Raising Sand” did win five Grammys.

    But Plant was having none of it. The singer again was confronted with the inevitable question Sunday about his future involvement in any Zeppelin tour.

    "How old are you, man?" Plant responded. "Because you look older than me. You try to do 'Communication Breakdown' in these pants."

    greg@gregkot.com

    The 51st annual Grammy Awards got more drama than they bargained for Sunday in Los Angeles. The nationally televised awards show had to shuffle its schedule at the last minute when R&B singer Chris Brown and his girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, were bumped from the broadcast after Brown was linked to an assault of a woman Saturday.

    But the show had plenty of its own sizzle, including an emotionally charged performance and acceptance speech by Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson.

    Hudson, whose mother, brother and nephew were slain in October, choked back tears as she said, “I would like to thank my family in heaven, and those who are here today.” She later delivered a stirring performance of “You Pulled Me Through.”

    The awards were otherwise dominated by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, an odd couple of sorts (British rock god meets Nashville bluegrass-pop chanteuse) who made an enchanting 2007 album, “Raising Sand,” and then reaped five Grammys. Their prizes included album of the year and record of the year, for the song “Please Read the Letter.”

    “In the old days we would’ve called this selling out, but this is a good way to spend a Sunday,” Plant said upon accepting album of the year with his collaborators, Krauss and producer T-Bone Burnett.

    Coldplay won three awards, including song of the year for “Viva La Vida,” even though the composition was the subject of a recent plagiarism lawsuit by guitarist Joe Satriani.

    British singer Adele topped countrywoman Duffy and bubblegum-wrapped popsters the Jonas Brothers for the night’s remaining big prize, best new artist. Eight-time nominee Lil Wayne won four Grammys, including best rap album for “Tha Carter III.”

    The awards ceremony got off to a choppy start: a roaring U2 intro, an eye-rolling monologue from actor Duane Johnson (why?), an awkward Justin Timberlake-Al Green duet that heated up as the Reverend Green started bending falsetto notes. A rare Whitney Houston sighting was worth a little tabloid-style gawking; she came off as an oddly remote update of Diana Ross, purring sweet-nothings to her svengali, record executive Clive Davis, and then handing the Grammy for best R&B album to Hudson.

    Another odd moment occurred when actress Gwyneth Paltrow gave a gushing introduction to an “utterly brilliant” British rock band. But it wasn’t for her husband’s outfit, Coldplay, but rather Radiohead, who proved her right with a thumping version of “15 Step” accompanied by the USC marching band.

    Some other awards amid the 110 Grammys that were distributed:

     Oddest couple: Jonas Brothers with Stevie Wonder. What a waste. One of the greatest singers of all time (no, I’m not talking about Joe Jonas) shoved into a background role with the teen-pop princes? Painful to watch.

    Best rhythm section: Paul McCartney/Dave Grohl. McCartney on bass, Grohl on drums. If rhythm is the essence of great rock ‘n’ roll, these two had it nailed during “I Saw Her Standing There.”

    Greatest expectation: MIA was due any minute. The artist of Sri Lankan heritage was nine months pregnant as she performed “Swagga Like Us” with T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Kanye West.

    Best ad for a new album: Nice to see U2 throwing down in a set reminiscent of their charged, multimedia 1992 “Zoo TV” tour. Their single, “Get On Your Boots,” was a great way to start the show.

    Gotcha! Jay-Z strolls on stage while Coldplay’s Chris Martin bangs away on his upright piano during “Lost,” and steals the song.

    The announcement we’ve all been waiting for: “Blink-182 is back.” Stop the presses. Guess the solo careers weren’t working out so well for the onetime pop-punk multimillion-sellers.

    Most blatant Feist rip-off: Katy Perry performed “I Kissed a Girl” with a Busby Berkeley-style revue reminiscent of Feist’s once-ubiquitous “1234” video.

    Chicago winners: Pacifica Quartet for Elliott Carter’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5, best chamber music performance; Joan Sebástian for "No Es De Madera," best banda album; Bernard Haitink for Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4, conductor (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), best orchestral performance; David Frost, Tom Lazarus & Christopher Willis for "Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago," best engineered album, classical; Jack DeJohnette for "Peace Time," best new age album; Jennifer Hudson for best R&B album; Kanye West for "American Boy" by Estelle featuring Kanye West, best rap-sung collaboration.

    greg@gregkot.com

Best:

U2: They debuted a single, “Get On Your Boots,” from their forthcoming album, “No Line on the Horizon.” With electronically enhanced beats and a hip-hop breakdown, the song broadcast a more adventurous new chapter in the Irish quartet’s career reminiscent of their “Achtung Baby” period.

Jennifer Hudson (left): In an emotion charged performance that served both as a testimonial to her audience and tribute to her slain family members, the tearful singer turned “You Pulled Me Through” into an anthem for her return to public performance, backed by a gospel choir.

Radiohead: With the USC marching band beefing up the frantic groove to “15 Step,” singer Thom Yorke came on like a twitchy, leather-jacketed gnome.

Paul McCartney: Give the drummer some. Dave Grohl dropped some A-bombs behind the Beatles bassist’s still-exuberant “I Saw Her Standing There.”

T.I., Jay-Z with Kanye West, Lil Wayne and MIA. The Grammys are easy to criticize, but only a major awards show could’ve put these five on stage to reprise their massive 2008 hit, “Swagga Like Us.”

Worst:

Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus: If ever two performers needed some of that patented Grammy production overkill, it was these two undernourished song birds as they warbled over Swift’s acoustic guitar.

Kid Rock: The Kid has stage presence to burn, but not the songs. Slamming together riffs from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Warren Zevon, then proclaiming himself a “rock ‘n’ roll Jesus” is not the stuff of greatness.

Jonas Brothers: The boys trying to get funky, or something, as Stevie Wonder’s band during “Superstition.” The Brothers were so in over their heads they should’ve been wearing life preservers.

   

These are Grammy winners with a Chicago connection from early voting.

Joan Sebástian for "No Es De Madera," best banda album

Bernard Haitink for Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4, conductor (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, best orchestral performance

Pacifica Quartet for Elliott Carter’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5, best chamber music performance

David Frost, Tom Lazarus & Christopher Willis for "Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago," best engineered album, classical

Jack DeJohnette for "Peace Time," best new age album

Jennifer Hudson for best R&B album

Kanye West for "American Boy" by Estelle featuring Kanye West, best rap/sung collaboration

 

The 20,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences take another shot at rewarding “artistic excellence” at the 51st annual Grammy Awards. History shows us they don’t always get it right: Jethro Tull winning as best “metal” band in 1988, the New Vaudeville Band’s “Winchester Cathedral” topping the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” in 1966 for best rock recording, the Fresh Prince besting Public Enemy for best rap performance in 1991. That’s where the accompanying predictions come in. On Sunday, when Grammys will be handed out in 110 categories and you’re left wondering if there’s anything better out there, here’s your guide to the music you really ought to hear (remember, only recordings released between Oct. 1, 2007, and Sept. 30, 2008, are eligible):

Album of the Year

Nominees: “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” Coldplay; “Tha Carter III,” Lil Wayne; “Year of the Gentleman,” Ne-Yo; “Raising Sand,” Robert Plant & Alison Krauss; “In Rainbows,” Radiohead.

Who will win: Coldplay is the safe choice.

Who should win: Radiohead or Plant-Krauss are more deserving.

Who got shafted: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!


Record of the Year
(Award to the artist and the producer, recording engineer and mixer)

Nominees: “Chasing Pavements,” Adele; “Viva La Vida,” Coldplay; “Bleeding Love,” Leona Lewis; “Paper Planes,” M.I.A.; “Please Read the Letter,” Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

Who will win: Joe Satriani’s recent copyright-infringement suit against “Viva La Vida” may hurt Coldplay’s chances, clearing the way for the ubiquitous Lewis song.

Who should win: M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” cut across genres and infiltrated the mainstream.

Who got shafted: Gnarls Barkley’s “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul?,” which was almost as good as the duo’s 2006 knockout, “Crazy.”

Song of the Year
(A songwriters award)

Nominees: “American Boy,” Estelle and Kanye West; “Chasing Pavements,” Adele; “I'm Yours,” Jason Mraz; “Love Song,” Sara Bareilles; “Viva La Vida,” Coldplay.

Who will win: “American Boy” had star power to burn.

Who should win: Difficult to deny “American Boy.”

Who got shafted: Santogold’s “L.E.S. Artistes” packed one of the year’s great choruses.

Best New Artist
(For an artist who releases the first recording that establishes the artist's public identity)

Nominees: Adele, Duffy, Jonas Brothers, Lady Antebellum, Jazmine Sullivan.

Who will win: A battle of Brit songbirds, with Adele edging Duffy.

Who should win: Adele sounds like the more original voice.

Who got shafted: Fleet Foxes and their goose-bump-inducing harmonies.

Best Pop Vocal Album

Nominees: “Detours,” Sheryl Crow; “Rockferry,” Duffy; “Long Road Out of Eden,” Eagles; “Spirit,” Leona Lewis; “Covers,” James Taylor.

Who will win: Eagles are a reliable brand and piled up big sales with first album in three decades.

Who should win: Crow’s “Detours” was her best album since the debut.

Who got shafted: Randy Newman’s “Harps & Angels” has more humor and hooks than all of these nominees combined.

Best Rock Album

Nominees: “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” Coldplay; “Rock N Roll Jesus,” Kid Rock; “Only by the Night,” Kings of Leon; “Death Magnetic.” Metallica; “Consolers of the Lonely,” the Raconteurs.

Who will win: Coldplay has the widest mainstream appeal.

Who should win: None of these bands made its best album, but Metallica at least rocked harder than it has in years.

Who got shafted: Torche’s “Meanderthal” packs big melodies, bigger guitars.

Best Alternative Music Album

Nominees: “Modern Guilt,” Beck; “Narrow Stairs,” Death Cab for Cutie; “The Odd Couple,” Gnarls Barkley; “Evil Urges,” My Morning Jacket; “In Rainbows,” Radiohead.

Who will win: Coldplay’s cuddlier than Radiohead, but Radiohead is acceptable as an "alternative."

Who should win: Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” is among the U.K. band’s best albums

Who got shafted: TV on the Radio’s “Dear Science” blended adventure with newfound warmth.

Best R&B Album

Nominees: “Love & Life.” Eric Benét; “Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA,” Boyz II Men; “Lay it Down,” Al Green; “Jennifer Hudson,” Jennifer Hudson; “The Way I See It,” Raphael Saadiq.

Who will win: Jennifer Hudson’s great voice isn’t showcased particularly well on her debut album, but she is riding a recent wave of goodwill.

Who should win: Raphael Saadiq channels the soul greats.

Who got shafted: Jamie Lidell’s “Jim” recontextualizes Motown for a new generation.

Best Rap Album

Nominees: “American Gangster,” Jay-Z; “Tha Carter III,” Lil Wayne; “The Cool,” Lupe Fiasco; “Nas,” Nas; “Paper Trail.” T.I.

Who will win: Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” was one of the year’s most talked-about albums.

Who should win: Jay-Z’s excellent urban manifesto was actually a better, more consistent album than the erratic “Carter III.”

Who got shafted: Rhymefest, “Mark Ronson Presents Rhymefest: Man in the Mirror, The Michael Jackson Dedication Album” is the best album Michael Jackson never made.

Best Country Album

Nominees: “That Lonesome Song,” Jamey Johnson; “Sleepless Nights,” Patty Loveless; “Troubadour,” George Strait; “Around the Bend,” Randy Travis; “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love,” Trisha Yearwood.

Who will win:  Jamey Johnson’s “That Lonesome Song” should easily top a field of more familiar names who have done better work on previous albums.

Who should win: Johnson sounds like country’s best new hope in years.

Who got shafted: Kathy Mattea’s “Coal” stepped outside the Nashville assembly line to find some true grit.

Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album

Nominees: “Day After Tomorrow,” Joan Baez; “I, Flathead,” Ry Cooder; “Sex & Gasoline,” Rodney Crowell; “All I Intended to Be,” Emmylou Harris; “Raising Sand,” Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

Who will win: Plant and Krauss had a hit with an adventurous vocal blend.

Who should win: Plant and Krauss took some artistic chances that paid off handsomely.

Who got shafted: She & Him’s “Volume One” mined classic ‘60s folk-pop with  disarming sincerity.

greg@gregkot.com

    If the sagging music industry really wanted to turn itself around, Radiohead, Lil Wayne and Paul McCartney would be doing more than just performing Feb. 8 at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. They also would be dispensing business advice on innovative distribution models.

    The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which represents the 20,000 industry professionals who vote on the Grammys, signed those high-profile artists to boost ratings at the nationally televised awards presentation. But the academy should also study how these artists have continued to remain relevant and commercially successful at a time when the Grammys and the mainstream music industry are struggling.

    Like the major labels it has represented for the last half-century, the Grammys need a makeover. Ratings are down; last year’s telecast drew 17.5 million viewers, down 12 percent from the previous year, and down 42 percent from the all-time 1993 high of 30 million. The music industry isn’t doing much better; it has lost one-third of its business in CD sales since 2000. The biggest losers have been the Big Four labels: Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music Group, which traditionally back most of the Grammy nominees.

    But the music world itself has never been more vibrant. Artists, many without major-label affiliation, are pioneering new avenues for releasing their music and building an audience. Radiohead, McCartney and Lil Wayne speak to different generations of listeners, but they have all expanded their careers in recent months by working around the stodgy music industry and releasing music in a wide variety of platforms.

        Radiohead’s “In Rainbows,” nominated for album of the year among several awards, was initially released on the band’s Web site at a price of the consumers’ choice. Since then, the band has solicited and received thousands of fan-generated videos and remixes of the album’s songs. McCartney ended a four-decade partnership with the major labels in 2007 and revived his career by releasing his last two albums, one under the name of the Fireman, through independent outlets, including a coffee manufacturer. And Wayne paved the way for his multimillion-selling major-label release, “Tha Carter III,” also nominated for album of the year, with a series of unauthorized mix tapes distributed for free through the Internet.

    In years past, independent artists had no place at the Grammys. Though the awards purported to honor “artistic excellence,” they focused primarily on big-budget releases from the handful of major labels that had dominated the business in the last half of the 20th Century.

    The majors’ grip on music distribution loosened as peer-to-peer file sharing exploded on the Internet at the start of the decade. Illicit downloads now outnumber paid downloads 40 to 1, which means that more people are listening to more music than ever, but the mainstream industry hasn’t been able to take advantage of this extraordinary marketing opportunity. Radiohead, Wayne and McCartney were among the artists quick to recognize the potential of this new distribution model, and they operate as independent entrepreneurs rather than major-label vassels.

    Another innovator the industry should be getting to know better is Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, who received two relatively minor Grammy nominations but is not scheduled to perform at the awards ceremony. That’s a shame, because few artists had a more successful year. Functioning as a one-man music industry, he released five albums’ worth of new music through his Web site in myriad formats and price levels. After releasing a box set of instrumental music last March, he reported first-week revenue of $1.7 million. Because he didn’t have a major-label publicity and marketing machine behind him, Reznor kept most of that take for himself.

    Of course, Reznor benefited from years of major-label investment in building his career, as did McCartney, Radiohead and Lil Wayne. But now these artists, and countless others, are starting to realize that they don’t need a major label to communicate directly with their fans. In the next year, major breadwinners such as Pearl Jam, 50 Cent, Metallica and Beck will become free agents, and they will certainly ponder whether they’d be better off without a label when they release their next albums. Though the big labels have the resources to expose music in the mainstream media, they have lost the trust of consumers by placing profit and expedience ahead of artistic accomplishment and long-term growth. Listeners no longer deem many CDs worth the $18 list price and have sought out alternative means of sampling music, including file-sharing. Instead of following the consumers’ lead, the industry has tried to stifle them by filing tens of thousands of lawsuits against file-sharers.

    Radiohead, Lil Wayne, Paul McCartney and Nine Inch Nails have chosen a different path, one in which they deal more directly than ever with their fans, and it has paid off handsomely. The music industry would be wise to learn from their example.

    greg@gregkot.com