best new artist: a being ryan byrd investigation…
By Ryan Byrd
alright, so, obviously, i blogged last night about my grammy awards predictions/preferences and you will see in the comments that jesse questioned the stigma attached to the best new artist award. one line of prevailing thought says that best new artist winners typically fall of the face of the planet and are never heard from again. examples are as follows:
milli vanilli (1990), marc cohn (1992) (you know, the walking in memphis guy…), jody watley (1988), men at work (1983) & starland vocal band (1977)…just to name a few.
on the other hand, i think there are plenty of artists who could make a pretty strong argument against this line of thought:
the beatles (1965), bobby darin (1960), crosby, stills & nash (1970), carly simon (1972) & sheryl crow (1995)…again, just to name a few.
of course, i got to looking at the list of winners and nominees, and there was definitely some head-scratching. you could probably make a strong argument for the whole disappearing act argument by just comparing the nominees to the winners. here’s some examples:
1971: winner: the carpenters. obviously, the carpenters were a great group, but…they beat out elton john? elton john will go down as one of the greatest of all-time. the carpenters will be loved by their enduring fans, but they’re not near the same level as elton john.
1990: winner: milli vanilli. ok, i don’t have to explain why this choice was bad, but the point here is that they beat out the indigo girls…and….tone loc!! oh the humanity… seriously, though, milli vanilli over the indigo girls??
1992: winner: marc cohn (remember, the walking in memphis guy…). he beat out the following people: boyz ii men & seal. now, you can make a strong argument for him beating out color me badd & c&c music factory, but the other two, by and large, have had great and enduring careers.
1997: winner: leann rimes. seriously? it’s bad enough that she won, but it’s who all she beat out: garbage & no doubt (and i could make a very strong argument for jewel, also). garbage and no doubt, both, were (and are) innovators who put out classic records at that time.
1998: winner: paula cole. ok, this is the chick who didn’t shave her armpits and sang the dawson’s creek theme song. actually, i think her music was pretty good, but she beat fiona apple (and the argument could be made for erykah badu). fiona apple: hot + crazy + amazing singer/songwriter = me loving her.
alright, i could name some others, but i think that makes the point. on another note of curiosity, it’s really strange just to look through the list of nominees. for example:
1980: the blues brothers & robin williams (as in the comedian, robin williams…)
1985: frankie goes to hollywood (you know, the dudes who sang relax…)
1989: rick astley! (this time, you’re not being rick rolled…i’m actually telling you up front that this is going to be rick astley…)
1992: as noted, c&c music factory and the big whammy, color me badd
1993: billy ray cyrus: seriously grammy people??
2009: jonas brothers. enough said.
so, i’m not offering any concrete conclusions here, but this just goes to show that we should either enjoy adele (my pick for best new artist) while she’s still relevant or we can get used to her being around for a good long while.
