This Year's Grammys Are Brought To You By The American Top 40

The Grammys this year have proven to be something of a popularity-over-quality contest (though a good number are both popular and quality). I haven't actually been watching the ceremony though; instead I had to drive back to school through some wicked snow and ice (we here in North Carolina do not understand snow, you see). So I don't really have much to say about the performances, other than I looked up Lady Gaga and Elton John on YouTube and thought it was AMAZING! You can watch it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/31/lady-gaga-elton-johns-inc_n_443832.html

I'm also wondering why the Grammy eligibility period was cut a month short this year, going from October 1, 2008 to August 31st, 2009. This means that next year's will start on September 1, 2009 right? There were great albums released last September (Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Muse) that deserve some attention.

- Kings of Leon really cleaned up tonght, winning three awards: Record of the Year, Rock Perfomance by a Duo or Group, and Rock Song. All of which were for "Use Somebody," which was not the best song in any of those categories. My guess is that they really wanted to honor them last year, but couldn't because it was (the far superior) Coldplay's year, so they just held out until this year. Which is a shame, because Green Day and Dave Matthews Band had much better rock recordings, and Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" was a better record.

- Speaking of DMB, I'm surprised they lost to Green Day in Best Rock Album (though I realize I may be in a minority here). I'm also surprised that the wonderful "Funny The Way It Is" failed to even be nominated; why honor the album as a whole with a Rock Album and an Album of the Year without mentioning any of the fantastic tracks? Truly befuddling.

"GREEN DAY!?!?!?!"

- I'm also probably in a minority in that I'm glad that Taylor Swift won Album of the Year for Fearless, even though it was probably a sympathy trophy. Still, in a perfect world, I would have given all of the nominees a trophy, since this was just such a fantastic category this year.

- Speaking of Album of the Year, the nominees went 4/5 in their respective genre album categories, which is exactly how I predicted it to go (though I had Kelly Clarkson upsetting the Black Eyed Peas rather than Green Day over DMB).

- I can't get behind the two songwriting wins (Song of the Year and R&B Song) for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," because I don't really think its a particularly well-written song. It's a great performance by Beyonce, but the writing is mediocre. In fact, out of the Song of the Year nominees, I would say it was the least well-written.

- Zac Brown Band won Best New Artist; tie that in with Taylor Swift's four Grammys and it was a big night for country music.

- Phoenix's breakout year was justly rewarded, though I still can't figure out why David Byrne and Depeche Mode were included here and Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear were left out.

- Just for the acceptance speech, I was rooting for "I'm On A Boat" to win Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Potentially the best rap satire ever.

- When Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 is eligible for next year's Grammys, he is going to clean. Up. Majorly.

- Was the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" video really that amazing? No. Coldplay had a much better (and much more creative) video, and I'm not just saying that because I'm an unabashed Coldplay fan and still thinks that Viva la Vida, one of my favorite albums of all time, got ripped off for Album of the Year last year.

What did you think? Was Lady Gaga more deserving than Taylor Swift? What would you have changed instead? Comments more than welcome.