Lady Gaga and Silky Sonic follow the Grammy formula: old, but new

There’s no surer way for a young musician to gain a quick coat of oomph than by appearing at the Grammy Awards. And there’s no surer way for a young musician to speed his way to the Grammy Awards than to look really old.

This is the hen-egg mystery that spoils the awards, as well as the pop music industry, co-existing in an uneasy alliance, looking flawed to one another while unobtrusively holding hands. At the Grammys, maturity is rewarded, and often claimed, which puts it in direct contrast to the music company that continues to value youth.

In the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, which took place in Las Vegas on Sunday night, these tensions have manifested in myriad ways. Take, for example, Justin Bieber, who kicked off his glimmering “Peach” performance sitting at the piano, singing earnestly and pulpically. For Bieber, 28, not generally seen as a musician, it was a pointed stunt, or perhaps a plea.

Bruno Mars and Anderson Buck – who played Silk Sonic – won both Song And he scored the year for Leave The Door Open, a wonderful slice of ’70s-style soul. On the show, they nailed last year’s aesthetic as well, from suits to hairstyles to mannerisms. Both men, who are accomplished promoters of retro vocal ideology, are both 36 years old.

John Baptiste, the New Orleans jazz scion and late night bandleader who won Album of the Year, gave a show that channeled second-line funk, classic soul, and the weakest touch to hip-hop. He is 35 years old.

These are the kinds of shows, and performers, that the Grammys yearn for: appearing young but with the goal of embodying the old values ​​of music. Because telecasts for the Grammys attract generations of viewers, and because Grammy voters are drawn from a wide range of seniors, what appears on the show, and at the awards themselves, is a kind of miserable compromise that prevents real innovation. The artists nominated in the top categories were refreshingly democratic, both in terms of genre and age, but Batiste and Silky Sonic outperformed them all.

This means that the only person left for Olivia Rodrigo, the favorite to win all fours, is Best New Artist, which she did. Rodrygo was the obvious breakout star of the past year, and the main position she got on broadcast television, with one of the first shows, suggested the Grammys understood her power. It was a jolt of unpolished youth, performance “driver’s license” With a light grunge water, she later thanked her parents upon accepting the award for Best Musical Album for the song “Sour.”

But that was kind of a fake, as was most of the show’s opening performances, which also featured early Grammy fave Billie Eilish, K-pop group BTS, Reggaeton star J Balvin and Lil Nas X, whose combination of disappointment and a little wit during A mix of the latest hits. The only other moment the show came close to a moment of honest freshness was when Doja Cat raced onto the stage to accept her award for Best Duo/Group Performance after leaving the room to take a bath. She and co-winner SZA laughed at the snafu, and Doja spoke in the unfiltered way she was famous, which felt refreshing in this context: “I like to downplay a lot of [expletive]But that’s a big problem.”

As for many other young stars, they refused to appear – Tyler, the creator, who won the award for best rap album; Drake, from out of mind in the categories in which he was nominated; The Weeknd, who after the disaster of not being nominated last year He stated that he will never perform his music again for consideration by the Grammys; Cardi B, nominated once only. (Taylor Swift also didn’t attend, but that absence was not so much a protest as an admission that she’s unlikely to win any titles this year.)

This no-show lineup could fuel an alternative award show, or a concert (as hip-hop mogul J. Prince suggested). And herein lies the Grammy’s Achilles heel: he needs artists like these, both for reasons of subject matter and also as payers of tribute. As hip-hop has become the dominant sound of pop music, its stars are going to be the older folks of tomorrow. If the Grammys continue to alienate the Young Titans, their attempts to honor music moving forward will consistently fail. (This was underlined by the oldest featured artist on this year’s show: Nas, 48, who has spent half of his ensemble performing 20-year-old songs long-deserving of the Grammys stage.)

This chasm—between Grammys and youth, between Grammys and hip-hop—means the show has to multiply with younger stars willing (and excited?) to be in dialogue with the voices of yesteryear. Some of the strikingly mature songs of Rachel Ziegler were singing Sondheim as part of In the memory part. One of the show’s most exciting moments came from R&B singer-songwriter HER, who may have been over-characterized with award winnings in recent years. Her performance, along with Lenny Kravitz, Travis Parker, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, connected her with three generations of funk and rock music.

Then there’s Lady Gaga, a former pop musician who has become the embodiment of the institutional legacy through her ongoing work with singer Tony Bennett. Their latest album, “Love for Sale,” took home top traditional vocals, and Gaga honored Bennett, the 95th—who didn’t turn up—sang two of the album’s singles, which originated in the 1930s. Her vocals were sharp and invested, making the case for old standards on the contemporary pop stage, an embodiment of the Grammys’ goals across generations.

It was easy to lose sight of the fact that Lady Gaga is only 36 years old. Looking at the next generation of pop talents – Eilish, Rodrigo, Doga Cat, Tyler, the Creator and beyond – it’s hard not to wonder how long it would take them to be allowed to be young before the Grammys insisted they were grown up.