Lead Mumford Marcus Mumford seemed to be enjoying himself more alongside Mavis Staples, Zac Brown and others in a lovely tribute to the late Levon Helm. It followed the traditional “In Memoriam” segment, which included an image of Washington’s own “Godfather of Go-Go,” Chuck Brown, who died last May.
District rapper Wale’s first Grammy nod didn’t end with a win — his “Lotus Flower Bomb” lost best rap song to Jay-Z and Kanye West — but a few locals made it to the winner’s circle. “Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection,” a boxed set released on the Smithsonian Folkways label, won best boxed or special limited edition package. And TobyMac, the Fairfax native who got his start in the Christian rap group DC Talk, won for best contemporary Christian music album for his sixth solo studio effort, “Eye On It.” He wasn’t in Los Angeles to accept his award, though.
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Fun., Gotye and Mumford and Sons were amongst the winners at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles which featured performances from Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, and Bruno Mars.
After trimming 31 categories last year, the Grammys added three this year: best classical compendium, best Latin jazz album and best urban contemporary album, bringing the total up to 81.
That made for plenty of artists to root for, along with some very big hits, including the three top-selling and seemingly omnipresent singles of 2012: “Somebody That I Used to Know,” (winner of record of the year); fun.’s “We Are Young” (winner of song of the year); and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” (snubbed!).
And that reflects how music is selling these days. In 2012, overall music transactions reached a record high at 1.65 billion, but fans are buying music in smaller, cheaper portions. The sale of digital tracks continued to climb, but album sales — the most lucrative way for the record biz to make money — slumped last year, dipping 4 percent, to 316 million.
2012’s best-selling album? Adele’s “21,” which, in addition to winning album of the year at last year’s Grammys, is the first album to be a back-to-back annual bestseller since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991.
Adele’s coronation during last year’s Grammy telecast helped boost TV ratings from 26.7 million to nearly 40 million, but most of that spike was attributed to the death of Whitney Houston, who passed away the night before.
So when Adele won the first award of Sunday night’s Grammy telecast — best pop solo performance for a live version of “Set Fire to the Rain” — it all felt a bit deja vu-ish. She hustled to the podium, quickly said her thank-yous, wished the audience “a wonderful night,” then disappeared to let the future unfold.
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