Arcade Fire manager thinks that guy who's pissed about the Grammys should cram it
Among the many reactions to Steve Stoute’s decrying of the general state of the Grammys—including, “Wha?” and “Who?” and “Uhhh, words, words, words, words…”—perhaps the most personally incensed has to be this response from Arcade Fire manager Scott Rodgers. Primarily addressing Stoute’s accusations that the Academy knew ahead of time that the band was going to win Album of the Year, and thus booked their dual performances as part of some sort of conspiracy, the rebuttal also seems targeted at what Rodgers obviously feels was an implicit argument that Arcade Fire should not have won, but that the honor should rather have gone to someone like Eminem.
Of course, Stoute never came right out and said that—although a lot of other people certainly did—but even if Rodgers seems to be extrapolating a personal attack out of a more general complaint, it’s hard to argue with his overall summation that Stoute’s letter was mostly a “nice piece of self publicity,” or that Recovery, for all its impressive sales figures, was really just okay. Let's be real now. Here are some of the key excerpts from Rodgers’ letter (with Blackberry typos intact):
Arcade Fire had the final slot on the Grammys as the ratings are low at the end of the broadcast. It really is that simple. We were one of the least known acts on the bill for a network audience. Don’t you think I wanted a better slot for the band?
The reason we got a second song was also simple. No big plot. We had no guarantee of air time, but it was simply to play out the end credits of the show, if we’re even had that much. The show never runs like clockwork to an exact time so the end is always loose. As it happened, the broadcast was covered by sponsors messages and the end credits.
For the Grammys international broadcast our main performance, along with that of Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers was completely cut from the show. Our end title performance was bastardised because they cut out ads/sponsor messages completely. It was a bit of a farce. You’d think we’d be given a little more after the fact.
Arcade Fire deserved the win this year. They made the best album. If the award was names "Album Sales Of The Year" award, there would be no discussion. Stoutes letter was nice piece of self publicity. Did he see Kanye’s tweets when we won and the praise he gave us?? He needs to tune in. Eminem made a big selling album but it was far from being his best work. Katy Perry made a big pop record that simply didn’t have weight or credibility. Gaga’s repackage, great album but it was a repackage of the main release. I think everyone felt it was going to be Lady Antebellum’s moment having won 5 out of 6 awards to that point. We all felt that way too.
Anyway, we know, we’re still talking about the Grammys. We’re probably going to stop doing that soon. [via Vulture]