More than just introducing the world to Arcade Fire against its will and then inducing it to release its collective rage on Esperanza Spalding, the Grammys provided overdue recognition to many under-the-radar artists whose contributions to pop culture would otherwise have gone unsung. Ha ha. No, but really, it worked out pretty great for Mumford And Sons, this year’s biggest beneficiaries of the “Grammy lift,” having nearly doubled sales of their Sigh No More album (landing it at No. 2 on the charts) despite losing in the two categories they were nominated in. Such is the strength of the implicit endorsement of Bob Dylan, we guess.
Of course, the winners did all right too: Album-of-the-year-honoree the Arcade Fire saw a 95-percent gain, although The Suburbs still only landed at No. 52 with 12,000 copies—most interested parties, obviously, having already picked it up long before the Grammys told them to. Other nominees and featured performers Eminem, Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum, and Muse also had “significant gains”—though Lady Gaga was the clear winner, selling 448,000 downloads of “Born This Way” after everybody saw that egg thing. Of course, when talking about “album sales,” we have to keep in mind that the No. 1 “album” in the country right now is Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 37, a compendium of omnipresent radio hits for people who “like music” but only in an abstract sense.