WTF?...Spamalot grabs Grammy... — Page 2

If you enjoy the cast recording of Spamalot you have a lame and childish sense of humor and no ear for good music.

Ah, yes. Directing personal insults at perfect strangers is an effective way to make them see your point of view. Thank you so much for pointing out the error of my ways.

Go out and buy the cast recordings of the shows they are making fun of/ripping off (including any Forbidden Broadway CD).

Since you phrased it so nicely...no.

Excuse me while I go bleed a little.

Go right ahead. Take all the time you need.

Sorry...it was a long day, I'm a bit cranky, and that note just hit me wrong.

Well, on a happier note, two very deserving films won in film categories.
"Ray" won for film soundtrack and
"The Incredibles" won for orchestral arangement or something like that.

Eric Idle, don't come back...ever!

Do you people not remember how Wicked won over Assassins last year? In what universe is that even possible?!

It's all about sales my friends. All about sales and name recognition.

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>> I believe a huge percentage of the reason a cast album wins is due to sales. It sold an incredible amount.

Sales have nothing to do with it. I am a voting member of the recording academy and here is how it works:

EVERYONE gets to vote in the "major" category - that is record of the year, song of the year, best new artist, etc...

Then, there are about 35-40 "categories" and each category has anywhere from 1-5 awards sub-classification.

Each voting member gets to vote in up to 5 "categories" -- and you are reminded to only vote for what you know.

For example, in the "Country" category, there were many awards - maybe 8 -- but I didn't vote in the country category, because it's not my circle of expertise.

Considering most of the voting members of the academy couldn't care less about Broadway or theatrical recordings, I will guess very few ballots are even counted in this category. Most of the members of the academy are record industry people -- producers and engineers and record execs. There are some artists, but mostly, it's industry people. To become a voting member of the recording academy, you must have a body of work and you must be able to prove it.

Unlike the Tony awards, which is really a marketing tool owned by the producers, the recording academy (Grammy awards) are very much an insiders party. The voting is very serious business and because we can only vote in 5 categories, we have to pick our votes wisely... and not blow it on a category we don't care about.

I can pretty much guarantee that sales have nothing to do with a theatrical recording win or loss... nor does the quality of a show or its stars. We're talking about recordings, and sometimes good shows make mediocre recordings and vice versa.

One of my records was nominated a few years ago, and it wasn't a great recording (not my fault - most cast records can't compete with a studio recording), but the show was extremely popular and the CD outsold every other show of that season by a factor of 10... but we didn't win, because our recording wasn't the best of that year. The voters aren't deaf. Thankfully.

Hopefully, I'll have another nomination eventually, and hopefully, my peers will judge it based on quality, not sales or the underlying show's popularity.

Updated On: 2/8/06 at 09:26 PM

I totally agree, this whole think is just getting ridiculous.

I am SO over this show.

How stupid.

When I'm angry, I become relatively inarticulate...

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My anger-ridden blog entry about this:

How could Spamalot beat Light in the Piazza for Best Musical Show Album. What the hell? I like Spamalot and all, but Light in the Piazza is probably the most beautiful music in my CD collection right now. Adam Guettel is probably the best new composer to come around in awhile. I mean, he's Richard Roger's grandson for christsakes! I would've put Spamalot on my LEAST likely to win that award. I mean it was against Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spelling Bee and Hair in addition to that, and all of those are far superior scores. I own all of them and listen to them all except Spamalot. Spamalot has a tendency to grate on my nerves. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is fun and has Norbert ('nuff said), Spelling Bee has some FANTASTIC songs (The I Love You Song... one of the most beautiful songs), Hair is a fabulous recording with some of the best singers/actors working on Broadway today and Light in the Piazza is a stunning, beautiful score with the most amazing performances by Victoria Clark, Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Morrison. Listen to "Love to Me" or "Fable" and then compare it to ANY song on the Spamalot recording. There is no comparison. How does Spamalot beat it for the Grammy AND Tony. Unfreakin'believable.


Very annoyed by this.

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I enjoyed the spamalot cast album and DRS and Spelling Bee. Overall, i feel that Spamalot is the most interesting to listen to. DRS just ticks me off everytime I get to John's disclaimer-it was funny the first time, but then it gets old. Spelling Bee is great but all of the different goodbyes are kind of dull when listening to the cd. I had no interest in seeing Piazza so I can't really say much about the recording. I think Spamalot is the recording that I enjoy the most without skipping over songs.

Just out of curiousity, have you seen all of the other shows? I can't make a judgement about Piazza since i haven't seen it. I don't quite understand why people seem to hate Spamalot

I think that the general public likes to be entertained. Most people don't want to go to a show, at least a musical, and see real life. One of the reasons I do not want to see Piazza is the fact that it is based in the real world. It seems boring to me. I know my opinion is not everyone's so I try and find out people's reasonings behind why they like and hate shows. I liked Spamalot because it is lively and contains a variety of styles of music within the show. The lyrics are also funny and interesting.

Believe me I know ;>) I really like to try and understand why if I can. The only show I have ever hated was footloose

jv92, get a grip. Please.

And yes, I'm 'brave enough' to admit that I'm pleased Spamalot won. Hey, I'm proud as hell lol

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