By Aaron Calvin

The Grammys, once again, came to fill up a three block of regular program interruption on a dull Sunday in February. As in previous years, it came with a parade of popular acts and long-winded awards, but this year it held a few upsets.

Don’t worry, the Grammys are still just as irrelevant as they have always been. They’ve just managed to do a couple things this year that are different than the usual parade of predictability and disappointment.

Let’s start with the live acts. Generally, performing on the Grammys is a lot like performing on a late night talk show: you a have a limited amount of time to churn out a version of whatever your newest single is and, no matter how talented you are, it sounds fairly mediocre. The only difference with the Grammys is you have more props and sometimes back up dancers. This year proceeded in a similar fashion with familiar and lukewarm performances from Muse, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Justin Beiber, etc. If you saw Eminem and Rihanna at the VMA’s, there was no real reason to watch them Sunday night. The audience was also able to witness Lady Gaga reenact her birth using the same tube she was born in from the lab.

This year’s ceremony came with a few surprises, though. Mumford and Sons as well as the Avett Brothers performed their folk inflected music with refreshing gusto. Bruno Mars performed an interesting, crooner version of his hit “Grenade,” while Janelle Monae brought her interesting style and R&B redux to the stage.  Cee Lo Green performed a quality rendition, and sanitized version, of his hit single with Gwyneth Paltrow complete with a full band of Muppets. The lead man even transformed into a massive piano-playing peacock. Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger both came back to prove that they were still capable of breathing and walking, although they were both a little rough on the actual singing.

Sprinkled in between the performances, actual awards were given out. First, Muse won for best Rock Album. Miranda Lambert, though nominated in several categories, won only for Best Female Country Vocals. Lady Gaga managed to compose herself long enough to accept the Best Pop Vocals award. Eminem put on his serious face to collect Best Rap Album. Lady Antebellum cleaned up, collecting awards for Best Country Album, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year (further confusing the viewer on what the actual difference between song and record are). The trio remembered to give special thanks to both God and Country Music Radio for their achievement.

There were a couple of awards that people actually paid attention to. Taking the Best New Artist award was Esperenza Spalding. While this humbly surprised her, the Bieber Legion struck back with furious and often racist comments all over the Internet. Kanye West also alerted us all via his twitter account that he was upset as well.  However, the most monumental upset came with Arcade Fire winning Album of the Year for “The Suburbs.”

Public response was immediately and divisively split. Fans of the band and music of a similar nature, applauded the Grammy committee for their choice in picking a band that created an album that contains substance, though some would argue too much substance. Those who did not like the band or, more likely, had never heard of them, quickly took to the greatest tool for the airing of public grievances since the advent of the printing press: the Internet. There was even the overnight creation of a “whoisarcadefire” blog, pulling together all of the tweets and comments expressing anger or confusion over the band’s win.

The ramifications Arcade Fire’s win are worth consideration. It seems rare and sudden that a band with fewer sales and less presence than the other nominations would win. Though fairly worthless, the Grammys are generally an accurate gauge for popular culture. Potentially, bands like Arcade Fire that represent the “indie” ethos could become more commercially viable. But does this mean that the Grammys are starting to recognize the difference between sales and substance, commercial viability in quality? Probably not.