Grammy Awards

The winners of the 51st Grammy Awards have been announced, and Daft Punk & Justice are among the winners:

• Best Dance Recording: “Harder Better Faster Stronger,” Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, producers; Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, mixers; track from “Alive 2007″ (Virgin Records)
• Best Electronic Dance Album: “Alive 2007,” Daft Punk (Virgin Records)
• Best Remixed Recording: “Electric Feel (Justice Remix),” Justice, remixers (MGMT), Track from: “Oracular Spectacular” (Columbia)

More winners listed below. Read more…

This week, the Grammy Awards nominations were announced - and, for the first time, a Creative Commons-licensed track and album are on the list.  Nine Inch Nails’ 34 Ghosts IV is nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, while the album that track appears on, Ghosts I-IV, is up for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package.

Creative Commons licenses are designed to protect your rights to your music, while allowing people copy and share it. 

Creative Commons’ Eric Steuer notes:

This year, NIN released both Ghosts I-IV and a second album, The Slip, under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Both albums were downloaded for free and shared legally millions of times by fans under the terms of this license. At the same time, NIN found great financial success in selling cool, well-crafted, limited edition physical editions of both sets. Back in March, Wiredsaid the band made $1.6 million on Ghosts I-IV in its first week of release alone.

Additionally, Radiohead’s song “House of Cards” is up for several Grammys, including Best Short Form Music Video. The video’s animation data was released under a CC BY-NC-SA license earlier this year (see previous post).

Congratulations to Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead for the nominations. Also, congratulations to all of the other artists whose work was nominated for Grammys this year, including Brian Eno, Diplo, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo (AKA Gnarls Barkley), My Morning Jacket, Gilberto Gil, Peter Gabriel, Thievery Corporation, and Cornelius – all of whom have used Creative Commons licenses and/or have supported CC over the years.

Musicians like NIN are using Creative Commons licensing, and giving away their music, to actually gain more control of their careers.

It remains to be seen whether unknown artists will be able to create new careers at the scale of groups like Nine Inch Nails, though.

The Grammy Awards has announced their nominations for the 2008 Grammy Awards in the Dance and Electronica categories.

There are a few howlers in the nominations – let me know what you think of the nominees in the comments!

Best Dance Recording
(For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances. Vocal or Instrumental. Singles or tracks only.)

Harder Better Faster Stronger
Daft Punk
Thomas Bangalter & Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, producers; Thomas Bangalter & Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, mixers
Track from: Alive 2007
[Virgin Records]

Ready For The Floor
Hot Chip
Hot Chip, producers; Dan Carey, mixer
Track from: Made In The Dark
[Astralwerks/DFA]

Just Dance
Lady Gaga & Colby O’Donis
RedOne, producer; Robert Orton, mixer
[Streamline/Interscope/Kon Live]

Give It 2 Me
Madonna
Madonna & The Neptunes, producers; Andrew Coleman & Spike Stent, mixers
Track from: Hard Candy
[Warner Bros.]

Disturbia
Rihanna
Brian Kennedy, producer; Phil Tan, mixer
Track from: Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded
[Def Jam]

Black & Gold
Sam Sparro
Jesse Rogg & Sam Sparro, producers; Jeremy Wheatley, mixer
Track from: Sam Sparro
[Universal Republic Records]

Best Electronic/Dance Album
(For vocal or instrumental albums. Albums only.)

New York City
Brazilian Girls
[Verve Forecast]

Alive 2007
Daft Punk
[Virgin Records]

Bring Ya To The Brink
Cyndi Lauper
[Epic]

X
Kylie Minogue
[Capitol/Astralwerks]

Last Night
Moby
[Mute]

Robyn
Robyn
[Konichiwa/Cherrytree/Interscope]

Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical
(A Remixer’s Award. (Artists names appear in parentheses for identification.) Singles or Tracks only.)

Closer (StoneBridge Radio Edit)
StoneBridge, remixer (Ne-Yo)
[Def Jam]

Electric Feel (Justice Remix)
Justice, remixers (MGMT)
Track from: Oracular Spectacular
[Columbia]

4 Minutes (Junkie XL Remix)
Junkie XL, remixer (Madonna Featuring Justin Timberlake)
[Warner Bros.]

Just Fine (Moto Blanco Remix)
Moto Blanco, remixers (Mary J. Blige)
Track from: Growing Pains
[Geffen]

The Longest Road (Deadmau5 Remix)
Deadmau5, remixer (Morgan Page Featuring Lissie)
Track from: Elevate
[Nettwerk]

Full nominee list here.

While the Chemical Brothers got the Grammy for the Best Electronic/Dance Record of t2007, Justin Timberlake got the prize for Best Dance Recording, with LoveStoned.

Other nominees included:

• Do It Again – The Chemical Brothers
• D.A.N.C.E. – Justice
• Love Today – Mika
• Don’t Stop the Music – Rihanna

The Chemical Brothers was robbed…….

At the 2008 Grammy Awards, the Chemical Brothers scored a win for the Best Electronic/Dance Album of the year for We Are The Night.

Other nominees were:

• D.A.N.C.E. – Justice
• Sound Of Silver – LCD Soundsystem
• We Are Pilots – Shiny Toy Guns
• Elements Of Life – Tiësto

When I reviewed We Are The Night, we said “If you’re into big beats and classic analog synth grooves, The Chemical Brothers deliver with We Are The Night. It’s a quirky album that manages to be sonically experimental within a dance-friendly rhythmic framework.”

If you haven’t heard the album, you can get a taste of it from the video for the Chemical Brothers’ Do It Again. You can also remix the Chemical Brother’s track Salmon Dance.

Not sure about you, but the Salmon Dance isn’t sounding so fresh to me anymore.

Previous Grammy Award Winners for Best Electronic/Dance Album are:

• 2007 – Madonna for Confessions on a Dance Floor
• 2006 – The Chemical Brothers for Push the Button
• 2005 – Basement Jaxx (producer & artist) for Kish Kash