Grammy 2011 Recap

Some pretty awesome things happened at tonight’s Grammy Awards. Though Pearl Jam didn’t win their second Grammy this year (they were beat out by Muse for Best Rock Album), here are a few highlights for me:

My Favorite 10 11 Singles of 2010

In this musical day and age, the single has once again become the most important item to further an artist’s career. It started off as the single, in the 60s when bands were forced by their record companies to put out a new single every few weeks. Then we moved to the golden age of the album, where bands were allowed the creativity and given the time to properly craft entire musical theses, instead of mere thoughts. Then we moved to the music video, and now, in the age of the internet, mixtapes, and iTunes downloads – the single is the most powerful musical item once again.

While I prefer albums, I must admit that as a blogger, singles are my bread and butter. Leaked albums are few and far between these days, so single releases or leaks are what I’m able to hear, share, and write about the most. And so, I present to you my favorite 10 11 singles of 2010:

Cee Lo Green – F*** You

The second album I ever purchased was “Smash” by Offspring. I remember taking the cassette out of the packaging, putting it in my Walkman (which apparently was just discontinued by Sony, but more on that later in the week), and pressing play.

The first track was pretty awesome, but what really struck me was the second track – Bad Habit. It wasn’t the song itself that floored me - musically it’s one of the worst on the album. It was the absurd use of obscenity. I wasn’t much older than ten years old, and this song immediately became an important educational tool for me, teaching me the one thing all ten-year-olds want to know how to do – how to curse.

I realize, that in this day and age, this knowledge is much easier to obtain for a ten-year-old; I didn’t have the internet or cable TV, and network shows were much tamer back them. I remember sitting there, in awe, listening to Dexter Holland spew out an angry string of curse words, and thinking – “I wonder what his mother thinks of him.” That’s right. At the ripe old age of ten, I was worried about Mr. Holland’s relationship with his mother, and wondered if she had any idea how filthy her son’s mouth was.

So whenever a song, featuring excessive expletives, comes out, I feel a pang of nostalgia for my youth (Note: w/r/t this, the Teenage Tunes post will be coming soon, as will an ode to Walkmans). Cee Lo Green, of Gnarls Barkely fame, has released such a track. You can check out the entire album on NPR, or listen to this track here.

Cee Lo Green – F*** You