In the MIX by John Kreicbergs
January 22, 2002

 Welcome to the waning days of the post-holiday afterglow, where amateur and professional pundits are asked to rack their collective noggins in a vain attempt to distill the best musical moments of the previous year.

 Let me tell you, it's a very serious and scientific business, ascertained through the use of many baffling and ingenious devices designed to remove the hipness factor of any given release with surgical precision and compare it against the field for signs of innovation. Considering that innovation in popular music is about as common these days as someone who actually keeps their New Year's resolutions, "innovation" has been not so secretly replaced with "commercial viability." And like a good instant coffee commercial, no one seems to notice…or care. Need proof? Britney Spears has spent more time on the cover of Rolling Stone this past year than almost any other artist and was selected as one of the magazine's "People of the Year." Enough said, right?

 Inevitably, after the lists come the award show nominations and this year's Grammy field is about eclectic as they have ever been, which leads me to think that somehow the critics didn't mess everything up this year.

 In the Album of the Year category alone - populated by stalwarts U2 and Bob Dylan (for All That You Can't Leave Behind and Love and Theft respectively), the dark horse duo of Outkast (Stankonia) and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack, and newcomer India.Arie - we can find enough diversity to populate the vinyl-lined booths of a downtown all-night diner with a respectably odd cast of characters. Album of the Year is always an odd struggle to illustrate the "now" of popular music, though in the past few years the awards handed out have been more perfunctory career tributes. 

 This year, no such gestures are necessary: U2 took home the honor in 1987 for The Joshua Tree while Dylan did it ten years later in 1997 with Time Out of Mind. While the soundtrack for O Brother is more of a recognition of the genre (and those artists like Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss who continue to imbue it with a sense of modern relevancy), the chance of it being handed the honors is slim, leaving India.Arie and Outkast a clean shot at taking the Grammy home. Watch out, though; U2 took home the Record of the Year honors for their single "Beautiful Day" at last year's awards even though the album was not released in time for full consideration.

 Where Album of the Year theoretically represents the "now" of the music industry, Best New Artist should signify it's future. Populated this year by soul chanteuse India.Arie, trip-hop pixie Nelly Furtado, Welsh singer/songwriter David Gray, R&B prodigy Alicia Keys and the metallic thrashers Linkin Park, the award for Best New Artist could have been best decided by a well-tossed dart. However after the incredible amount of press given to Alicia Keys' debut Songs in A Minor (most of it arguably well deserved, too), the category belongs to her.

 But before Keys starts banking on her next big career move, remember this: for every Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole and Lauryn Hill there are plenty of Hooties, Mariahs and Milli Vanillis to show that the award is a mixed blessing. (Alright, technically Milli Vanilli was stripped of their Grammy after the discovery of that whole "they didn't sing a note" debacle, but the gut instinct of the Recording Academy should be noted for the sake of posterity.) Here's something else to think about: where the hell is Crow, Cole and Hill lately anyway?

 With the pressure and attention all the big time lists and awards carry with them, sometimes the real winners are the ones who slip through unnoticed, unscathed and go home empty-handed.