Customer Reviews

Broken Record: The Inside Story of the Grammy Awards

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Finally a book with the Grammy winners from the past years! I had wanted a book like this for ions. It is fun to read all the scoop and winners.

....were chosen. The early Grammy committee was VERY biased against "modern" (ESPECIALLY) Rock and Roll music. Even the country category was not exempt from this bias. Due to this attitude, many acts which became classics were (sometimes) openly snubbed while (most) winners were usually never heard from again. This became true in the "Best New Artist" category, which one former winner (Lead Singer of Men at Work) nicknamed "The Kiss of Death". Events such as these resulted in other music awards which reflected the music fans opinion began to proliferate, plus the perception of the Grammys becoming a farce to many.

For a simple yet through history of the Grammys, I highly reccomend this book.

When NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) sponsored (and controlled) the first Grammy Awards ceremony in 1957, the group was faced with a dilemma: Should they recognize rock n roll, the music that was burning up the charts...or honor what NARAS deemed "good" music, such as Sinatra and Doris Day? The teens may have been buying Elvis, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly like crazy, but darn it, the Grammys would show the world what was REALLY good!

BROKEN RECORD chronicles the injustices heaped upon rock, soul, jazz, and other popular forms of music from the 1950 through the early 1990's. Here are just a few of the Grammy's most embarrassing moments:

The entire Motown label received only ONE Grammy during the entire decade of the 60's. One!

The Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group in 1965 was won not by the Beatles, but by the Anita Kerr Group. Remember them? Didn't think so. (The Anita Kerr Group won again the next year, beating out the Beach Boys' `Good Vibrations.' Go figure.)

And who can forget what author Schipper calls "the ultimate Grammy fiasco," Milli Vanilli?

On the bright side, the book also celebrates some of the Grammy's better calls: Tina Turner's triple win in 1984 and Bonnie Raitt's 1989 victories, just to name a couple.

The actually text of the book is very short: 100 pages of Grammy history followed by 50 brief pages spotlighting several artists' Grammy moments. The entire second half of the book consists of a listing of all category winners (with the exception of the Lifetime Achievement Award).

Schipper has a tendency to repeat himself during the book's first hundred pages. I also noticed some inaccurate information, which I suppose can happen, but really should have been caught. My biggest complaint is the amount of space given to the list of winners - Half the book! Readers deserve a more comprehensive history of the Grammy Awards than a mere 100 pages which mostly cover pop. Very little attention is given to jazz, country, soul, classical, or other categories.

271 pages