Welcome to the second part of our look at the 2001 Grammy Awards, and who Lycos users would choose in each category. Friday we took a look at pop, rock, and country. Today, we'll take a look at rap, R&B, and the major cross-genre awards.
Don't forget that you can check out music videos, downloads, and pictures from these artists at Lycos Music, or buy the albums from our friends at CDNOW.
Top Rap Artists:
Based on Lycos users, rap Grammies go to Eminem for basically everything. He's up for all three rap awards -- solo, album, and duo or group (with Dr. Dre. Whether or not he wins, however, is based on a lot more than his music, as you will note below.
Top R&B Artists:
Based on Lycos users, the R&B Grammy for Female Vocal is a neck-and-neck battle between Aaliyah and Toni Braxton, with newcomer Jill Scott right behind. R&B Album goes to one-hit wonder Sisqo, Male Vocal to R. Kelly, and Group Vocal to Destiny's Child.
Speaking of Jill Scott and Sisqo, here are all five nominees for Best New Artist, and how many searches they received last week compared to each other:
Papa Roach (44.1%)
Sisqo (36.5%)
Jill Scott (16.4%)
Shelby Lynne (1.6%)
Brad Paisley (1.5%)
Lycos users choose rap-metal band Papa Roach for Best New Artist, but given how popular Sisqo was earlier in the year (he made the Lycos 50 for 12 weeks beginning in March) we would expect him to take the award. That would be keeping in the tradition of novelty acts who won Best New Artist, like Milli Vanilli and Culture Club.
Here are the nominees for Record of the Year:
'N Sync (35.3%) for "Bye Bye Bye"
Madonna (27.9%) for "Music"
U2 (22.2%) for "Beautiful Day"
Destiny's Child (13.8%) for "Say My Name"
Macy Gray (0.8%) for "I Try"
Not much of a surprise: Lycos users choose 'N Sync for Record of the Year. Macy Gray, wasn't that last year? Apparently Lycos users think so.
Finally, the strangest, least-predictable award of the night, Album of the Year:
Eminem (80.5%) for The Marshall Mathers EP
Radiohead (13.8%) for Kid A
Paul Simon (2.5%) for You're The One
Beck (1.9%) for Midnite Vultures
Steely Dan (1.3%) for Two Against Nature
Well, Lycos users seem pretty clear about their choice for album of the year. The problem, of course, is that the same thing that makes Eminem popular online is the thing that endangers his winning any Grammies: controversy.
The massive search advantage Eminem holds over other Album of the Year nominees is indicative of the out-of-nowhere nature of these nominations. Beck's popularity has dropped significantly since the days of Odelay, and Paul Simon and Steely Dan are examples of the old fogeyism which the Grammies are trying to escape by nominating people like Eminem. Only Radiohead shows any online popularity, and Kid A was a major critical success and a top-selling album for one week.
So who wins? Will it be the Lycos choice, the controversial Eminem, or the critics choice, the inscrutable Radiohead? Perhaps it will be the safe choice, Paul Simon, who made a quality, non-threatening album that most people can enjoy. Tune in February 21 and find out, then come back to Lycos for all the winners and information you need afterwards.
Meanwhile, the Lycos 50 would like to take this opportunity to welcome all of those who learned about us thanks to today's article in the New York Times. We hope you will make us a regular part of your daily web surfing to learn the latest about what's hot online now, and what's going to be hot online in the future.
Please join us again tomorrow when we unveil this week's newest Lycos 50 list. How high will Survivor debut? Then on Wednesday we take a look at which companies and movies saw searches grow after debuting Super Bowl ads.
