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'Stranger Things' compilation earns Grammy nomination for Netflix
The 61st Grammy Award nominations were revealed Friday morning and Netflix shows and documentaries were among the nominees once again. Stranger Things picked up a nod for the second season's compilation soundtrack, while a documentary about legendary music producer Quincy Jones called Quincy (which was co-directed by his daughter Rashida) landed a Best Music Film nomination.
Chance the Rapper wins the first Grammy for a streaming-only album
This year is the first time streaming-only albums were eligible to win at the Grammys and Chance the Rapper took full advantage. The hip hop artist won for Best Rap Album Sunday night, notching the first win for a collection of songs that weren't released as a physical album or sold digitally. Back in May, Coloring Book was the first streaming-only album to hit the Billboard 200 chart. Chance also took home Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance for the song "No Problem."
Inside Lady Gaga's high-tech Grammy performance
When Lady Gaga started singing "Space Oddity" at the Grammys on Monday night, virtual drops of red paint dripped down her face to form a lightning bolt. The image -- a meticulously planned facial projection -- instantly evoked David Bowie's face on the cover of Aladdin Sane. For the six-minute tribute to the legend who passed away a little over a month ago, Gaga employed an assortment of cutting-edge tools to create a kaleidoscopic visual treat.
Daily Update for February 13, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Steve Jobs wins posthumous Grammy, Eddy Cue accepts
We found out that Steve Jobs had been awarded a special posthumous Grammy award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in December of 2011, but it wasn't until last night during the televised ceremony that the award was actually presented. Apple senior VP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue accepted the award on behalf of the Jobs family, and gave a heartfelt acceptance speech (see video below). The Grammy Trustees Award is given every year to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording." In the past, Walt Disney and Dick Clark have been honored recipients of the award. This wasn't the first Grammy awarded to Jobs -- in 2002, Apple won a technical Grammy award. Other recipients of the 2012 Special Merit Awards included New Orleans band leader and arranger Dave Bartholomew and Rudy Van Gelder, an American recording engineer who specializes in capturing the nuances of jazz.
Four Grammy Awards renamed to include 'video games music,' underline its growing importance
Video games have never had a problem sitting alongside movie DVDs and music CDs (back when such things were distributed physically) in stores, so it's frankly overdue to see them pop up in a mainstream awards show like the Grammys. The US Recording Academy has finally deigned to address video games and their aural landscapes as a separate class of entertainment, and has now amended four of its awards to spell that out. What was formerly known as "Motion, Television, or Other Visual Media" is now reclassified as "Motion, Television, Video Games Music, or Other Visual Media," leading to there now being four awards that explicitly recognize excellence in video game music scores. Guess that was inevitable after Christopher Tin's Baba Yetu won a Grammy this February, ostensibly because of its inclusion as one of the marquee songs on Civilization 4, but in a category entirely unrelated to gaming. Skip past the break to hear it for yourself, along with a couple of other favorites of ours.
Harman AKG teams up with Quincy Jones on Signature Line of headphones
Gone is the day when headphones could be respectable without some kind of corporate tie-in or Lady Gaga endorsement. Alas, even Harman's revered AKG division has roped in the venerable Quincy Jones for its new (wait for it) Quincy Jones Signature Line. We're talking three models here, ready for launch in October and ranging from the Q 701 "reference class" over-the-ear cans (pictured), the Q 460 lightweight headphones, and Q 350 buds. The Q 701 features ergonomically-shaped cushions of velvet, an "unbeatable" linear frequency response covering 10Hz to 39.8kHz, a 45-mm high excursion driver, and detachable 99-percent oxygen-free cables. The portable $229.99 Q 460 on-ear headphones feature a 3D-axis folding system and an iPhone compatible in-line remote with microphone and play, pause, and skip functions. The in-ear Q 350 also bring iPhone compatible and target the "audiophile on the go" with $149.99 to burn. Seems fitting for a man with 79 Grammy nominations (and 27 awards) to benefit from his name. And you can feel better about him selling out knowing that an undisclosed sum from every pair of headphones sold goes towards the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium -- a foundation dediqated to eduqating Ameriqan kids about musiq. Ironic, because the Grammys might actually be relevant if American music corporations knew anything about good music.%Gallery-101028%
Stephen Colbert and his iPad at the Grammys
It must be nice to be the host of your own popular Comedy Central show and a host on the Grammy Awards. Why? You get to play with an iPad. No, it's not one of Tim Meehan's faux iPads - this was a working unit that flipped from portrait to landscape mode when Stephen Colbert pulled it out of his jacket... or pants. Enjoy this short piece of video from tonight's Grammy Award ceremonies.
Grammy winners on the iTunes store
The music industry got together last night to give itself a big old pat on the back. That's right, the Grammy Awards telecast aired yesterday and all the big stars in the music universe were there. The only part I watched was the Police's performance, but if you are interested in owning some of the Grammy winning music head on over to this iTunes page. Apple lists some of the winners (and nominees), which makes it as easy as pie to buy that Grammy award winning track.
