While other managers are much too careful about toeing the line and "maintaining relationships" within the industry, we at The Shit applaud Arcade Fire manager Scott Rodger for defending the band's Grammy victory in light of recent cry-baby rants from the likes of "music executive" Steven Stoute and others.
First off, Stoute's hilariously dead-serious assertion that the Grammys are out of touch serves only to prove how out of touch he is, as anyone who didn't just fall to earth yesterday has known for years that the Grammys are at least a year behind. This is perhaps most attributable to the fact that their whole purpose is to celebrate the previous year in music! Admittedly, given that caveat, they're still ridiculously out of touch and always have been. Remember when Jethro Tull won Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal performance in 1989, or when Milli Vanilli won Best New Artist despite the fact they didn't even sing on their own record?
Sure, those are notable Grammy goofs, but they don't come as any surprise to anyone who has grown up watching the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences get it wrong year after year after year.
Of course, when the Arcade Fire won this year for Best Album, it came close to giving a lot of people hope that maybe we were seeing a changing of the guard and that the prefabricated pop and hip-hop acts that have dominated the industry for the past decade may be falling out of favor. Nothing seemed to confirm this more than when someone with close ties to those genres take umbrage with the Grammy folks' decision. By doing so, Steven Stoute outed himself as someone with bloated sense of entitlement, angry that the genre from which he makes his living did not walk away with its rightful share of Grammy statues.
I would not have blamed Arcade Fire manager Scott Rodger for taking the high road and steering clear of this nonsense altogether, but, like any good manager, he defended his act, saying via e-mail, "Arcade Fire had the final slot on the Grammys as the ratings are low at the end of the broadcast. It really is that simple. We were one of the least known acts on the bill for a network audience. Don't you think I wanted a better slot for the band?"
See, a logical explanation. Kinda makes the conspiracy theories being bandied about by the likes of Stoute seem kind of ridiculous, doesn't it?
Rodgers, of course, could have left it at that. After all, he'd merely stated the facts, thereby maintaining diplomacy and staying on the high road. But then he did the coolest thing we've seen a manager do in a long time, saying, "Arcade Fire deserved the win this year. They made the best album. If the award was names 'Album Sales Of The Year' award, there would be no discussion. Stoute's letter was nice piece of self publicity. Did he see Kanye's tweets when we won and the praise he gave us?? He needs to tune in. Eminem made a big selling album but it was far from being his best work. Katy Perry made a big pop record that simply didn't have weight or credibility. Gaga's repackage, great album but it was a repackage of the main release. I think everyone felt it was going to be Lady Antebellum's moment having won 5 out of 6 awards to that point. We all felt that way too."
Oh, snap! Way to take off the gloves Scott.