The award or the performance? The recognition or the spectacle? Those are perennial questions for the Grammy Awards,which will be bestowed for the 52nd time on Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. At a time when the music industry is suffering punishing sales losses,and technology has helped music become ubiquitous,is it more important to win the official approval of the Recording Academys 12,000 voting members,or simply to get the face time on television? I couldnt tell you who won song of the year four years ago, said Stephen Hill,president for entertainment programming and music specials for BET,but I remember that Jamie Foxx and Kanye West put on an incredible performance of Gold Digger. For the Grammys,these are not theoretical concerns. Its ratings have been slipping since the mid-1980s,and low viewership recently has affected the bottom line. Last year,the cost of a 30-second commercial during the show dropped below $500,000 for the first time in a decade,according to Nielsen. Last year,the Recording Academy added more live performances than ever,including U2 playing a brand-new song,Get On Your Boots,and a nine-months-pregnant M.I.A. rapping alongside Lil Wayne,Jay-Z,T.I. and West. Those helped goose the ratings to 19.05 million,about 11 per cent higher than in 2008. The stage will be just as busy this year. Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli will sing Simon and Garfunkels Bridge Over Troubled Water (an iTunes download will benefit Haiti relief efforts); Green Day will be joined by the cast of its musical-theater show,American Idiot; Jeff Beck will honor Les Paul; and Elton John,Lady Gaga,Taylor Swift,Beyoncé,Black Eyed Peas and Mr. Foxx will all be in there somewhere. And since two dimensions are simply not enough for the King of Pop,there will also be a 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson. While the awards are significant, Neil Portnow,president of the Recording Academy,said in a telephone interview this week,ultimately,its the amazing performances that are the trademark. For most artists,though,there is still a great value in peer recognition. That value can be directly measured in album sales in the weeks following the awards,and less directly in the long-term prestige (and increased booking rates) that can result when the words Grammy-winning artist become permanently appended to an acts name,said Scott Borchetta,the president of Big Machine Records. But Grammys broadcasts rely heavily on classic artists and memorials to departed stars. Ken Ehrlich,the veteran producer of the Grammys,had a long association with Jackson,and knew that he would be putting together some kind of tribute event for the award show.
