Sunday nights 59th annual Grammy awards were blessed with a performance by Metallica. Lady Gaga joined in on the fun and sang half the lyrics with the band. I’ll get to my opinion about the collaboration in a second. But for now let’s talk about the objective obvious. The mic tech is absolutely inexcusable. Did they play through it? Yes. That was the right thing to do. Major Kudos to Lady Gaga for mic sharing. They made it work. Instead of bitching about it to the audience. However it just felt so sour. As if metal can’t be a part of mainstream culture without feeling somewhat snubbed. Heavy music has made incredible progress in the past decade. It’s come back from almost complete mainstream obscurity. And this Grammy performance was kind of a way of saying ‘Hey, heavy music is quality, important and enjoyable’ to the widest audience in many many years and what happens? The fucking microphone doesn’t fucking work. It just seems very macabre. Like the board of directors who run the charts and awards really don’t want metal to be a part of it. And when it is a part of it it’s because they can’t avoid it due to popularity. For fuck’s sake, ‘Hardwired…To Self Destruct’ came out in November and was the second highest selling album of 2016. Those sales can’t be ignored. So Metallica has to be included in the Grammy’s somehow. But seemingly not without some sort of grudge. Hetfield was clearly very upset after the performance of ‘Moth Into Flame’. Kicking over his microphone stand after the song and throwing, not tossing, his guitar to a stage hand. Lars Ulrich confirmed Hetfield’s anger on the Late Show with James Cordon. Saying ‘I haven’t seen him like that in a long long time’. Those feelings are just.
As for the collaboration part of the performance. I honestly think that people need to cool their jets. Once again, with Metallica, there are cries of selling out. I hope those people understand how important heavy metal is to Lady Gaga. She loves it and it shows. Her passion was clear, her voice soared and she looked pretty freaking sexy. Heavy metal can be very sexy and she reminded everyone of that. Lady Gaga is also a major voice on the importance of heavy music. She promotes it all the time. When she’s seen wearing a metal t-shirt it’s not because of the fashion trend. It’s because she genuinely likes the band. In fact, I’m pretty she started the whole thing. Now all of the top 40 pop acts are doing it. Including Kanye wearing a Testament shirt recently. I doubt he’s ever listened to them. So the idea of her playing with Metallica is brilliant and it payed off. Lars Ulrich has made statements since saying they will collaborate again. I’d love to see Lady Gaga do more metal.
Great collaboration. Awful tech.
