Disturbed Frontman Questioned Grammys Definition Of Rock 2016 In Review
01/06/2017 .
(Classic Rock) Disturbed's David Draiman made big news in December when he questioned why his band and pop star Beyonce have been nominated in the same Grammy category.
It was announced that Disturbed's cover of The Sound Of Silence on the Conan show would go up against Beyonce and Jack White's Don't Hurt Yourself in the Best Rock Performance category at next year's Grammys.
And Draiman has questioned the ceremony's definition of rock music and says the fact that both feature in the same shortlist means that "something has gone wrong."
He tells Billboard: "I have mad respect for all the artists in this category, including and especially Jack White. Is it strange to be up against Beyonce? It definitely stands out - like, one of these things is not like the other. But what are you going to do?
"What bothers me is that everybody in this category are giants of the field. These are the biggest of the big - the people who made a serious impact this year. Those boys in Twenty One Pilots did some damage this year. And Bowie, a posthumous award happens all the time, and who more deserving? It's crazy the amount of talent in this category."
The vocalist adds: "When did it all become 'rock'? If you look at every other genre, there are so many categories and sub-categories. For rock, this is all we've got, so everything ends up being jammed into these four categories." Read more here.
Disturbed Frontman David Draiman Breaks Silence On Grammy Nomination With Beyoncé
09DEC
So much for the Sound of Silence! Disturbed frontman, David Draiman was sought out for his comments on a recent event that confused not only his beloved “rock” community, but even the random public at large. It had to do with the recent announcement for the nominees to the Grammy Awards 2017. As everyone was busy applauding the achievers who found themselves on the list, people began to notice an anomaly that was actually kind of silly – Beyoncé and hardcore band, Disturbed were nominated under the same category – Best Rock Performance.
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“Sound of Silence” – Disturbed
“Don’t Hurt Yourself” – Beyoncé feat. Jack White
What the hell former The White Stripes member, Jack White was doing in a duet with Beyoncé is another story altogether. In fact, Bey had even tried to get nominated for the Country Grammys for her song Daddy Lessons along with the Dixie Chicks, but was declined by their judges. It seems that R&B is not enough for the Formation singer, and when it comes to rock, she got in because apparently even the Vice-President of the Grammys doesn’t know exactly how to categorize “rock” (we will talk about that later).
Anyway, David Draiman, frontman of Disturbed, was asked about sharing the Best Rock Performance category with Beyoncé. His response:
“I have mad respect for all the artists in this category, including and especially Jack White. Is it strange? I think the reason you asked the question is because it is. it definitely stands out – like, one of these things is not like the other, you know? But what are you going to do?”
“When did it all become ‘rock’? If you look at every other genre, there are so many categories and sub-categories. For rock, this is all we’ve got, so everything ends up being jammed into these four categories. Is it diverse? Absolutely. It’s too diverse! When you can have, with all due respect, a Beyoncé and a Disturbed in the same category, something has gone wrong. Not taking anything away from her whatsoever, we’re just very different from each other.”
(Article continued below)
Metal Injection spoke to The Recording Academy’s Senior Vice President – Awards, Bill Freimuth, and the big-has to say:
“When you exclude metal, the rock category is one of our biggest umbrellas. Not quite as broad as pop, but maybe the next up in terms of what constitutes rock – it can be blues rock, folk rock, ballads. All of that. I think what we found this year is that so many artists that were in rock or adjacent to rock were really taking more sonic risks this year than ever before, and it made for a really exciting dynamic landscape in that field.”
He then went on to defend the track by Beyoncé and Jack White called Don’t Hurt Yourself by saying: “That recording has Jack White in it and it has Led Zeppelin samples in it and I think it’s Beyoncé really stretching. It’s an artist at the height of her musical powers, really reaching it in many different directions and we are all the better for it.”
Ok, so not only does he club Beyoncé and Disturbed together, but he compares her work with Led Zep. And you wonder why awards shows are losing their popularity at alarming levels. Go figure.
Disturbed have earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Rock Performance category for "The Sound of Silence (Live on CONAN)." Their breathtaking live performance aired on CONAN on March 28, 2016 and is the most-watched musical performance on the show of all time with nearly 40M views. The band's haunting version of Simon & Garfunkel's classic hit was certified Platinum after spending seven straight weeks at #1 on Rock Radio and reaching the Top 20 at Alternative Radio. This marks the first ever Grammy nomination for a performance on late night television.
"The Sound of Silence" is taken from Disturbed's #1, Gold-certified album Immortalized, which has so far earned the band four #1 singles - "The Vengeful One," "The Light," "The Sound of Silence," and current single "Open Your Eyes." Disturbed are only the second artist to notch four #1s from the same album on the Rock Radio chart, and the first to do so since Linkin Park with Meteora in 2003 according to Mediabase. Immortalized has been breaking records since its release in August of 2015, when it became Disturbed's fifth consecutive album to debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200, a rare feat achieved by only one other hard rock band in the history of the chart: Metallica.
Formed in Chicago in 1996, the multi-platinum Disturbed - David Draiman [vocals], Dan Donegan[guitar], Mike Wengren [drums], and John Moyer [bass] - have sold over 15 million albums globally and scored thirteen No. 1 singles at Rock Radio. Their quadruple-platinum 2000 debut The Sicknessformally announced their arrival as hard rock leaders, with that status solidified by their subsequent Grammy Award nominations as well as gold-, platinum- and double platinum-certified records.
2016 will be known hence forth as the year that genres officially meant nothing to the puppet masters behind music award nights. It happened at this year’s ARIA Awards, and now it’s happened in the US again, just in time for the 2017.
For proof, you needn’t look further than the ceremony’s Best Rock Performance nominations. This year, the inimitable queen of pop culture Beyoncé has been selected for the category which, even considering it was for a performance of Don’t Hurt Yourself with Jack White, still has some people scratching their heads.
This puts Beyoncé head-to-head with now an act you’d never expect to see in the same sentence — Disturbed. BUT, the Sick Ones were selected for their cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s folk classic The Sound Of Silence which, ugh, why won’t it just go away? Fortunately, Twenty One Pilots and David Bowie are also nominated, which levels it all out a bit.
Surely no one wants this award to go to a ’90s revival act performing an acoustic folk hit. And, considering Beyoncé’s been nominated for awards across four different genres — urban, rap, rock and pop — it makes sense for rock to be on the right side of history with this one, and tip it’s hat to rock icon Beyoncé.
Despite the international trend at the moment, this is actually a first for the Grammys, says Vice President of Awards Bill Freimuth to Complex, saying, “You’ve had other artists in the past, say Michael Jackson maybe, who have been nominated in that many different fields, but not in the same year and on the same album. This is a first timer for us and personally I think it’s appropriate and pretty cool.”
Bey’s also up for Album, Record, and Song of the year, and Best Pop Solo Performance for her insane medley with Kendrick Lamar. You can see all the nominations here, and watch Disturbed’s repeat offender and possible Grammy-winning cover, below.
UPDATE 8/12/16: Disturbed frontman David Draiman has commented on the clashing styles of the nominess for the Best Rock Performance catagory, stating “something has gone wrong.” You can read his full statement here.
