And the Nominees Are...

Article on the Grammys, published in Seawanhaka, 12/11/08

The Grammy nominations are in. As usual, a few artists dominate the most sought-after categories. This year those artists include Lil’ Wayne and Coldplay.

Lil’ Wayne managed to grab eight nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Rap Album for Tha Carter III, Best Rap Song for “Lollipop” and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Got Money” (with T-Pain).

Coldplay didn’t trail far behind with their seven Grammy nods. A few of the myriad categories they compete in include Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Viva La Vida,” plus Album of the Year and Best Rock Album for Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. The two leaders of the nominations will face each other along with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Ne-Yo and Radiohead for Album of the Year.

Radiohead’s In Rainbows also got seven nominations. Coldplay and Radiohead face each other three times, for Album of the Year (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends against In Rainbows) as well as Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song (“Violet Hill” against “House of Cards”). In addition, “House of Cards” is nominated for Best Short Form Video. In Rainbows is up for Best Alternative Music Album and earned nominations for producer Nigel Godman and art directors Stanley Donwood, Mel Maxwell and Xian Munro.

Metallica’s newest release, Death Magnetic, earned the group a few nods including Best Rock Album (against Coldplay, Kid Rock, Kings of Leon and the Raconteurs). They are also up for Best Metal Performance, which the group has won five times in the past following their controversial loss to Jethro Tull in 1989, before Metal and Hard Rock were separated into two categories.

The awards are not without controversy this year. Just last week, guitarist Joe Satriani filed suit claiming Coldplay had stolen portions of his song “If I Could Fly” for their heavily nominated hit “Viva La Vida.” YouTube users have been circulating a video that overlaps “Viva La Vida” and “If I Could Fly” in order to show the similarities.

While in the past Coldplay has owned up to heavy influence form other artists – legally sampling from Kraftwerk, paying homage to Kate Bush’s drums and borrowing most of their aesthetic from Radiohead – the band maintains their innocence in this case.

Satriani isn’t alone in his accusations. The Creaky Boards, a New York indie band, already accused Coldplay of borrowing from their “The Songs I Didn’t Write” for “Viva La Vida” after seeing Chris Martin at one of their shows.

Neil McCormick, a blogger for the Telegraph in the UK, also posted a 2003 video from French singer Alizee in which the background strings on her song “Jen Ai Marre” bear resemblence to those on “Viva La Vida.”

Coldplay’s hit Grammy-nominated song has been accused of plagiarizing three separate parts – Satriani’s guitar, vocal melody from the Creaky Boards and Alizee’s background strings - though only Satriani has taken legal action. Is it possible that all of these artists just happened to use a common key and chord progression? Have mainstream rock and pop become so mundane and unoriginal that there are simply no new riffs? Or is there something more sinister behind “Viva La Vida?”