And the Award Goes To…
If you read the Grammy winners list on the official Grammy Awards website today or if you were following it last night, you probably already know that Iron Maiden won for Best Metal Performance (“El Dorado”). Other nominees for this category were Korn (“Let the Guilt Go”), Lamb of God (“In Your Words”), Megadeth (“Sudden Death”), and Slayer (“World Painted Blood”).
Although it is nice that the Recording Academy acknowledges the metal genre, it is unfair that they choose not to air the handing out of the award. There are just as many fans of metal and hard rock as there are fans for the other musical genres that are presented with awards. The viewership for the Grammys this year was successful, hitting a 10 year high. However, it wouldn’t have hurt their rating if they didn’t cut out the Best Metal Performance Award. Then again, maybe it’s in our genre’s nature to snub awards shows and shun them as a product of the industry.
Personally, I’m just happy that Iron Maiden was recognized in some form, that the Ramones won the Lifetime Achievement Award, and that Justin Bieber went home without the Best New Artist Award.
Melissa
Metalosophy 
Iron Maiden winning anything is awesome(favorite band). It was nice to see a couple other bands nominated as well(Megadeth, LOG, not Slayer I’m getting kinda bored of them).
I agree that it would be nice if the Best Metal category was aired, and a live performance would be cool, but I don’t think that the average Britney Spears fan could handle it, lol.
In essence, metal is quite a counter-culture thing, and being counter-culture more or less means that you will probably never be accepted by mainstream culture. But metal has made huge strides and is accepted by the mainstream more than I would have imagined years ago. I guess it has to do with the people who grew up with it being older and some in charge of things. And the more metal branches out the more opportunity it has to make itself known in popular culture.
I don’t know about you, but it would be weird, albeit awesome, if metal was super popular(maybe I should take a trip to Finland, that seems to be the case there).