The Grammy's grindmill

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Compared with the Grammy Awards, the Academy Awards have it easy. Year in and year out, the fundamental things apply in movies - writing, directing, acting, illusion-making techniques - and the 75th annual Oscars still have only two dozen categories. <br /><br />The Grammys continue to add categories for more niches and subgenres in a delightfully futile quest that''s something like mapping an amoeba.This year, the 45th annual awards are up to 104 categories, including completely indistinguishable ones like best R&B album and best contemporary R&B album.<br /><br />When it comes to choosing winners, the Grammys often back away from the show of rebellion, sex and youthful energy that the music business spends the rest of the year marketing. No wonder the show gets unimpressive ratings.<br /><br />Meanwhile, predicting the awards tends to be an exercise in perverse calculation. The Grammy voters, who qualify to vote by amassing credits on six tracks, have historically shown a penchant for ballads over rockers, professionalism over punch, familiar names over newcomers, old songs over new ones. <br /><br />Movie connections also seem to help. Last year''s big winner, the soundtrack to ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' was not only made for a film, it had by far the oldest songs: traditional ones.<br /><br />This year, the top awards are likely to split between youth and experience. The experienced side belongs to Bruce Springsteen''s song and album ''The Rising'' his heartfelt attempt to come to terms with the aftermath of September 11, 2001. <br /><br />Nominated for album of the year, ''The Rising'' seems weightier and worthier than Eminem''s sour ''The Eminem Show'', the Dixie Chicks'' smart string-band anachronism, ''Home'', Nelly''s party-rap album ''Nellyville'' and Norah Jones'' album of old and new torch songs, ''Come Away With Me''. <br /><br />Thanks to Grammy pluralism, though, the also-rans can get awards, too. Eminem should win best rap album, Nelly can pick up the best rap/sung collaboration and the Dixie Chicks should ease past Alan Jackson for best country album. <br /><br />Songs from Eminem, Nelly, Vanessa Carlton and Nickelback are nominated for record of the year (which means a single) along with Jones'' ''Don''t Know Why''. But none of them are likely to charm the Grammy voters as much.<br /><br />Jesse Harris, who wrote ''Don''t Know Why'' and Lavigne and her collaborators on ''Complicated'' are nominated for the songwriters'' award, song of the year. But so is Springsteen for ''The Rising'' and Alan Jackson for another September 11 song, ''Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)''; on a New York stage, Springsteen should win.<br /><br />That''s only the beginning; there are more than 90 other awards, including hotly contested ones like best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist(s). And they''re full of unanswerable questions. <br /><br />For instance: What is the earnestly nondescript Tonic doing alongside Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Robert Plant and Elvis Costello in the best rock album category? Try as they might, the Grammys can''t bring order to recorded music. <br /><br />And that''s a good thing. Once the thank-yous have been mumbled and the black ties are off, musicians can go back to scrambling categories, daring the Grammys once again to keep up. <br /><br />(<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">NYT News Service</span>)</div> </div>