Rock Rules the Grammys

Arcade Fire, Black Keys and indie rock win big

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Arcade Fire’s surprise Album of the Year win at the February 13 Grammy Awards was a major victory for indie rock. The Canadian crew led a wave of triumphant rock acts, including the Black Keys, who collected two trophies, and UK folkies Mumford & Sons, who sold 133,000 copies of their debut, Sigh No More, the week after the show – a 169 per cent increase. The broadcast, for which ratings hit a 10-year high of 26.6 million viewers, drove artists from Lady Antebellum to the Avett Brothers up the charts. “From a turning-people-on-to-new-music perspective, the Grammy show format is really working,” says Craig Pape, director of music at Amazon.com.

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