Rock Rules the Grammys
Arcade Fire, Black Keys and indie rock win big
Mar 11, 2011
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.