Monday Bears: Arcade Fire ... wins?

Last night, the 53rd annual Grammy Awards gave one of the most shockingly righteous awards in the show's history. After being nominated for three awards, including Album of the Year, the Arcade Fire seemed more like outsiders thrown into the comical ring for nothing more than pity and forced acknowledgement. A lot of people who know me have heard my on-again off-again verbal detest of the lauded award show. Year after inconsequential year, denominated awards were handed out like peripheral life-time achievement statues, giving awards to Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, and a dead guy.

Throughout the course of the show, the Grammy's were unsurprisingly Grammy-like: Lady Antebellum seemed to be getting every award they had been nominated for, and "Hey, Soul Sister" actually won something -- so, it didn't look good. To put things in an even wider perspective, Arcade Fire actually lost their first two awards to the Black Keys.

Three years ago, Radiohead was also shockingly nominated for Album of the Year for In Rainbows, only to lose to who-gives-a-fuck Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. I'm basically trying to tell you in a bevy of different ways that The Suburbs had virtually no shot to win Album of the Year.

Well, I was wrong. Happily wrong. Arcade Fire beat out Lady Antebellum, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry - four massive mainstream pop acts with legions of followers dwarfing anything the Montreal group has come close to. Barbara Streisand, who announced it, couldn't even seem to get the right words out of her mouth - like she couldn't pronounce the insanely foreign phrase "The Suburbs."

So, what does it all mean? Twitter indie-philes were utterly shocked (just like these people), and dishearteningly concerned that the group would transpose into the mainstream, even though their radio play is few and far between. Will the group actually get radio play now? How will "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" sound between an Usher and the Black Eyed Peas on top 40 radio?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but right now the band isn't just important to those of us who try to pay attention to more than 10 artists - they matter on a global scale. And whether that lasts or not, right now, fans like me feel like we won something.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs