56th Annual Grammy Awards
The 56th Annual Grammy Awards presentation was held on January 26, 2014, at Staples Center in Los Angeles.[2] The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT and was hosted for the third time by LL Cool J. The show was moved to January to avoid competing with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, as was the case in 2010.
The eligibility period for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards was October 1, 2012, to September 30, 2013.[3] The nominations were announced on December 6, 2013 during a live televised concert on CBS, The Grammy Nominations Concert Live – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night.[4] Jay-Z received the most nominations with nine. Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Pharrell Williams each received seven nominations. Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams were nominated twice for both Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Sound engineer Bob Ludwig received the most nominations by a non-performing artist, with five.[5]
Daft Punk won five awards,[6] including Album of the Year for Random Access Memories and Record of the Year, with Pharrell Williams, for "Get Lucky", Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and an additional win for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical completing a clean sweep for the project that night.[7][8] Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won four trophies, including Best New Artist, and led an industry show of support for gay marriage with a performance of their song "Same Love" to accompany a mass wedding of gay and heterosexual couples, which was presided over by Queen Latifah.[9] Lorde's "Royals" received awards for Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year.[10][11] Carole King was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on January 24, two days prior to the awards ceremony.[12]
On June 4, 2013, the Recording Academy approved a number of changes recommended by its Awards & Nominations Committee, including adding a new category for Best American Roots Song to the American Music field. This songwriters' award will encompass all the subgenres in this field such as Americana, bluegrass, blues, folk, and regional roots music. The Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category was renamed Best Metal Performance and became a stand-alone category. Hard rock performances will now be screened in the Best Rock Performance category. The Music Video field will become the Best Music Video/Film field. Its two categories will be renamed: Best Short Form Music Video will now be known as Best Music Video and Best Long Form Music Video will change into Best Music Film. These changes bring the total number of categories at the 2014 Grammy Awards to 82, up from 81 at the 2013 Grammy Awards.[13]
Live-GIFs[edit]
The 56th Annual Grammy Awards were the first in the show's history to incorporate comprehensive Live-GIF integration through Tumblr. Creative agency Deckhouse Digital was hired to facilitate the integration, producing more than 50 animated GIFs during the live broadcast and publishing them to the official Grammy tumblr page in real time.[25] The images contributed to the more than 5.1 million reblogs and likes that Grammy related posts received on the blogging site, and the record breaking 34 million combined social media interactions related to the live broadcast.[26]