Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental

The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental was awarded at the 1989 ceremony for music released in the previous year.

Award winner and controversy

The only time the award was given out it was won by Jethro Tull for their album Crest of a Knave. The result generated much controversy, as Jethro Tull was hardly considered "hard rock," let alone "metal," even by themselves.cite journal |date=30 September 1989 |title=Rockin' on an Island |journal=Kerrang |issue=258 |url=http://www.tullpress.com/k30sept89.htm |accessdate= 2008-02-06]

American heavy metal group Metallica were widely expected to take home the award. The members of Jethro Tull, on the advice of their manager, did not attend the ceremony, and when presenters Alice Cooper and Lita Ford announced the winner booing could be heard from the crowd. Cooper later called the announcing "an egg on my face". [VH1 - Most Shocking Moments]

Aftermath

In response to the criticism they received over the award, Jethro Tull's record label took out an advertisement in Billboard magazine with a picture of a flute (part of their trademark sound) lying amid a pile of iron rebars and the line, "The flute is a heavy metal instrument." [cite web |url=http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2006/01/28/stories/2006012802460100.htm |title=Never a Tull Moment |accessdate=2007-02-25 |publisher=The Hindu] Metallica also added a sticker to "...And Justice for All" reading "Grammy Award LOSERS", with the word "Losers" appearing in graffiti over a scratched out "winners". [cite web |url=http://www.mtv.com/onair/icon/metallica/timeline/?id=10 |title=Metallica Timeline |accessdate=2008-02-06 |publisher=MTV |quote=The band add a sticker to their album that says "Grammy Award LOSERS"]

When Metallica did win a Grammy in 1992 drummer Lars Ulrich referenced the previous award by facetiously "thanking" Jethro Tull for not putting out an album that year, [cite web |url=http://www.mtv.com/bands/g/news_feature_grammyflashback/1992/ |title=Grammys 1992 |accessdate=2008-02-06 |publisher=MTV |work=Grammy Flachbacks ] though they actually had released the album "Catfish Rising" during the eligibility period.

This incident is a popularly cited example criticize the Grammy Awards selection committee being "out of touch" with popular sentiment.Fact|date=February 2008 Separate awards for Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance were introduced in 1990.

In 2007, it was named one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history by "Entertainment Weekly". [cite web | year=2007| author=Michael Endelman|title="Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets" | publisher="Entertainment Weekly" | url= http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,1567466_20010834_20010795_0,00.html | accessdate=February 10 | accessyear=2008]

References