Daft Punk at the 56th GRAMMY Awards in 2014

Daft Punk

Photo: Dan MacMedan/WireImage.com

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Daft Punk, 'Random Access Memories': For The Record

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Look back at how the French electronic duo hit it big with their fourth studio album at the 56th GRAMMY Awards
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Jan 4, 2018 - 12:42 pm

If Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, seemed ubiquitous in 2013, you weren't imagining things.

Inside Daft Punk's Opus 'Random Access Memories'

The hit reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Daft Punk's first-ever Top 10 hit. It came from the French electronic duo's fourth studio album, Random Access Memories, an ambitious LP that brought in sound and production influences from classic albums such as the Eagles' Hotel California, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon.

These creative inspirations paid off for the robotic team at the 56th GRAMMY Awards. Random Access Memories took home not only Best Dance/Electronic Album but also the coveted gramophone for Album Of The Year. In addition, "Get Lucky" earned Record Of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance honors.

"Back when I was drinking and using, I used to imagine things that weren't there that were frightening," album producer Paul Williams said during the group's acceptance speech for Album Of The Year. "Then I got sober and two robots called me and asked me to make an album."

Watch: Daft Punk win Album Of The Year

And what an album they made.

Madonna at the 41st GRAMMY Awards in 1999

Madonna

Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

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Madonna's Electronic Music Pioneering 'Ray Of Light': For The Record

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Remember when the GRAMMY winner brought electronic music in "Vogue" and won big at the 41st GRAMMYs?
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Apr 26, 2018 - 11:52 am

What songs come to mind when you think about Madonna? "Like A Virgin"? "Like A Prayer"? "Vogue"? "Open Your Heart"? How about "Ray Of Light"? The evocative singer/songwriter's rule-breaking seventh studio album, Ray Of Light, proved to be a pivotal one, both for Madonna and for the music world.

Madonna: 'Ray Of Light' | For The Record

Released worldwide March 3, 1998, Ray Of Light offered a different side of Madonna. After trying — and ultimately failing — to get something going with producers Babyface and Patrick Leonard, Madonna turned to English producer William Orbit, who helped her turn over a new musical leaf.

Madonna recorded the album shortly following the birth of her first child, Lourdes, which led her to tap into her spiritual side, including Buddhist and Hinduist influences on songs such as "Nothing Really Matters." She refocused her vocal tone and brought in elements from a wide range of genres, such as techno, ambient, trip-hop, and Middle Eastern music — all fused with an electronic sound.

"This record takes me back to where I started — in a club right in the middle of a dance floor," she told Billboard in 1998. "It's full circle, except I'm so different now."

Whenever an artist makes a major musical departure, they're taking a risk. In Madonna's case, that risk paid off. Ray Of Light landed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and critics hailed her new sound, revitalizing her career for a new generation of fans deep in the '90s. The album is also credited with bringing electronic music into global pop culture.

"I like risk, and — like with Ray Of Light — when someone wants to make an artistic statement and be bold and experimental, that's when [music is] exciting," Orbit said in a recent interview.

Ray Of Light also hit it big at the 41st GRAMMY Awards, where it earned Madonna a total of five nominations, including for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year for the title track. At the end of the night, Madonna won Best Pop Album and the title track took home Best Dance Recording and Best Short Form Music Video.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

The Beatles circa 1966

The Beatles 

Photo: Central Press/Getty Images

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The Beatles Take Aim With 1966's 'Revolver': For The Record

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Their final album before retiring from live shows, find out how the Fab Four's seventh studio album changed their sonic direction
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Aug 2, 2018 - 11:07 am

By 1966, the Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr —were ready for a change in their musical direction. Namely, they planned to retire from live performances. Before that, however, they released their seventh studio album on Aug. 5, 1966, Revolver.

Revisit The Beatles' 'Revolver'

Because Revolver was the final album the band made before retiring from live shows, the Fab Four never intended to perform it, so they freed up their creativity in the studio, incorporating groundbreaking techniques such as tape loops and backward recordings on "Tomorrow Never Knows." They also stretched their instrumentation, employing a string octet ("Eleanor Rigby"), French Horn ("For No One") and sitar on multiple tracks.

On the strength of these songs and other now classic Beatles hits such as "Yellow Submarine," "She Said She Said," "Good Day Sunshine," and "Got To Get You Into My Life," the album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.  

At the 9th GRAMMY Awards, Revolver earned the Beatles a GRAMMY nomination for Album Of The Year, while the album's cover designer Klaus Voormann won Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts for the LP's cover.

Revolver Album Cover

In 1999 Revolver was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, one of seven Beatles albums currently in the Hall. The track "Eleanor Rigby" was inducted in 2002.

Beach Boys

Beach Boys

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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Remembering The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds': For The Record

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Take a look back at the album that revolutionized the sound of the classic band
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Jul 19, 2018 - 12:24 pm

If there's one band that could encapsulate the sound of summer it would be the aptly named Beach Boys. Since their inception in 1961, the GRAMMY-winning California band has taken us straight to the source of sun, sand and surfing with a string of hit albums. But with their 11th studio album, 1966's masterpiece Pet Songs, masterminded largely by Brian Wilson, the band created a new, more complex soundscape that cemented their place in music history.

Revisit The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'

The story goes that Wilson had crafted much of what would become Pet Sounds by the time the rest of the band — comprising at the time vocalist Al Jardine, vocalist Bruce Johnston, vocalist/co-writer Mike Love, guitarist/vocalist Carl Wilson, and drummer/vocalist Dennis Wilson — returned from a tour of Japan and Hawaii.

The album's musical and lyrical direction marked a departure from the surf rock the Beach Boys had been known for, but Brian Wilson was adamant about the evolving direction of the band's sound, which included many orchestral instruments and unconventional sound effects using bicycle bells, Coca-Cola cans and barking dogs.

"The result was autobiographical, but it wasn't Wilson's autobiography," writes Liel Leibovitz about Wilson's masterpiece. "[It's] a collective autobiography of everything we all feel when we wake up in the morning and are moved by the mystery of how impossible it is, how inevitable, and how stupidly joyful just to try and reach out to another human being."

Commercially, however, the album initially didn't reach the same heights as previous efforts. It peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 while popular tracks "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows" and "Caroline, No" achieved chart success in the U.S. and abroad. But as the rest of the world caught up with the genius of the album, it's now earned triple platinum sales status with the RIAA and is hailed as one of the best pop albums of all time.

Accordingly, Pet Sounds was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 1998. In 2001 the Beach Boys were also honored with the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award for the indelible mark they have made on the music industry.

Janet Jackson photographed in 1990

Janet Jackson

Photo: Tim Roney/Getty Images

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Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation 1814': For The Record

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Head back to 1989 and take a look at how the GRAMMY winner's masterful album made music history
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Jun 28, 2018 - 1:28 pm

The year is 1989. The artist is Janet Jackson. The album is Rhythm Nation 1814. But given the album's themes of social conscience — racism, poverty, substance abuse — the GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter/producer's iconic album and accompanying music video are just as relevant today as ever.

Revisit Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation 1814'

Released Sept. 19, 1989, Rhythm Nation 1814 gifted us with some of Jackson's biggest career hits, including "Rhythm Nation," "State Of The World," "Miss You Much," "Alright," and "Black Cat." With the help of producers/songwriters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Jackson dedicated the album to what she saw in the news on CNN, particularly the Stockton playground murders in California in early 1989.

"You couldn't help but somehow be impacted by the things that were going on," Jam told Billboard in 2014. "It was a crazy time. The Reagan years were ending. There were school shootings. There were all these unbelievable things starting to happen. We're all sitting around watching this going, 'Man, that's messed up. Somebody needs to do something about this.'"

Despite its political leanings, Rhythm Nation 1814 also provides a healthy dose of romance and dancing, which spawned a record-breaking seven Top 5 hits while the album itself landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Jackson also conceptualized a long-form music video to promote the LP under the direction of Dominic Sena.

The 30-minute "telemusical" incorporated three tracks from the album: "Miss You Much," "The Knowledge" and "Rhythm Nation." It follows two young men who want to pursue music only to be hindered by drug use and trafficking. The visuals feature Jackson and her dancers in unisex military attire dancing in a post-apocalyptic warehouse. It was filmed in black-and-white to portray racial unity in the newly designed "Rhythm Nation."

Rhythm Nation 1814 marks a peak in Jackson's career, and accordingly she earned her first career GRAMMY win at the 32nd GRAMMY Awards for Best Music Video — Longform for the short film accompanying the album. In total, she earned seven GRAMMY nominations for Rhythm Nation 1814 between the 32nd and 33rd GRAMMYs, including a nod for Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical), making her the first woman to earn the distinction.