Beyoncé loses Grammy awards, but wins the night

Never have the actual awards seemed to have mattered as little as the golden gramophones handed out by the Recording Academy on Sunday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

At the end of the Grammy broadcast, after her album 25 beat out Beyoncé's Lemonade for album of the year, the singer Adele said "I can't possibly accept this award," and suggested the "monumental" Lemonade was more deserving. Beyoncé, who led the pack with nine nominations, did not fare well in the final voting. But it was her show-stopping performance of Love Drought and Sandcastles that captured the fascination of the gobsmacked tweeters who watched the televised broadcast.

Garbed in gold and visibly pregnant (with twins), the singer stunningly appeared as a goddess of fertility. (A baby boom in nine months is a distinct possibility.) The remainder of the show was in danger of being relegated to epilogue status after her commanding appearance.

In photos: Highlights from the 59th Grammy Awards

That didn't happen – in part because of the eloquent, powerful speech she gave after accepting the Grammy for the year's best urban contemporary album. And in part because of a dramatic performance by the British singer Adele, who paid tribute to George Michael with a moving rendition of the late pop star's song Fastlove.

Adele, who began her trophy-nabbing night strongly with her song of the year Hello, stumbled shortly into her presentation of Fastlove. After calling a halt to the song, she apologized and began again. After nailing the second take, a clearly emotional Adele received a standing ovation from the celebrity-studded audience.

The Recording Academy traditionally devotes a portion of its televised gala to memorializing the significant artists who died during the previous 12 months. On Sunday, a trio of tributes acknowledged a year that saw the death of an unusual number of musical heroes.

In addition to Adele's affecting nod to Michael, a freak-out of Let's Go Crazy and Jungle Love by the purple-clad Bruno Mars and Prince's band the Time acknowledged the passing of the late funk legend. Later, a classy In Memoriam sequence marked the passing of Leonard Cohen, Debbie Reynolds, Sharon Jones, Merle Haggard, Billy (Me and Mrs. Jones) Paul and many others.

The year of 2016 was full of funerals. In fact, the recognition of the 2016's deceased artists began with last year's broadcast, when Lady Gaga saluted David Bowie with a medley of songs by the Ziggy Stardust singer, who died from cancer at 69 on Jan. 10, 2016.

(Bowie, like Adele, won five awards on Sunday. His posthumous golden year included wins for top alternative album for Blackstar and best rock performance for the disc's title track.)

Also a year ago, Jackson Browne and the surviving members of the Eagles performed a sombre version of the group's 1972 hit Take it Easy. It was an homage to late band member Glenn Frey, who died on Jan. 18, 2016.

There's a notion that 2016's year of the dead was a fluke – that a calendar that counted eulogies on Beatles producer George Martin and everyone in Emerson, Lake and Palmer not named Carl Palmer was a cruel aberration. And while that is somewhat true, the recent death toll that includes Prince (and Mary Tyler Moore, Florence Henderson, Carrie Fisher and Pac-Man pioneer Masaya Nakamura) is also a sign o' the times.

There used to be an era when a large segment of us all watched the same television shows and listened to the same music. What is called the mono culture roughly covered the late 1950s up until the 1990s. With the evolution of cable television and the advent of the Internet, our attention was spread wide. Push technology gave way to pull technology, and we now have more say when it comes to the pop culture we consume.

So, the mono culture died years ago. To get back to the death toll of 2016 (and into 2017), what we're seeing now is the inevitable dying off of that mono culture's stars. As a culture we agreed upon Prince. The telegenic Michael was unavoidable in the heyday of music-video television. We all saw Mary Tyler Moore throw her hat in the air week after week, and we all remember that demoralizing sound when our Pac-Man character died.

And we all know the words to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline, which is why that feel-good singalong from 1969 was the featured song for the Carpool Karaoke segment midway through Sunday's broadcast. Do John Legend and Tim McGraw have anything as memorable?

Of the last vestiges of mono culture still alive on television – including the Super Bowl, the Oscars and sometimes Saturday Night Live – the Grammys struggle the most for relevancy. The Recording Academy has long been criticized for a failure to reward innovation in contemporary pop. In explaining his boycott of this year's process, the bright young R&B star Frank Ocean mentioned last year's win of Taylor Swift's 1989 over Kendrick Lamar's critically acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly for album of the year.

That decision by voters also brings up the issue of race and the grievance that black artists face an uphill battle in the major-category contests. On Sunday, the first upset was white duo Twenty One Pilots beating out Drake and Rihanna in the best pop duo/group performance category. Adele's mediocre 25 being voted album of the year over Drake's Views and Beyoncé's Lemonade will leave a sour taste in the mouths of many.

In another collaborative tribute, the Bee Gees and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever were recognized. The (less-than-memorable) salute to an iconic album released 40 years ago ended with Staying Alive.

Staying alive is easier said than done, as music fans were shown in 2016. As for the Grammys, let's just say that death becomes them.