blog.mp3adrenalin.com

Last week Michael Jackson’s Thriller celebrated it’s 25th anniversary as the most successful and influential pop record of all time. This week The Ruckus examines the album that changed the landscape of American popular music forever.

I have a modestly healthy record collection that defines my knowledge and love of music. This collection fills numerous shoeboxes that all carry individual identities based on the music they hold. I have a long Nike shoebox that’s tattered and faded, but it’s the most structurally sound box I own. Michael Jackson and Prince call this cardboard castle home.
You can find Thriller in the second row of the shoebox, positioned protectively between my Michael Jackson and Notorious B.I.G. catalogues, where it’s riding out the title of “Top Record” in my collection.
When revisiting the career-defining record that is Michael Jackson’s Thriller, it’s almost too easy to list the ways the album broke music-industry ground in 1984. The album that spawned seven top 10 hits on its way to winning Jackson eight Grammy Awards has sold over 104 millions copies to date.
The popular video trio of “Thriller,” “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” redefined how fans literally “watched” music by establishing a blueprint for MTV that gave way to numerous MJ-inspired videos. Most importantly the album’s success helped take back ground lost by black artists to early 80’s punk rock and synth-pop.
If there’s only one great quality of Thriller it’s the albums playability.
Here we are, 25 years after its initial release, and it’s still one of the most relevant pop records you can spin today. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin” starts with the type of chaotic energy that Jackson no doubt picked up from then-friend and mentor Paul McCartney.
On the surface, the lyrics are fun and playful, as Michael raises self-confidence by taking shots at tabloids and media hoopla. By the end of the track Jackson’s fierce delivery reaches levels that weren’t there on his first solo effort Off The Wall. It’s apparent that Jackson is singing with more emotion on many of Thriller’s tracks than he ever did with his brothers.
Filler tracks “Rock With You” and “Thriller” do great jobs of pulling the listener into the album’s climax. The later, which was originally conceived as a campy spook-song, benefited from a video that was nothing short of visual spectacle; and while you won’t find many pop songs with a better hook, the Vincent Price rap in “Thriller” is a little much.
All of the album’s hype is realized, though, when the listener reaches the two monster singles. “Beat It” was a revolutionary track that had dance flair and rocked harder than anything the 80’s hair bands were doing. Eddie V spent 15 minutes blistering away in the studio, while producer Quincy Jones cut-n-pasted the now-legendary axe solo.
“Beat It” was an autobiographical tune that Jackson penned in response to accusations that he fathered the child of a former stalker. When the set beat drops and the bass line runs in, Michael takes full ownership of the track. His vocal performance on the record mimics an over-sexed James Brown, only Michael’s crying falsetto puts the godfather of soul to shame.
Jackson’s memorable videos for both singles only solidified his place as THE icon of his generation.
Thriller closes with the surprisingly warm “Human Nature,” a record that made the final album cut only after Jones discovered a piece of the song on the back-end of a demo tape. The only blemish on this otherwise flawless album is the Jackson, Alvin and the Chipmunks duet track “P.Y.T.” I think there was good intentions with the production, but the track sticks out like a sore thumb on an album as lean as Thriller.
Constructed with the perception that filler-tracks could stand out too, Thriller changed the way contemporary pop musicians made records. Jackson’s vocals are so raw and emotionally-charged that they have no problem standing alone. Michael’s ability to sing out on tracks that Jones had stuffed with soul horns and catchy synth melodies is what ultimately made Thriller such a universally loved album.
While MJ became a certified star after its release, Jones’ contributions to Thriller cannot be overlooked (the seasoned pop arrangements, his ear for perfection, and the creation of all those killer bass lines that hit you in the spine). The amazing artist and the amazing record rode each other to even greater heights that transcended the genre of pop music.
To this point in American-music history Thriller has undoubtedly withstood the test of time: A truly phenomenal album that has served as a measuring stick to all who have tried to duplicate it.

Mal Holmes, former drummer with electro-pop giants OMD, now runs an internet based record label, finmusic, and is looking for six musicians to contribute to the showcase acoustic album.Mal will choose the best six entries that he receives and will take them to a top studio in Liverpool to record two songs each for the album.He said: “I’m looking to find six of the best acoustic artists from the North West of England and North Wales who will record an album.”The chosen six will record two songs, simply vocals and guitar, and I will release the tracks on an album which will be available on a number of digital sites including itunes.”It should be a great showcase and a great opportunity for unsigned artists to get their music heard.”Mal has been involved in the music industry for more than three decades and recently set up finmusic as a record label having established it as one of the first legal download sites in the UK, in 1997.He is offering his wealth of experience in both music and technology to six talented singer-songwriters who hope to further their musical career.Anyone interested should visit www.finmusic.co.uk or email their demo or link to their myspace to Mal directly at 6ofthebest@finmusic.co.uk.

I do like British Sea Power. For their passion worn as a cloaknot a shield; for their power-to-precision ratio; foreccentricities reflecting individuality rather than marketing flashcards; for their mix of gloomy weather and optimistic vision; forlyrics that say something, even if you don’t always know thereferences (do you know about the Canvey Island flood in 1953? Idoubt it).

And for being a rock band, not a hyphen, in the dance-rock orelectro-rock or post-punk world. Lastly, for being very good.

As with the preceding two albums, the sound of Do You LikeRock Music? begins with the intense, low-clouds-above,grey-roads-beneath feel of Echo And The Bunnymen, Joy Division andWah!, with the pushiness of the young U2.

However, things are bigger all round this time - rousing whenpushed and moving when passionate. There’s nothing tricky or trendyhere but it does feel right.

Indeed they are. When the young musical trio rolls into the Fox Theatre for a pair of shows on Saturday, they’ll arrive riding a wave of explosive buzz — the sort of shriek-saturated hype made familiar by so many of their teen-pop predecessors.

And it’s only primed to get bigger: Last month, fresh off a breakout national tour with fellow Disney sensation Miley Cyrus (”Hannah Montana”), the group signed a multimillion-dollar touring deal with Live Nation that will put the brothers into more than 140 concert venues in the year ahead. The Jonases’ own Disney Channel series will debut this summer, along with a feature film called “Camp Rock.”

Signs that the brothers’ pop-star fantasy was transforming into big-time reality were obvious in December at the Palace, where the trio’s opening set elicited screams nearly as piercing as those for headliner Cyrus.

“It’s been an amazing journey the last couple of years,” says Kevin Jonas, 20, who as the eldest of the brothers serves as the de facto spokesman. He modestly recalls the group’s pre-poster-boy days, slogging away on promo tours through small clubs and amusement parks to play for listless crowds of several dozen people.

The brothers are still young enough to gush wide-eyed over the “couple of” Bruce Springsteen concerts they’ve attended, and to gleefully make Wiffle ball the backstage pastime of choice. But the New Jersey-bred Jonases — Kevin, Joe, 18, and Nick, 15 — are also wise beyond their years: three articulate guys, seemingly solid and well-grounded, carefully groomed under the tutelage of such music-biz veterans as John Fields and Steve Greenberg, who once guided Hanson along this same path.

That ’90s pop trio is frequently referenced by Jonas Brothers observers, perhaps more often than this threesome would like. But it fits. With their nods to vintage rock, their classic guitar-drums-bass setup, the Jonases have far more in common with the Hanson brothers than they do with the dance-pop groups — ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys — who came in between.

“We think it’s really cool that we’re able to introduce, sort of, rock ‘n’ roll to our younger fans,” says Nick Jonas. “Even the parents get into it because it does sound like the things that they used to listen to when they were young. And, you know, we just really try to find really great music, and write songs like the really great music that we’re listening to. Because people love good music.”

For the Jonas Brothers, that means citing such touchstones as the Beatles and Prince when discussing the sound of their third album, recorded in part on their tour bus last year and scheduled for release in July. And it means learning their way through the catalog of Brit-pop icon Elvis Costello, whose “(I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea” was recently added to the Jonases’ live set list.

It’s another raising of the bar on the group’s headlining theater tour, which kicked off Jan. 31 in Arizona. The group has also tinkered with its own songs, toying with the arrangements and integrating new sounds into familiar material.

“You might hear something and not recognize it right away, but then all of a sudden realize that it’s a song we’ve been playing for five years now,” says Kevin Jonas. “Our fans will have a whole other way of listening to it.”

The brothers say they’re carefully heeding the advice of seasoned industry veterans, eager to avoid the personal pitfalls that have tripped up so many while navigating the fame game. And they respond patiently when confronted with the question that’s been posed to probably every young pop sensation in the half-century history of rock: Can you endure beyond flash-in-the-pan status?

“We would love to be a band that really does last,” says Joe Jonas. “And because we’re brothers, I think it really helps. Because we do write our own songs and we’re in the studio where they’re made, I think that will be a big part of it.”

“The fact is, we don’t want to ever be anything we’re not,” says Kevin Jonas, who describes the upcoming album as a natural evolution: “We grew up a little bit. We wrote some deeper songs and experimented with new instruments and things like that.

“So I think for us it’s really all about sticking to your fans and knowing that if you work with them, and play to them, then hopefully you’ll always be there.”

Contact

HOW do you know if you are already in Baguio? This was a question that we asked ourselves back when we were still in college a handful of years ago.

The answer was … you can hear country music over the airwaves. 99.9 F.M, the only country music station in the city then was one of the most popular stations. It was therefore not surprising that one of the most crowded bars at that time especially on weekends was the Wild (Wild) West. From the very few times that I’ve been there before it permanently closed, I found the atmosphere lively. The music was good but my ears simply couldn’t stand the decibel level. I like my sounds smooth and mellow.

Visit My Labster Message Board here

Unfortunately, country music these days seem to have taken a back seat. PUJs plying the city is either playing pop music or teeny bopper music with the occasional wailing that pass for music from rock groups. Thank God the Republic of La Trinidad where I live still has many jeepneys with die hard country loving drivers.

Country music did not start as such. It used to be called Western Music with singers like Don Williams, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and Willie Nelson. And I sure am proud to say that I already loved the genre at a time when it wasn’t popular. “I loved country when country wasn’t cool” as one song goes. Call it genetic but our father (God bless his soul) never did play anything on our old turn table but western music although at times he would relent and allow the voice of Nat King Cole to fill the house. The staple though was either Jim Reeves or Glen Campbell. I was already in High School when I first heard the mellow voice of Don Williams. Growing up in Tabuk (it was a long way from becoming a city then) I had the sophistication of a Neanderthal when it came to music. I most often woke up to the voice of Yoyoy Villame being played on the one and only A.M radio station in the area.

Now, I would like to think that I have gone up a few notches above the hapless Neanderthal man in music appreciation. I still do not remember the lyrics and quite frankly I don’t even recognize songs from mere titles but hey, now I have other options aside from Yoyoy. No offense meant. But one thing is certain; I would most likely go through a lot of genres but would eventually return to country music.

For one, this genre does not mince words. Some songwriters have this tendency of using metaphors that at times, one wonders if the song means anything at all. Country songs are not that complicated. Toby Keith in one of his songs said … “I like talking about you usually but occasionally I wanna talk about meeeee.” If that aint direct then I sure don’t know what is. It is also a direct reference to the tendency of the fairer sex to dwell on everything about them.

Another characteristic that has drawn me to country is the story that goes with almost every song. Right, so most songs have a story (duh) but if you really concentrate, pop songs tend to focus on one recurring theme and that is love. We have songs for the newly in love, the broken hearted, the recovering sot who got dumped unceremoniously for one reason or another and so on and so forth. Country songs are similar in that area but once in a while, you get a song like Alan Jackson’s tribute to 9-11 (Where were you when the world stopped turning). I am really bad at titles (I had to look it up on the internet) but I do remember that the first time I heard this song in the jeepney of all places, I had goose bumps. It tells of different reactions after that fateful day when America realized that despite its superpower status is far from safe after all.

Lastly, country songs have their own kind of oomph that seems to be missing in other genres. I don’t know … call me a prejudiced country bumpkin but despite my forays into other music styles, I always find myself gravitating toward western music. (I am repeating myself.) Never mind that my friends kid me about it. I even owned a pair of boots once that was confiscated for qualifying as a deadly weapon.

Still unconvinced? Well it doesn’t matter. Once you hear Alan Jackson howling about having a “Hurricane” at lunch because though it is only half past twelve, it is five o’clock somewhere you’d most definitely get hooked. So …go ahead, Pour me something tall and strong. Make it a “Hurricane” before I go insane. It’s only half past twelve but I don’t care. It’s five o’clock somewhere.

Of the new wave of English acts, British Sea Power were always the most odd. First emerging five years ago, the Brighton four-piece would appear on stage decked out in local foliage they’d collected themselves, as they hammered out their blend of Joy Division and Cure-tinged rock covered in leaves and sticks.

As if importing nature indoors wasn’t odd enough, the group would often have stuffed animals - ranging from owls to bears - with them on stage, which they routinely beat up each evening.

The music too was similarly arresting, with stunning moments of pulsating rock scattered across their first two albums, ‘The Decline of British Sea Power’, and the terribly underrated ‘Open Season’.

Such recordings, combined with their whimsical eccentricities, have endeared them to a fanatic cult following, though that could all be about to change.

A ‘Big’ sounding record, ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ has been garnering rave reviews and been rightly marked as the first essential rock album of 2008.

While most new bands continue to delve deep into the past to pluck the acts that will shape their sound, BSP have looked towards modern music, and specifically towards Canada.

Arcade Fire are the first obvious influence here - from the church-like mantra of opener ‘All in It’ to the anthemic ‘Waving Flags’ with its reverb-soaked guitars and choral swells.

Such influence is understandable, given that former Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman is one of the album’s three producers, no doubt lending the Brighton band some of the studio secrets he picked up during the recording of ‘Funeral’.

Elsewhere, there are shades of Interpol and The Flaming Lips as BSP take us on a voyage through their take on Rock’s history. ‘Down On the Ground’ fuses Interpol with The Ramones while ‘A Trip Out’ nods to early Blur with its chirpy guitar and vocal hooks.

The Blur comparisons continue on ‘No Need to Cry’, which also brings to mind Canadians Broken Social Scene and Stars as it breezes by, while ‘Open the Door’ has the air of a very British take on The Shins.

Chopped in amongst such musical styles though are BSP’s very own eccentric influences, with the album’s lyrical content suitably peculiar, taking in Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr, the Hitler Youth and immigration.

Hopping through Rock’s genres, ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ rarely grates and rather constantly fascinates as varied musical slices and a dry lyrical wit pepper its 55 minutes.

Three albums in, BSP have found their stride, and much of ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ looks poised to become some of this year’s festival favourites. Recommended.

Steve Cummins

Do you have a love of music that you would like to build a business around? RockMasters is a new launch franchise opportunity seeking motivated and enthusiastic individuals to replicate its exciting business in the experience economy by developing ‘rock schools’ around the country. In 2006 guitar sales topped £100 million, and a recent survey suggested that one in four people in the UK are able to play a musical instrument. “Currently it is estimated that there are between 300,000 and 400,000 people either playing or learning to play the guitar in the UK, indicating that the revival in live pop and rock music is getting stronger and stronger,” says RockMasters founder Mike Hurst. “This has created colossal potential to expand into an exciting and rapidly growing market.”Mike is a musician and record producer, who has been a member of The Springfields, played with Jimmy Page, and produced 52 hit singles and 25 platinum albums with artists including Cat Stevens, Marc Bolan, The Four Tops and Shakin’ Stevens. He originally launched RockMasters in 2005 to provide schools in rock music for both children and adults, typically at summer camps and corporate weekends. With the assistance of Franchise Development Services Consultant Paul Hague, RockMasters has developed a working franchise package by recruiting key management personnel with franchise experience and by making use of a substantial injection of capital. “There are two main strands to the RockMasters experience,” reveals Director Mark Mayo. “The first is in organising music tuition courses for school children and university students, which typically involve residential summer camps and school holiday sessions, or non-residential weekend workshops. The second is in providing luxury weekend breaks for adults, which in many cases include the parents of children who are already enjoying RockMasters!”RockMasters provides each franchisee with a complete business operating model, all the required equipment and a recognised name as ‘master musician’. So our courses offer an opportunity for children and adults to learn and play with respected musicians and teachers from the rock world. The UK’s unique rock heritage creates a clear market opportunity and strengthens the RockMasters’ brand offering. RockMasters’ first franchisee is set to launch in early March in the Kent/Sussex area!” •

Eric Hutchinson’s real big break came after he thought he had already gotten it.

About three years ago, the pop singer-songwriter-musician was signed to Maverick Records, the Warner Bros.-distributed label partly founded by Madonna, whose roster included the likes of Alanis Morrissette and Michelle Branch. But just as Hutchinson was about to begin work on his major-label debut, Maverick shut down. The Takoma Park native was back where he started - making music on his own. It took nearly two years to receive a buyout from the company.

When the money finally came, Hutchinson used it to produce Sounds Like This, the artist’s second studio album, which he released this summer on his Let’s Break label. Witty, breezy blue-eyed soul reminiscent of early Billy Joel, the 10-song set became an Internet smash thanks largely to Mario Lavandeira, better known as celebrity gossip hound Perez Hilton. He raved about Sounds Like This on his popular blog.

“Eric Hutchinson has the potential to be huge,” he wrote. Soon afterward, the CD hit No.1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers charts and became highest-charting CD by an unsigned act on iTunes’ album charts, peaking at No. 5.

“I knew the Perez Hilton Web site, but I had no idea the album would get that kind of response,” says Hutchinson, who opens for the hit pop-rock band OneRepublic Thursday at Rams Head Live. “He gave me this big push. The stars were aligned, I guess. It was exciting.”

The week Sounds Like This debuted on the digital charts, Hutchinson outsold such established, multiplatinum acts as Kanye West and Kenny Chesney. It’s the kind of album the artist says he probably wouldn’t have been able to make at Maverick.

“At the label, there were a lot of hands in the soup,” says the 27-year-old performer, who last week was at his home in New York. “It was cool to follow my guts and make the songs sound like I wanted. But I was nervous, too, because if it all failed, it would be on me.”

Artistically, Sounds Like This is far from a failure. From start to finish, Hutchinson, a multi-instrumentalist, engages with exuberant, piano-based tunes glimmering with elements of reggae, gospel and soul. Think Maroon 5, minus the instrumental sleekness. The songs were mostly cut live without much studio tinkering.

“All the stuff I admire was played live,” Hutchinson says. “There’s a little bit of electronic looping in the background, but I try really hard to make the album current and familiar. The big thing was that the vocal performances had a lot of energy behind them.”

His quirky, high-pitched vocals are far up in the mix, pushing the playful arrangements. Hutchinson’s accessible, self-reflecting approach was greatly influenced by the music he heard as a kid.

“I had a normal suburban life,” the artist says. “I always had a strong interest in music, though. I listened to a lot of Billy Joel, the Beatles, Paul Simon and Michael Jackson. I credit my parents with having smart music around.”

His mother, a schoolteacher and his father, a Web designer, encouraged Hutchinson’s musical talent. The artist played in rock bands while a student at Blair High School in Silver Spring, then studied music at Emerson College in Boston. Afterward, he moved to Los Angeles to land a record deal, scoring one with Maverick not long after arriving.

“It’s been nice to live in a bunch of different places,” Hutchinson says. “It gives me a lot of different perspectives for writing.”

He says the most important aspect of making music is connecting with listeners.

“I’ve been told my music makes people happy, which you don’t hear people say much about music anymore,” Hutchinson says. “If you can reach some kind of emotion with the music, that’s a good thing. Ultimately, that’s what you want to do, anyway.”

rashod.ollison@baltsun.com

More articles

Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun

The Beijing Pop Music Award Ceremony is the biggest event in the mainland pop scene. For stars from mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it’s a chance to compete for trophies and prestige. For audiences, it’s the chance to see all that the last year of pop has to offer.

On the red carpet: mainland singer songwriter Anson Hu, rising stars Li Yuchun and Zhang Liangying, rocker Zheng Jun, singer songwriter Li Jian and Wang Feng and girl rocker Jiang Xin. Stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan include Jolin Tsai, Lee-hong Wong, Karen Mok, Xin, Kuang Leung, Angela Chang and the girl band Twins.

It’s a thrill for audiences to see their favorite stars receive awards; even more exciting is watching them perform. Onstage this year, many singers spoke of their new year wishes, and of the Olympics.

The album generated six Grammy nominations for the eyelinered, tattooed R&B sensation, whose reckless lifestyle has turned a rising star into popular prey for paparazzi and, increasingly, a punch line.

“The danger of all this bad publicity is that she looks not just like a tragedy in the making, which would actually bolster the sad aura of the songs, but that she’s also being made into a cartoonish figure,” says Entertainment Weekly music critic Chris Willman. “That keeps people from taking the music seriously. The album is still a classic, no matter what happens in her personal life or how sad or ridiculous her image becomes.”

Winehouse, 24, entered rehab Thursday after video of the disheveled British singer supposedly smoking crack sparked a Scotland Yard investigation. Disclosed last week by U.K. tabloid The Sun, the 19-minute clip follows months of stumbles: a pot bust in Norway, a canceled tour, disturbing photos of Winehouse bruised and bloodied or wandering the street distraught, barefoot and in a red push-up bra. Husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who was arrested last June in the beating of a bartender and then again in a suspected attempt to bribe the victim, awaits trial on charges of assault and witness tampering.

Winehouse has confessed to struggles with eating disorders and self-mutilation. She skipped out on a detox stint in August after being diagnosed as alcoholic, she told Blender. Her hit single Rehab (”They tried to make me go to rehab/I said no, no, no”) reflects her controversial posture on sobriety. By contrast, reformed bad girl Courtney Love seems hatched from a Jane Austen novel.

Record label Universal said in a statement last week that Winehouse realizes “she requires specialist treatment to continue her ongoing recovery from drugaddiction.” Yet her father, Mitch Winehouse, told BBC Radio: “She doesn’t think she’s got a problem. She thinks she can do what she does recreationally and get on with the rest of her life.”

Were it not for her titanic gifts, Winehouse’s slide into YouTube’s gallery of imploding celebrities might feel less pathetic. Few pop ingénues have displayed such enormous promise or been met with such breathless accolades.

Frank, the snarky, slurry 2003 U.K. debut that hit the USA in November, revealed the soul siren’s stunning ability to mimic Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday. But it was Black’s brave lyrics and retro-hip R&B that unveiled the breadth of Winehouse’s instrument and songwriting skills. After 45 weeks on the Billboard chart, Black has sold 1.5 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Frank has sold 89,000 copies in nine weeks. She has racked up 1.7 million digital track sales.

“It starts with that amazing, ridiculous, showstopping voice,” says Mark Ronson, who co-produced Black with Frank’s Salaam Remi. “And she writes songs that come from an honest and painful place. You get that darkness in rock bands like Radiohead, but in modern soul, you get generic lyrics across the board. Amy’s lyrics are fresh and modern. Rehab resonates because it could only have been written today. For better or worse, she’s bringing back a spirit of rebellion to pop music.”

Winehouse’s insolence and candor appealed to fans who are weary of calculation and slick marketing, says Monte Lipman, president/CEO of Universal Republic, which introduced Black to U.S. audiences via urban radio.

“We’re living in a world of sell, sell, sell, and here’s a girl who just didn’t care,” Lipman says. “People found that refreshing. We decided not to press so hard on the commercial aspects. We’ve found that urban and crossover formats are more aggressive and adventurous. So here’s this little Jewish girl on (hip-hop station) Hot 97 in New York singing You Know I’m No Good.

“The public responded to her honesty on this album. She and Blake were having rough times, and she exposed her heart in such a vulnerable way that she could say ‘I’m no good’ and ‘I’m not ready for rehab.’ I was so happy to see the Grammys acknowledge her. It’s difficult to pick up those tabloids and see her in such distress.”

The troubled chanteuse has Grammy nominations for pop album and pop vocal, plus in all four marquee categories: new artist, best album, record and song (both for Rehab).

Though her visa status and rehab duration remain unclear, Winehouse has said she intends to appear at the Grammy Awards, which air on CBS Feb. 10 from Los Angeles. She’s scheduled to perform. Will she pick up any trophies? Her likelihood of being crowned best new artist has faded with each lurid headline, says Tom O’Neil, columnist for awards insider TheEnvelope.com.

“Amy’s arguably the breakout artist of the year, but the music industry is a drug-sensitive world,” he says. “Her rebuke of rehab may seem cool over the airwaves, but it strikes a scary chord with Grammy voters. If they excuse it as part of the back story of great artists like Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin, she still has the problem of being British.” The last British singer named best new artist was Nigerian-born Sade in 1985; the last non-American act to win was Milli Vanilli in 1990.

Before scandals struck, Winehouse was headed for a deserving sweep, poised to lure older voters with her respect for soul-pop tradition and younger ones with her independence, EW’s Willman says.

“If there’s anything the Grammys love, it’s a cool, young female singer who puts a new spin on classic styles, like a Norah Jones,” Willman says. “But as much as the Grammys like to have a belle of their ball, they want to have one who’s likely to show up to be coronated, not just make it to Staples Center, but be beaming and coherent when posing with all those statuettes.

“Amy doesn’t have a real hunger for awards (and) doesn’t lust after increasingly massive success the way most singers do. That’s admirable, but there is always a subconscious impulse for most voters in any field to want to give a prize to somebody who actually wants it.”

The Recording Academy’s support for substance-abuse programs might give voters pause about handing “top honors to the major artist who’s been in the news the most for alleged drug use,” Willman says. “The only thing that might save her from a shutout is the fact that voting closed (Jan. 9) before the alleged crack-smoking video showed up.

“Let’s face it: Sympathy goes down when you not only appear to be smoking crack, but you’re openly allowing someone to film you, knowing you’re posing for the YouTube video of the week.”

Winehouse’s chemical escapades may not factor into Grammy ballots if voters face the music, says Joe Levy, Blender’s editor in chief.

“This is not a business unfamiliar with the problems Amy Winehouse has struggled with,” he says. “Who knows better than the people who make and sell records that great musicians aren’t always stable? Also, she has the good fortune of going through this while Britney Spears is making her look like Annette Funicello.”

Also in Winehouse’s favor: Back to Black “is what the Grammys absolutely love, a record that sounds like an old record,” Levy says. “It’s a very smart update on classic sounds, applying a hip-hop DJ’s logic to old soul and R&B grooves, very simple and effective.

“She connects with songs about the pains of living and loving, songs that all too evidently have to do with her real life,” he says. “She’s the closest thing to a musical and cultural sensation we have. Whether she wins or loses, she’s the story of the Grammys.”

Her trophy count isn’t a pressing issue. “The real question is what happens next. The Grammys are about a record she’s already made. What about the next one?”

Provided Winehouse defeats her demons to carry on, “she’s going to challenge herself and try to reach new heights,” Lipman says. “She’s always working and constantly collaborating with new musicians.”

She won’t go back to Black, Ronson promises. “We hung out a bit in England recently, playing new songs she’s writing. She doesn’t want to make the same record, and I wouldn’t want to revisit Back to Black. It cheapens the original.”

Describing Winehouse as a “warm person with a sharp sense of humor and a painfully nonchalant Sudafed demeanor,” Ronson declined to discuss her personal crises but expressed faith in her career prospects.

“She changed the direction of modern pop music, and she’ll continue to break barriers,” he says.

Willman concurs.

“If she emerges from whatever psychological and substance-abuse tangle she is in and gets help from people who help her shine as a person as well as an artist, she could be one of our greats, for years or even decades to come,” he says.

When Willman saw her perform an acoustic set at an L.A. radio station, “it was as if all the emotions in the universe suddenly were coming out of her mouth. It was almost like this enormous depth of feeling had nothing to do with her, the tiny figure in ballet slippers and a wife-beater shirt, but that she was somehow channeling it.

“I would never lose confidence in her ability to keep doing that.”