Maybe it had something to do with all the controversial issues raised prior to last year’s Grammy Award ceremonies by Sir El and Sir Em, but the 44th annual event, which took place a week ago Wednesday in LA’s Staples Center, had me agreeing with that old insincere trope "It really doesn’t matter who wins; it’s great just to be nominated." Or at least, it really doesn’t matter who wins. Last year there was something trumped-up to care about — how would the conservative Grammy voters react to the controversial yet immensely popular The Marshall Mathers LP? Would they give Eminem his props or ignore him in the hope that the whole thing would go away? And how would Eminem himself react to the pre-show treatment he’d been getting from gay activists? Would he fly into one of his rages or just ignore them in the hope that the whole thing would go away? And finally, what would be the tone of the highly publicized collaboration between Eminem and Elton John? Would it be one of reconciliation, or would the two Sirs just go through the motions?

In the end, nothing particularly surprising happened. Em won in the rap categories he’d been nominated in and lost in all the others — which is how Grammy traditionally marginalizes controversial rappers. And though he did flip his critics the bird on national TV and slip some of the naughty bits of his rap past the censors, he and Elton eventually held hands, and everyone went home happy that U2 were back to spread some good unifying vibes around the Staples Center and the world. The big protest that was supposed to wreak havoc outside the building never materialized. And the most offensive thing about the evening was NARAS president Michael Greene’s paternalistic speech in which he seemed to suggest that performers like Eminem are good for music because they start important social dialogues — as if Em had turned to Dr. Dre in the studio and expressed his sincere desire to get people talking about issues surrounding homosexuality in our society with this next cut. Somehow, I don’t think it went down that way. What Eminem really generated with The Marshall Mathers LP was a long, hateful monologue that didn’t do anything to negate the quality of the disc’s production or his own rapping. It was a good record with a bad message. Period. And no amount of dancing around the truth by Greene was gonna change that.

So, this year’s Grammys had to get by without a big controversy to keep the television public tuned in. But it was still dŽjˆ vu all over again: everyone went home happy that U2 are still here to spread around more of those good unifying vibes, and Greene made an ass of himself, this time by trying to raise the alarm about digital file sharing, which according to his organization is destroying opportunities for new artists to build careers in pop music. Never mind that digital file sharing also creates new avenues of exposure for up-and-coming artists who, in the increasingly corporatized realm of mainstream rock radio, have little chance of being heard. Or that NARAS made the same argument about cassette tapes when they were unleashed upon the public two decades ago. Digital file sharing may indeed threaten a status quo in which five major labels have a stranglehold on 99 percent of all music commerce, and it may yet give artists the clout to cut themselves in on a bigger piece of the pie. But it’s been several years since Napster first got up and running, and the industry doesn’t appear to be teetering on the verge of collapse just yet. At least we all know where Greene stands in the ongoing if usually civil battle between artists and their labels.

As for U2, notwithstanding their earnest values and unblemished integrity, it’s hard to remember the last time a band embraced mainstream stardom with the eagerness and ease that Bono and company have. They must have been stung hard by the relative lack of success they had with 1997’s Pop (Island) and the subsequent "Pop Mart" tour: not only did they switch over to the powerhouse Interscope label, but they laid down the blueprint for any band who want to dominate not one but two Grammys. Yeah, soul singer Alicia Keys walked away with more Grammys (five) than U2 (four) this year, but U2 have now won a total of six with All That You Can’t Leave Behind — two last year for the single "Beautiful Day," which was released just in time to be considered for the 43rd annual awards, plus the four this year for the rest of the album, which didn’t come out until after the deadline. In fact, you could argue that U2 have done more to limit opportunities for up-and-coming artists than has file sharing. But Grammy wouldn’t want it any other way.