Back in 1989 Mac and Laura from Superchunk started their own label in Chapel Hill, Merge Records . The label put out Superchunk’s CDs and signed bands like Polvo, Teenage Fanclub, American Music Club, Portastatic, but the label still saw very little commercial success for many years. Then in 2004 they signed a little band out of Canada called Arcade Fire whose first CD, Funeral, would go on to be an indy success and the first CD for the label to enter the Billboard Top 200. Success was limited, however, and the band still existed in the margins of the record and radio establishment. Arcade Fire’s second CD held serve, but left many wondering if the band could sustain their level of creativity and success on their third album. It was that third album, The Suburbs , that pushed the band into the spotlight, winning the Album of the Year honors in a stunning upset at the Grammy’s last night.

It was to be a night tailor-made by the record and radio companies. Sure, they had found commercial success in the Pop realm with Justin Bieber and Katy Perry this year, but the night was made for Lady Gaga and Eminem . CBS and E! both fell prey to the marketing machine featuring Madonna rip-off Lady Gaga’s bizarre interview on 60 Minutes and her amniotic arrival on the red carpet. On the night where she, the self-proclaimed Master of Publicity, arrived in an egg, it was the record companies and radio stations that proved to be the real chickens.

The announcement was so stunning that even Barbra Streisand’s reputation for being “ smooth like butta ” came crashing down. Listen carefully today as scores of news anchors stumble through the announcement of this year’s Album of the Year winner. Consider every pause and every air of unfamiliarity a victory against a record and radio industry that is so clearly broken, it has no understanding of the suburbs. They have force-fed Americans their music for so long, they cannot fathom us behaving like anything but lemmings. They are cowards who claim that piracy is the cause of their decade-long decline. They are way, way off. Much like Merge record’s move to Durham a decade ago, Record and Radio’s cheese also moved. It lies somewhere in record companies like Merge and on the internet. Don’t expect the industry’s Funeral this year, though. I fully expect Americans to be force-fed another helping of Radio Gaga.