Amid all the hype for the new and the now, an old rocker and his accomplice stole the show at the 51st Grammy awards in Los Angeles yesterday.
Robert Plant – he of the extravagant mane and the gravelly vocals – walked away with five Grammys, including the prized album of the year title.
The Raising Sand album, a critically acclaimed collaboration between the Led Zeppelin frontman and the bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, also won Grammys for best contemporary folk album and record of the year.
The veteran Plant brought a sense of perspective to the otherwise overwrought, blingtastic occasion.
"I'm bewildered," he said on receiving the award. "In the old days, we would have called this selling out – but I think it's a good way to spend a Sunday."
The 60-year-old vocalist was not the only British artist with cause to celebrate.
Coldplay won best rock album for Viva La Vida and song of the year for its title track, as well as another Grammy for the bafflingly titled best performance by a duo or group with vocals.
Radiohead, another veteran Britrock group, won the best alternative music Grammy for their album In Rainbows
It wasn't only older British rockers who were recognised at the ceremony. Adele won the best newcomer and best female pop vocal performance, with her triumph in Los Angeles following a Brit award two years ago and a nomination for last year's Mercury music prize.
But despite her successes, the lengthy list of winners – 110 in all – confirmed many critics' accusations that the awards reward longevity rather than innovation and thus run counter to the spirit of popular music.
Last year, the album of the year went to Herbie Hancock, who was last seen trying to sabotage the Obama inauguration concert with some atonal keyboard noodling.
This year, Plant and Krauss won for their drivetime-friendly, blues-flecked folk rock, the sort of cross-genre collaboration that is popular with awards committees.
Fresher work such as MIA's Paper Planes, nominated alongside Plant and Krauss for record of the year, missed out.
However, MIA did get her Grammy moment, performing at the ceremony on the day her baby was due.
No awards ceremony would be complete without Al Gore, who is rapidly supplanting Dame Judi Dench as the ceremony perennial.
The former vice-president won the best spoken word album award for his narration of An Inconvenient Truth.
The night's other big victor was the rapper Lil' Wayne, who won four Grammys including best rap album, best rap song, best rap performance by a duo or group, and best solo rap performance.
The idiosyncratic nomenclature of the Grammys threw up several oddities and countless multiple winners.
Perhaps most odd was the revelation that, with her five wins, Krauss has now become the third most honoured artist in the history of the Grammys.
The French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez remains the Grammyest musician ever, followed by the late conductor Georg Solti.
Despite the predictability of both the winners and the length of the show – three and a half hours, no less – the Grammys supplied a bit of unexpected drama with the announcement that the R&B nominee Chris Brown would not be performing.
That was because he had turned himself into a Los Angeles police station at about the time the ceremony began following reports he had been involved in a domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend and fellow nominee Rihanna.
Even Jerry Lewis never managed a stunt like that.
And finally, no Grammy report could be complete without noting the victory of the polka stalwart Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra, who won best polka album for Let the Whole World Sing. Sturr and orchestra have now won 19 of the 25 Grammys awarded for best polka album.
