Affirmation

If the music industry’s best sellers gave us only about two hours of great music last year, why did the Recording Academy think it needed 3 1/2 hours Sunday to honor it?

Or am I alone in thinking the 46th annual edition of the Grammy Awards felt torturously slow and mostly irrelevant?

By opening this dull-athon with a song, however great, from 20 years ago (Prince’s “Purple Rain”) and following it with one from 40 years ago (the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There”), the academy all but acknowledged that it would be hard to hold a mass TV audience’s attention with the sounds of 2003.

As the evening unfolded, it felt like an oldie was lurking at every turn.

If it wasn’t Sting singing “Roxanne,” the Police hit from 1979, it was Alicia Keys saluting Luther Vandross by performing his signature 1981 hit “A House Is Not a Home.” At least the latter was a part of a heartfelt nod to a major R&B; singer who is recuperating from a stroke.

You can certainly understand the thinking of the show’s production team in wanting to distract us from 2003 product.

The only young artist they apparently felt comfortable showcasing early in the program was Beyonce, who won five Grammys, tying the one-night record for the most by a woman.

But ultimately, it’s the awards that matter, not the TV presentation, and there was one great piece of news:

OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” was named best album.

Let’s all shake it like a Polaroid indeed, baby!

Nearly a quarter-century after hip-hop started its march to becoming the most persuasive and popular new musical style since the birth of rock in the ‘50s, hip-hop has finally been fully embraced by the Grammys.

Several hip-hop acts, including OutKast and Eminem, had been nominated in the best album category in recent years, but they lost, leading observers to suggest hip-hop was simply too edgy, even after all this time, to win the endorsement of conservative, mainstream Grammy voters.

Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” served notice five years ago that a change was coming when it won for best album. Hill’s album had hip-hop influences, but it was also laced with R&B; and pop elements that helped it catch the ear of Grammy voters. Indeed, it was also named best R&B; album in 1999.

“Speakerboxxx” won Sunday for best rap album as well as best overall album. It is a spectacular work, a two-disc collection -- with one disc filled with full-tilt party dynamics, the second disc reflecting on what it’s like when the party ends and there’s no one to share your dreams.

As such it deserves the applause of even those rock fans who might argue that the White Stripes’ “Elephant” was an even more deserving album, an album that spoke about self-affirmation and need with a captivating, heartfelt edge.

The OutKast victory was helped because it was a pitiful year for mainstream pop.

Because there are thousands of voters in the Grammy process, it’s hard for any album to get enough votes to be nominated unless it has sold a million copies. The million-sellers last year were mostly hollow because record companies are so desperate to keep their heads above water financially that they concentrate on signing and developing acts that echo the sounds of today’s hitmakers, rather than nurturing the acts that can push the boundaries of pop.

Aside from the White Stripes, there was so little quality competition for best album that some industry observers were predicting OutKast would win before they even heard the album last fall. The duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi has that much respect in the industry. Their “Stankonia” was nominated for best album in 2002, but it lost to the nice but less distinguished “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

In all the celebration over OutKast and hip-hop, however, there was a note of major disappointment Sunday.

Eminem was shut out for the third time in a major category. Though his “Lose Yourself” won in two rap categories, it lost to Coldplay’s graceful “Clocks” for record of the year, the second most important category.

“Clocks” is an enchanting song and Coldplay is a major new rock group, but “Lose Yourself” is another example of Eminem’s brilliance as a rapper and record maker.

When Eminem’s landmark “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show” albums lost in 2001 and 2003, respectively, industry observers suggested the Detroit rapper was simply too raw and perhaps controversial for Grammy sensibilities.

Thanks to the mainstream acceptance of his film, “8 Mile,” Eminem’s artistry has become much more widely applauded. So the failure to win Sunday may be more the result of poor memory of Grammy voters than bruised sensibilities.

“Lose Yourself” was released early in the Grammy eligibility period, which stretched this time from Oct. 1, 2002, to Sept. 30, 2003, which means it may have no longer been on the minds of voters. If “Lose Yourself” had won for best record, it would have been an even more historic night for hip-hop.

Even without the dual victory, however, it was a special time. When Andre 3000 and Big Boi stepped on stage to accept the award for best album, you could feel the presence of all the major hip-hop figures who helped open a door for them.

Just as most of the early greats of rock, from Elvis Presley to Jimi Hendrix, were bypassed because they were ahead of their time, so were such seminal hip-hop figures as Run-DMC, Public Enemy, N.W.A, Ice Cube and Tupac Shakur. Someday, perhaps the Grammy organization may salute them, as they did Presley and Hendrix, with lifetime achievement awards.