Grammys No Longer For Granny

These aren’t your granny’s Grammys anymore.

And they aren’t Mariah Carey’s, either.

Clearly, pop balladeer Carey was the big loser Wednesday night at the 38th version of the Grammys as she shockingly lost in all six categories in which she was nominated. She had been considered a serious contender for the album of the year, record of the year and female pop vocal performance awards, among others.

But the big winner was less obvious.

Was it alternative-rock newcomer Alanis Morissette, who won four awards, including the coveted album of the year statuette?

Was it suaver-than-thou British singer Seal, who won three awards - including record of the year and the top songwriting award, song of the year?

Or was it the voting membership of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which added a long-overdue hint of relevancy to the awards by rejecting many of the safer and more conservative nominees (Carey in particular) who would have been runaway winners in years past?

You oughta know:

Our vote goes to Morissette, whose jilted lover’s diatribe, “You Oughta Know,” was the galvanizing moment in pop music last year.

The Canadian singer is young. She’s hip. She’s edgy. In other words, she’s everything that the 7,000-plus Grammy-voting members of NARAS aren’t, which is precisely why most Grammy forecasters considered Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” album to be a long shot to win the best-album statuette over Carey’s “Daydream.”

Of course, Morissette, who turned in a passionate acoustic performance of “You Oughta Know” during Wednesday’s telecast from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, didn’t sweep.

Proving that the Grammy voters can’t get everything right, “You Oughta Know” lost the song of the year race to Seal’s hit, “Kiss From a Rose” from “Batman Forever.”

Even worse, that insipid, 12 million-albums-selling cultural phenomenon known as Hootie & the Blowfish undeservingly won the best new artist award over Morissette - and over soulful singer-songwriter Joan Osborne, who was nominated for five awards (largely for her big hit “One of Us”) but won none.

Clearly, the award went not to the best new artist but to the newcomer with the most name recognition and industry clout. The good news: The best new artist award is historically a music-industry kiss of death. (Raise your hand if you’ve heard from Christopher Cross, Marc Cohn or Milli Vanilli lately.)

Meanwhile, Carey’s 0-for-‘96 showing wasn’t the only pleasant surprise when the winners were announced Wednesday.

Annie Lennox captured the female pop vocal performance award for her remake of “No More ‘I Love You’s”’ against such favored competition as Carey and Bonnie Raitt.

Alison Krauss, one of country music’s most refreshing young talents, won the female country vocal performance award for “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” over country vixen Shania Twain’s pop confection “Any Man of Mine.” Krauss also won a country collaboration with vocals Grammy with Shenandoah for “Somewhere in the Vicinity of the Heart.” Twain won the country album award for her 5 million-selling effort, “The Woman in Me.”