About a third of the way through the broadcast of the 67th annual Grammy Awards, it felt like things were too good to be true. The artists I wanted to win awards were actually winning. What a concept.

Every time someone presented one of the show’s major prizes — album of the year, record of the year, song of the year, best new artist — he or she rattled off the line before revealing the winner. It was a small but telling detail that demonstrated how the academy wants to be perceived after years of being portrayed as a shadowy record-industry cabal.