The Grammy Awards have long had a reputation for being somewhat predictable. But that was cast to the wayside Wednesday when the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack won five awards in all, including an upset victory over favorites U2 in the album of the year category.

T. Bone Burnett, who produced the record, was also honored as producer of the year.

“`O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ was a big surprise to me. I’ve heard that soundtrack and it’s really good,” said Patrick Fleming, co-founder of Ames’ Bi-Fi records. “To put together a ton of different artists and have them write the same style of music is awesome. If they can pull it off they way they did then I think they deserve the highest honor in music there is.”

Although she didn’t win album of the year, Alicia Keys still won big. The R&B newcomer won four awards including song of the year for the hit single “Fallin’.”

“I was glad to see India.Arie and Alicia Keys and a few people up who were actually musicians themselves as opposed to some pre-fabricated product of the American mass media trying to dumb us down,” said KURE disc jockey, Reilly Leibhard.

The other big winner of the night, U2, made three trips to the podium. The bands latest album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” was actually released in 2000, something that didn’t sit well with Fleming.

“I really like that U2 song, but I think they were up for Grammys last year for that album,” Fleming said. “So I don’t think that’s fair to ride the wave like that.”

Others weren’t concerned with when the album was released; they were just fed up with U2.

“They were cool back in the day but I think they just suck now,” said Adam Cranston, junior in mathematics. “Bono is just way too cheesy and attention craving.”

“I wish they would have won these things back when they were political and sending a message besides `we want to sell our CDs for twenty bucks at Sam Goody,'” Leibhard, senior in Liberal Arts and Sciences, said.

Local reactions to the Grammy Awards were mixed. Leibhard said he was neutral, not seeing a lot of positive or negative, and Fleming was pleased with the unpredictability. Some had stronger emotions though.

“Music today is bad therefore I think the Grammys are bad,” Cranston said. “I think the Grammys are a perfect example of what is wrong in the world of music.”