carrieEver tried to talk about an award show when you didn’t actually see it? Pretty difficult. eh? Well, I’m not even gonna try, instead leaving most of the discussion about this week’s ceremonies to people who either watched on TV or were actually there.

The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was this past Saturday night, and among the highlights were a moving speech by Eminem as he inducted Run-DMC, and a blistering performance by honorees Metallica, who were joined by former bassist Jason Newsted for the first time in almost a decade. You can read more about the Hall of Fame ceremony here.

Last night was the Academy of Country Music awards ceremony, and Carrie Underwood officially cemented her status as the most successful American Idol ever by winning the Entertainer of the Year award, making her only the seventh female artist to win the award since 1970 (damn!). Other big winners included Taylor Swift (for best album), Brad Paisley (for best male artist) and Rascal Flatts (for best group). Word among the blogosphere is that the ceremony was quite entertaining and arguably better than this year’s Grammys.

The ACM awards should have a pretty big influence on the next two weeks of charts, so we’ll see how Underwood and Swift, who have already sold millions of copies of their latest efforts, fare. With that, we can officially close the book on award show season, at least until the BET Awards pop up this summer.

You can read more about the ACM Awards here.