The Grammys often make retrospectively puzzling choices (especially in the Best New Artist category IIRC). I personally don't think The Dance should've won because as others said it was an album of almost all old songs, though I think a few performances made great new contributions ("Silver Springs" the most notorious, also a new life for "The Chain" and "Landslide"). But as for why the Grammy committee didn't award it, it was up against two Lilith Fest-type hits which were then in vogue (Paula Cole's and Sarah Maclachlan's current projects) and a Jamiroquai album that I've never listened to so I can't comment on it, and also James Taylor who did win, and you could say James Taylor is just as much a "legacy" rock act as the Mac and had the added bonus of having an album with all new material out, and had some of the "comeback" qualities of The Dance too. So maybe that won out in the end. Grammy votes, like Oscar votes, are kinda sometimes about politics and paying nod to as many different criteria that people want fulfilled as possible.
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