Now more than ever, The Grammy Awards need to change. This year's nominations add some changes within their voting process that seem to be aiming in the right direction, but there are plenty of hiccups as a result. Here are key takeaways from the nominations of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Time and time again, I find the Grammy Awards to be intriguing and interesting. Every year I'm pondering who will be nominated, who will win, and who will be snubbed. I'm always curious what the committee deems what is considered to be the best, most iconic, or ground breaking music each year. Sometimes they manage to get it right but more often enough the award show misfires in so many ways. It gets to a point where their blunders are consistently unsurprising, especially these days. Don't get me wrong, the Grammys are certainly a complete waste of time and it truly doesn't mean anything in terms of being successful within the music industry in 2021. But with a capital B, they always seem to reel me back in. You may read this and think I hate them, but I truly love following the Grammy awards show and nominations. I also think it's really cool when you see your favorite artists winning awards when they deserve them. Or heck, even being nominated is pretty cool too.
The 64th Annual Grammy Awards made quite a few changes that I actually do appreciate. They got rid of "secret committees" that often will decide genre specific categories and they've bumped up the nominees in the 4 major categories from 8 to 10. It's a blessing and a curse. Having more nominees means more artists being represented, which is great. But also having more means there is more room for error and that's unfortunately what we got here. They also have all the songwriters associated with the song/album to be recognized in each nomination as well, which is pretty cool. This has a downside of course, which I'll get to later. So on paper, all of these changes for the most part seem to be a very beneficial way to correctly represent the best music, right? Well, overall it's a step in the right direction but it's a step directly into a puddle of murky water. Seeing this year's nominations kind of proves that the popular vote within the committee contain mostly older, out of touch white men who probably choose the artists they are most familiar with rather than actually listening to the albums and actually choosing the more deserving ones.
There are overpraised artists that should not be getting 8+ nominations, there are very surprising snubs, and there are the typical predictable nominations of past winners or past celebrated artists. There are misrepresented artists that are so hugely popular that it's insulting to ignore, there is still yet a glaring lack of diversity in some of the categories, and there are truly, truly awful people that are being nominated for some idiotic reason. Despite all this, there are very pleasing and deserving nominations and some great surprises too. Below I will go through all of these topics and let you know what the Grammys got right and wrong with this year's nominations, and what they can do in the future to be taken more seriously.
Jon Batiste, H.E.R., and Tony Bennett are apparently the most important artists in music today.
The artist who received the most nominations is... wait for it... Jon Batiste! No, you don't know who Jon Batiste is? Well so do most likely the thousands of people who read the nominations on Tuesday. I actually do know Jon Batiste. He's the bandleader on Stephen Colbert's late show, has done soundtracking work for Pixar's Soul, and makes jazzy R&B and piano instrumentals with his solo work. He's racked up a whopping 11 nominations including album and record of the year for his sophomore album titled WE ARE. I do want to note that Colbert's show and the Grammys both air on CBS. That's what I call a red flag, folks. Nothing against Jon. He seems like a great guy, he's really talented and his music is well done, fine, pleasing, and inoffensive. But would anyone really say that Batiste is the most important artist of 2021? Is 2021 categorized as the year of Batiste? I don't think so. Neither is it for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, whose second duet album of standards gathered five nominations including album of the year. My guess is that it's because this is Tony Bennett's final album, so the Grammys just want to nominate him asap before he retires. Neither is it for H.E.R., a Grammy favorite, who has amassed so many nominations in the span of three years, yet she hasn't exactly become the acclaimed and iconic artist the Grammys are falsely portraying her to be. All of these artists are very talented and good at what they do. Nothing against these artists at all. They just simply aren't the artists that the general public or critics are praising this year in music.
Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish get the nominations they deserve while others get the nominations they don't deserve.
Pop superstar Lil Nas X has been huge this year with his big hit "Montero" and his album of the same name, picking up song, record, and album of the year. Pop sensations Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish rack up the big categories too with Sour and Happier Than Ever. All of this is expected and well deserved, these artists are certainly the biggest pop stars this year. Most likely it will be a race between Olivia and Billie to see who can win the most awards, which isn't surprising. Olivia Rodrigo also got the best new artist category and will 100% be a shoe in to win, even though she's up against 9 other artists. Doja Cat deservedly gets 8 nominations marking her quick rise to becoming one huge pop star. On the flipside, Canadian wonder boy Justin Bieber surprisingly gets a massive 8 nominations, including album, record, and song of the year. Considering his hugely popular yet hugely subpar hit "Peaches" and his critically mediocre album Justice, I'm both surprised yet not at his Grammy acclaim.
The biggest artists in the world are widely underrepresented.
BTS, the K-Pop giants, are undoubtedly one of the biggest bands in the world, if not the biggest. The Grammys have notably underrepresented them over the years, including this year. Their massive hit "Butter" is one of the year's biggest songs and is being swept under the rug by only being nominated for best Pop Duo/Group Performance and not record or song of the year. They get invited to the Grammys and yet they don't get anything major. The same goes for many Spanish speaking artists, specifically huge names like Bad Bunny and J Balvin. Bad Bunny is the most streamed artist in the world last year (and maybe this year too, who knows). To not have any of his new music in the major categories is ridiculous. They've been pushed into only the genre categories like Best Música Urbana Album (why they're using vapid terms like "urban" still I don't know) instead, which is very unfortunate. These are the biggest names in the world, people listen to all sorts of genres and regions across the world, especially younger people. To underrepresent the biggest (literally the biggest) names in music is truly a slap in the face to anyone who is remotely paying attention to the current musical landscape.
The Best New Artist category doesn't even mean anything anymore.
Usually I find the Best New Artist category to be really nice, an award that represents the best up and coming artist. Or... the best artist that came out years ago? Yeah, the Grammys system of defining a "new" artist is very strange and that comes into fold with this year's nominees. Glass Animals, a UK indie pop band, have been around since 2010 and have released 3 studio albums. What's even more perplexing is that they've had a platinum-selling single "Gooey" that's been out for 7 years. 7 years! What the heck guys... seriously? Another head scratcher is Japanese Breakfast being included in the list. I love that Japanese Breakfast is on this list, don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about this. But, Michelle Zauner's band have also had 3 albums up until this point and have been well established for years now. I even met Zauner and saw them live a few years ago in 2018, when they were already a critically acclaimed band. What's the most suspicious is nominating Finneas in this category. If you don't already know, he's the brother and producer of Billie Eilish and he's most likely being included for his debut solo album that absolutely no one is talking about (in a positive manner, that is). Let me remind you that he's an 8-time award winner already and he's up for this award? Get out of here. So either I don't understand what a "new" artist is or the Grammys need some legit help figuring this out.
The Rock categories go all in for the already established old white male.
Pretty much this year with the Rock categories, like almost every year, the Grammys tend to lean towards the more established and well known artists even despite their lack of current relevancy. When just looking at the nominations this year, you might think rock is dead? All of the rock categories include new releases from AC/DC, Paul McCartney, the late Chris Cornell, Weezer, Kings of Leon, and Foo Fighters. The only "newer" artists seem to be Black Pumas (a huge favorite time and time again in the Grammy camp for some reason) and Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie's son). It seems to me like they've forgotten the many, many, many ground breaking rock albums being released this year from younger, newer artists. UK post punk, anyone? Mdou Moctar's Afrique Victime wasn't even nominated for anything even though it is arguably the best rock album of the year. It should've at least been a shoe in for the global categories but should've definitely been considered in the rock ones. What a crime.
The Alternative Album category is predictably predictable.
The Best Alternative Music Album category is one of my favorite ones to look at every year. Typically the Grammys go the safer route by nominating artists that are more well known but I've come across some surprises in the past. This year we have some predictable ones. Overall they're all completely fine: Japanese Breakfast's nomination was a great surprise, Fleet Foxes' Shore album definitely deserves a Grammy win, the Arlo Parks album is fine I guess. Halsey's new album with Trent Reznor is getting nominated but I feel like it is just because of his involvement. As I predicted when her album initially came out, St. Vincent is getting nominated as usual. She's a great talent and I appreciate her music, more so her older material but I digress. It seems like almost every album she releases gets nominated and I would appreciate seeing more artists/albums being nominated that don't typically get nominated you know? There were plenty I would've liked to see instead like maybe the new Dry Cleaning album or the new Squid album? The Weather Station's Ignorance album would've been a great nomination but she could've been placed in a variety of categories including Americana, rock, folk or roots.
There are some really great surprises and picks.
Despite all the negative criticism I'm giving (I'm sorry guys), there were actually some genuinely great surprises and picks that happened here. For starters, Pakistan-born and Brooklyn-based singer and songwriter Arooj Aftab is being nominated in the Best New Artist and global music categories for her new album Vulture Prince. This is a huge surprise since Aftab is such a sleeper hit as an artist and she's been getting a lot of great attention for it. And deservedly so because that album is great; it's one of the prettiest albums I've heard all year! Another surprise is ABBA being nominated for Record of the Year with their comeback single "I Still Have Faith In You" off of their first new album in 40 years. It's a huge surprise that ABBA have never won a Grammy (which also shows how unimportant these awards are) but maybe this year we'll see it for the first time? In the Best Arrangement, Instrumental, or A Cappella category, a song composed for Kirby's Super Star video game is being nominated by The 8-Bit Big Band for their cover of it. This is really awesome considering video game music is ignored with the Grammys which is absurd if you ask me. Maybe a Best Video Game Soundtrack category needs to be made? That would be awesome guys, please make it happen! This might not come as a surprise per say considering they've been nominated in the past but Third Coast Percussion's excellent new album Archetypes is being nominated in the Best Engineered Album Classical, Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition categories. Their collaborative project with Clarice and Sergio Assad is one of my favorites of the year. It sounds amazing, and it deserves all those wins!
Snubs, snubs, snubs.
There are usually some snubs and this year there were some. You can't include everyone, I get it, but they could come close to nominating a respectable amount. Megan Thee Stallion had a big year this year and last year and it's shocking to see her Good News album not here at all. Her and Cardi B's "WAP," like it or not, was the biggest song of the year. Not seeing it on here is ridiculous, especially knowing they performed it live at the Grammys last year. Kacey Musgraves got nominated but only for her song "Camera Roll" in the smaller country categories and not best country album. Ariana Grande should've been nominated in all the big categories and instead only a measly best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album. Tyler, the Creator has a nomination for his new album in the smaller rap categories but none in the larger categories. Despite Lorde's big comeback with Solar Power, she is nowhere to be found on this list. Miley Cyrus and Machine Gun Kelly surprisingly got completely shut out even thought they both had really huge years and both records seem like ones that the Grammys would consider.
Cancel culture? Never heard of it.
Arguably the biggest concern I have with the Grammys this year are the committee's nominations for controversial and overall bad people. Louis C.K. is being nominated for Best Comedy Album while Dave Chappelle is being nominated for Best Spoken Word Album. Marilyn Manson is being credited for his involvement in Kanye West's Donda album, which is more of an afterthought but still a bad decision from the committee. Pop producer Dr. Luke is still being nominated despite all of his past controversies, this time it's for his involvement with Doja Cat's music. I don't understand why big artists are collaborating with him these days but whatever. Yeah, these are all pretty bad picks and it kinda cancels out much of the Grammy's attempts at progressing. In response to these picks, the Grammys president stated that they don't look at artist's back history and simply ignore the past when considering nominations, which is a huge red flag. If you're going to act like you're progressing, being inclusive and equal with nominations, you gotta act the part too, buddy. By that I mean stop including people that suck and don't need any more recognition than they already have.
Overall, they've got a long way to go.
So here we are again with the Grammy nominations and I am here once again perplexed. I'm happy with some of the nominations and yet I'm unhappy with others as usual. There are some genuinely good picks here that are well deserved in which they got right while there are others where I'm just scratching my head. Like it's 2021 and we're still getting some picks like this? I don't know man. I think compared to all the other major awards, the Grammys are the ones that have the furthest to go in order to be respectable again. I do think they are making some progress but with every step forward they take two back. I want them to be better, to represent the best current music the year had to offer. I am always curious with the outcome and these nominations have me both thrilled and displeased. Once again the Grammys claim that they are representing the best of the best and I simply just don't buy that completely. They've still got a long way to go. We'll see who wins though. That's the most important thing at the end of the day.