Grammy Nominations

[Allskate]

To answer Allskate's question about the Best New Artist category: "Best New Artist" doesn't exactly mean you are "new" to the industry (Bon Iver). It's basically when the Grammy voters start to take notice of you for the first time. That could be years after you first hit the scene.

The Bon Iver nomination is the one that baffled me. How could the Grammy folks not have been aware of "For Emma Forever Ago?"

If it makes you feel better, Rihanna and Katy have never won a Grammy in a vocal category. Katy has yet to win a Grammy of any kind. Personally, I think having a distinctive vocal style is a good thing. A lot of the kids doing covers on Youtube have good voices, but they all sing in a kind of generic/pretty way.

I think having a distinctive voice is a good thing. I just don't think having a distinctive voice necessarily means you have a good voice. There are plenty of people with distinctive voices who sing terribly.

I'd be happy to see Katy Perry gets a Grammy at some point, just not based on vocals. IMO, she should have won the AMA for best entertainer over Taylor Swift. Katy has had a bunch of good and successful singles this past year, several good videos, and a long and successful tour.

[BigB08822]

There isn't a single category for vocals so if Katy Perry gets a Grammy it could be for a number of things, including or not including her vocals. There is no way to know why people voted for her, just that they did. Vocals mean nothing at the Grammy's, it is just another factor someone can take into consideration when voting.

[oleada]

FWIW, Florence and the Machine's new album scored about the same as Adele's on metacritic. Don't get me wrong, Adele is great, but I don't think she's all alone at the top of the mountain.

That's such a great album, I've been listening to it non-stop for the past few days. Will it be eligible for the Grammys next year then? Or did it just get overlooked?

(I wish Florence and the Machine had won best new artist last year But anyone but the Beebs was good)

[rjblue]

I liked Adele so much that I read her blog, and she said that The Civil Wars "are by far the BEST live band i have EVER seen", which led me to follow them on Facebook. The Civil Wars are paying forward that notice, by posting links to other artists on their wall, which led to to Matthew and the Atlas, Within the Rose- perhaps the lovelyist video I've ever seen, and a new favourite of mine. Anyone who likes Bon Iver, would probably enjoy their music.

That said. I don't judge artists like Rihanna by the same ear I do artists like the ones I just mentioned. Great pop music requires an interesting sounding voice, songs with great hooks, and brilliant production. Rihanna's team make some wonderful pop songs. I don't know if I'll still be listening to them in 10 years, like I do Britney's hits (love,love them), but I sure like them now.

[overedge]

There isn't a single category for vocals so if Katy Perry gets a Grammy it could be for a number of things, including or not including her vocals.

How about "Most Use of Autotune"?

[Louis]

How about "Most Use of Autotune"?

Ke$ha wins that hands down.

[VALuvsMKwan]

Ironic that "Pumped Up Kicks" got its nomination for Best Pop Duo or Group, since Mark Foster created the track on his own as a sort of demo prior to getting together with Mark P. and Cubby to form Foster The People.

Also sad that "Torches" isn't up for Album of the Year. I hear multiple tracks from "Torches" being played in clubs, restaurants and bars here all the time. Is that a regional thing?

Outside of the 20/30-something club scene, so many people seem to know FTP only from Pumped Up Kicks or from the Nissan Versa commercials which use a bit of Don't Stop (Colors on the Wall). They seem to be getting far more play and fandom on YouTube and in live concert settings.

[BigB08822]

Plus FTP are nice to look at.

[cailuj365]

Not even Kesha is as autotuned as T.Pain.

I don't know any Foster the People tracks other than "Pumped Up Kicks," which I don't even think is THAT good. I have no idea how it became that popular, especially on mainstream pop radio.

[KikiSashaFan]

Everytime I hear "Pumped Up Kicks" on the radio I start humming this.

[BigB08822]

This isn't Grammy related but I love this song on the Dior commercial with Charlize Theron and I looked it up. It is Beth Ditto and Gossip and the song is called "Heavy Cross." I actually like the whole album. Definitely getting it after Christmas, waiting to see if I get any iTunes gift cards.

[Ziggy]

It would be amazing if we could get another upset like "The Suburbs" winning best album and Esperanza Spalding winning best newcomer.

But I guess it would be like winning the lottery twice.

Wall of text below (I love music and listen to everything that charts and a lot of the obscure stuff too).

But two things stood out.

I am shocked to see Beyonce totally snubbed and given no nominations whatsoever.

Her last album is far from being exceptional but it is very decent and given a lot of the crap that got nominated, I am really baffled not to see it in the running for anything.

I am very sad and dissapointed to see Sufjan Stevens totally snubbed too. His "Age of the Adz" is an amazing masterpiece and deserves recognition.

1. Record of the Year

Bon Iver's "Holocene" should win but you can pretty safely bet the winner is going to be Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". Which is the best song on her album and the second best song nominated so I can live with that.

I know that Grammy awards are highly influenced by industry interest and don't really have much to do with awarding best music (whatever that means) but nominating "Firework" really is taking the piss.

2. Album of the Year

Those nominations are just depressing. Five very mediocre albums.

Given there was so much good music released between 9/10 and 9/11, it really is a joke.

As I said above, I know Grammy's are heavily skewed towards mainstream music but even there you can find much more worthy nominees like Beyonce's "4".

I can't believe that Bon Iver's "Bon Iver" (which should win every single award it can, it's a masterpiece) isn't even nominated.

I'd nominate:

Bon Iver "Bon Iver"
Laura Marling "A Creature I Don't Know"
PJ Harvey "Let England Shake"
Sufjan Stevens "The Age of Adz"
Wild Beasts "Smother"

It'd be very close between Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens but I'd give the former the age. Both are incredible masterpieces though.

Some other very good albums released between 9/10 and 9/11:

Bombay Bicycle Club "A Different Kind of Fix"
The Civil Wars "Barton Hollow"
Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"
Gillian Welch "The Harrow & The Harvest"
Jamie Woon "Mirrorwriting"
Robert Plant "Band of Joy"
Tori Amos "Night of Hunters"
Twin Shadow "Forget" (video NSFW)
Washed Out "Within and Without"

As far as more popular stuff goes, Beyonce's "4" is not a great album but the best out of all the mainstream pop ones, I think.

Two honorable mentions that are great but haven't been released in the US yet:
Ed Sheeran "+" (both a good album and a massive commercial success)
Nicola Roberts "Cinderella's Eyes" (the only really good, original, fresh guilty pleasure pop music album I've heard this year)

(I could continue naming scores of albums that are better than the 5 nominated but you get my point )

3. Song of the Year

Look at 1.

Two standout tracks that aren't contained in the above mentioned albums:
Austra "Lose It"
Burial "Stolen Dog"

I am surprised that "Pumped Up Kicks" hasn't been nominated neither for this, nor for Record of the Year. It really stands out from the crowd and has been a massive commercial success too.

4. Best New Artist

It's very puzzling to see Bon Iver nominated here, given the universal acclaim and strong sales (for the kind of music it is) of their first album released in 2008.

Still, he's heads and shoulders above any of the other nominees and it would be a travesty not to see him win.

I'm worried it might be Nicki, though. :/

8. Best Pop Vocal Album

Nice to see Cee Lo Green's "The Lady Killer" being nominated. The best out of the very mediocre lot but again, Adele is surely going to win this tone too.

9. Best Dance Recording

I'd love to see Robyn win this for Call Your Girlfriend. She has this rare gift of making music that is fun, dancable and radio friendly but not cringe-inducingly awful.

10. Best Dance/Electronica Album

Robyn should also win this for "Body Talk" (I don't understand why Body Talk, Pt. 3 EP is nominated instead of Body Talk the album, weird). Great album that.

Failing that, Cut Copy's "Zonoscope" is good too.

I'm worried the shitty David Guetta is going to win, though, because the muppets voting wouldn't have even heard of of the other nominees.

11. Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

Susan Boyle's "The Gift" nominated?

I know she's the people's princess and her story is so touching but come on...

12. Best Rock Performance
14. Best Rock Song

I think Radiohead's "Lotus Flower" should win both but it probably won't.

15. Best Rock Album

Again, such mediocre albums nominated. /sigh

Wilco is the only decent album out of the lot but it's nothing special and definitely not their best effort.

There were many much better choices.

No idea how they define "rock" but I guess many of the albums I mentioned above qualify so I'm not going to repeat myself.

16. Best Alternative Music Album

See this would be the perfect place to nominated many of the albums I mentioned when I discussed Best Album category.

But even here, it looks like you can't get nominated unless you make a commercial impact.

"Alternative" is seen as something which isn't pop.

Out of the nominees, Bon Iver should obviously win hands down.

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Would be great to see Raphael Saadiq's "Good Man" win Best Traditional R&B Performance.

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The Civil Wars' "Barton Hollow" has to win Best Country Duo/Group Performance. In a totally different league to the rest of the kitsch it stands against.

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Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is a genius album and should win in all the categories it is entered.

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Alison Krauss & Union Station's "Paper Airplane" should win Best Bluegrass. I haven't mentioned it before but this also is a very good album.

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46. Best Folk Album

Why is Laura Marling not even nominated?

I think she should win.

But the previously mentioned The Civil Wars, Fleet Foxes and Gillian Welch are all very very good.

This is the strongest category in the Grammies this year.

The folk revival is in full bloom.

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The amazing Tinariwen have to win Best World Music Album. They deserve mainstream recognition and their story deserves to be heard (check the Al-Jazeera documentary about them on their YT channel).

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Danger Mouse should win producer of the year. He's consistently turning out incredible work.

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Ok Go have been producing interesting, stand out videos for a long time now (which helped to make up for how crap their music is, nobody would notice them otherwise ) but they've really exceeded themselves with All Is Not Lost. Definitely the Best Short Form Music Video.

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I want Gaga to win album. Born This Way is really impressive.

How is a recycling of tired pop music tropes really impressive?

There's loads of similar music out there. Do we really need a second Madonna?

The only difference you get with Gaga is the constant costume changes.

There's nothing original or interesting about the music itself. It's all about the image and the "artiste" posing.

I wouldn't actually mind her at all. Fun pop music is fun.

But her self-aggrandisement, her lack of distance and presenting herself as some kind of musical messiah, when in fact she makes mediocre radio-friendly pop music, is just infuriating.

At the risk Of being unpopular, I have to say Adele is overrated. Ya, she's probably the best singer in popular music right now and her songs hit an emotional chord. That said, I don't find her music to be particularly insightful nor her lyrics to be that exceptional to be getting all this over-the-top raves and lack of criticism. She's sort of one-note and Rumors is one of the worst songs I've ever heard in terms of grating on my nerves with the way it was produced.

Of course.

Her music can be best summed up thus: "a mire of turgid, characterless piano balladry swamped in routine string arrangements" (quote sadly not mine).



She has a very special voice, it's a shame it gets wasted on such bland music.

This isn't Grammy related but I love this song on the Dior commercial with Charlize Theron and I looked it up. It is Beth Ditto and Gossip and the song is called "Heavy Cross." I actually like the whole album. Definitely getting it after Christmas, waiting to see if I get any iTunes gift cards.

The album is called Music for Men and it's very good. But it was out in 2009 so it's not eligible for the 2012 Grammy Awards.

What is eligible (but didn't get any nominations) is Beth Ditto's EP, entitled EP.

Some very good tracks on it, like I Wrote The Book or Open Heart Surgery.

[BigB08822]

I think this album was Beyonce's weakest album to date. I am shocked she didn't get nominated because she is Beyonce but IMO it wasn't anywhere near the best pop album released this past year. Not. Even. Close. Music is subjective, though!

[Ziggy]

I think this album was Beyonce's weakest album to date. I am shocked she didn't get nominated because she is Beyonce but IMO it wasn't anywhere near the best pop album released this past year. Not. Even. Close. Music is subjective, though!

It was better received than her previous two albums, especially the last one.

I'm not a fan of that album but it wasn't bad (I think it's one of her best) and I was talking in relative terms, anyhow.

Beyonce got no nominations but trash from Katy Perry or Bruno Mars did. Or the weak "Loud" from Rihanna. I could go on.

[BigB08822]

Katy Perry got an honorary nomination for the 5 #1 singles, no doubt.

Rihanna has been breaking records herself. She is in the company of legends as far as top 10 Billboard hits and so forth. I think they decided to give her a nomination to acknowledge her success. I doubt either will win. You could easily argue the same for Beyonce but she typically gets nominated for farting so I think they decided to pass her over for once.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

And seriously, it's the Grammys. Out of all the industry awards (Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, etc.) isn't the Grammys the least thought of? I mean it's nice to win an award that celebrates Top 40 in the main categories, but among thousands of music releases a year, it's really difficult to narrow it down to five and actually have a real body to listen to the releases to determine which songs are the best of the year. Not to mention that music just seems more subjective and personal than film, television, or drama which are much more visual in nature.

Ziggy, are you really surprised that the Grammys didn't nominate Sufjan Stevens? There's a great number of excellent artists who the Grammys never recognize, and this is especially true for indie artists like Sufjan Stevens. Other than obscure genre or deep genre categories (like the traditional R&B or Bluegrass or jazz or classical categories), the Recording Academy seems to only recognize what has made the industry money and has awareness in the mainstream, and I guess why shouldn't they since the Recording Academy is made up of those who made it in the music industry who are not necessarily music critics or aficionados who actively seek to listen to music that isn't noticed outside college stations, indie music blogs, and NPR (and even then, good luck).

My comment about being "needlessly snobby" is that I haven't heard a real criticism regarding Rihanna's voice other than simply lumping her with the whole "talentless music generation" I was reading throughout this thread until a poster mentioned her difficultly singing on pitch. That may be true, but the Grammys are judging recorded music, so that's a moot point other than some of the categories where they judge live performances. I guess it goes into the subjective part because I thought Loud was an excellent CD and the material more interesting than Adele's generic piano ballads that are all about love despite Adele having the best voice in popular music at the moment.

[BigB08822]

The Grammy's mean a lot to those who win them and mean nothing to those who don't.

[allezfred]

I'm a huge Beyonce fan, but her last album was shite.

I think some people are forgetting that the Grammys is a TV show and in order to get good rating they need the stars to show up. Stars are more likely to show if they're nominated.

[cailuj365]

There's a funny clip from "The Simpsons" with one of the characters stopping to stare at a trophy but once he realizes it's a Grammy, he throws it off the balcony. I wish I could find it on youtube.

Ziggy, I respect your musical tastes, but I find many of them boring.

[Andora]

The Civil Wars' "Barton Hollow" has to win Best Country Duo/Group Performance. In a totally different league to the rest of the kitsch it stands against.

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Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" is a genius album and should win in all the categories it is entered.

Completely agreed on both fronts.I saw the Civil Wars open for Adele () and was just taken by them. I usually am bored or uninterested during opening acts at shows (Though I usually go to smaller rock concerts, so...), but they were amazing.

I haven't stopped listening to Kanye's album since it came out. Seriously, I'd be so happy if Kanye won everything. Extra points if Taylor Swift rushes the stage.

I agree with Cyn's points on David Guetta (looks like a rat, imho), but I really love Commander. Can I chalk that up to Kelly Rowlegend?