Grammy Nominations

The Grammy nominations were announced December 9th with much excitement, and afterwards, much controversy. So much music is released in a year, and every person has a different music taste, so it is impossible to please all people with individual music tastes. It is also near impossible to whittle a whole year’s worth of albums into just a list of five. The Grammys are also notorious for choosing a non-popular album which some might call an underdog, or undeserving (queue Beck’s album of the year win last year, beating Beyoncé), or the most popular music which some people might also call undeserving, or popular for a reason (queue Sam Smith’s various wins last year for his huge hits). But we can only hope that everyone can be pleased this coming ceremony.

But that will be tough, considering that many were displeased with just the nominations. Some were confused why the Alabama Shakes were nominated for best rock song, but their album was nominated for best alternative album. Some were upset by the lack of Drake’s Hotline Bling, which turns out was not sent in to even be considered.

But regardless of any confusion, the album of the year category has quite the variety of genres; Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly”, Taylor Swift’s “1989”, The Weeknd’s “The Beauty Behind the Madness”, and Chris Stapleton’s “Traveller”. Trans genre nominations create a tough environment to choose a best because each album comes from a different context (as in it is difficult to compare To Pimp a Butterfly and Traveller because their cultural bases and contents are so different).

The record of the year nominations are not as diverse, but still have some things to discuss; “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift, “I Can’t Feel my Face” by The Weeknd, “Thinking Out Loud” By Ed Sheeran, and “Really Love” by D’Angelo and the Vanguard. These songs are all deserving for the record of the year, the award that not only awards the artist, but also the producers, mixers, and all others that had worked on creating the song. All of these songs were huge hits this year, other than “Really Love”, which seems like the black sheep out of all of these songs. D’Angelo came out with the album “Black Messiah” at the tail end of 2014, his first album in almost fifteen years. “Really Love” is a very organic sounding tune. Beautiful strings and acoustic guitar, paired with D’Angelo’s silky voice singing of love transports the listener to another world. It’s no wonder why this song was nominated, but we can only predict if the voters will choose the most popular, or determine the winner solely on the music.

Is it a bad thing to choose the most popular over the best sounding? Music is as much culture as it is about how much it sounds. That's how genres are formed, and that is how cultures characterize themselves. Many people get angry about how the Academy often chooses popular songs over only sound, but it’s important to award what makes music so important to all. “A song is obviously not better if it's less popular” NHS Sophomore Tristan Filiato said,” because the more people that like it, the more popular it is”. Music is a connector. Music is what weaves our culture together. Just by reading the news for a few minutes one would be able to find at least one article about music, or just referencing music. It is beautiful that someone could have nothing in common with someone, and they could bring up a song like “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen and you could have a long conversation over just that. That's part of what makes music great. Shouldn’t the Academy award the cultural impact of a song or album, along with the sound?

But there are issues with that too. Maybe an artist could have put their heart and soul into their album or song, and because they just don't have as many traditional pop aspects to their songs, or they do not get mega popularity like some of their fellow nominees, and thus they don’t win. This was the issue with the Beck vs. Beyoncé album of the year. Beck and Beyoncé had very well received albums. Both artists had never received album of the year, and both had never won album of the year. But there's no question that Beyoncé had a more popular album, because she's, well, Beyoncé. Social media went crazy when she lost to Beck, but critics might just have gone just as insane if she would have won. Obviously the conflict is nowhere near over.

Once in a blue moon, we get a song or album that is loved by critics and fans alike, and maybe that will happen this time around. We won’t know who will win until February 17 when the Grammys air on CBS.

Image Courtesy of birdlandmusic.com