Grammy Nomination Reaction: Pandering Or Progress? Either Way, We'll Take It
Somewhat quietly (hence the delay from our end), the nominations for the 60th Grammy Awards were announced a week and a half ago. The exhaustive list can be found here. There's never a shortage of talking points when an awards show nominee list is revealed, but that's even more so the case this year, as the Grammys mark a tremendous change in direction from years of precedence.
Album Of The Year Predictions-- Revisited
You may recall, back in October, I gave a rundown of the contestants for Album of the Year, which I and many others consider THE Grammy. For the second year in a row, I only got 2 of the 5 actual nominees correct-- Bruno Mars' 24K Magic and Kendrick Lamar's DAMN.
So, went wrong for my other predicted finalists? On the contrary-- at least from my perspective, it's more a case of "what went right." Easily the biggest talking point from the nomination unveiling is how dominant Rap is among this year's nominees. So, though I did think Jay-Z's 4:44 and Childish Gambino's "Awaken, My Love!" had a chance for consideration, I filed them away as "Long Shots" because I expected the Grammys to only slot in one Rap nominee (Kendrick Lamar), and otherwise diversify. Instead, all three made the finalist list, as did Lorde for her critically-acclaimed Melodrama. I truly thought Melodrama had a great chance at being nominated, and currently think it has a terrific chance of winning the award, but merely assumed that if Pop albums were going to be nominated, it would be the mammoths of 24K Magic and Ed Sheeran's ÷.
The Pleasant Surprises
Boy, where to start? The Grammys' worst kept secret is how horribly black artists have been snubbed-- Rap being the main casualty, though not the only one. It took 20 years for the awards to even create a subcategory of awards for Rap, for starters. And even though recent years have seen a better job of nominating black artists for General awards, the last 5 ceremonies have seen those same artists spurned atrociously for awards they deserved. In 2012, Frank Ocean's channel ORANGE lost Album of the Year to a mediocre Mumford and Sons album. In 2013, Kendrick Lamar and his good kid, m.A.A.d city somehow lost both Best New Artist AND Best Rap Album to white "good times" rapper Macklemore. 2014, Beyoncé's shoo-in victory somehow never came, inexplicably losing to Beck. 2015, Lamar was the victim again, as To Pimp A Butterfly, an album that would later be indoctrinated into the Library of Congress, was beaten out by Taylor Swift, an unspeakable music tragedy. And of course, last year, despite easily having the most-discussed and best-reviewed album of the year, it was Beyoncé again being snubbed, losing Song, Record AND Album of the Year to Adele.
So, alllll of this to say: seeing Kendrick, Jay-Z, Childish Gambino and Bruno Mars in the nominee list for the major general awards is a welcome change. What's more, seeing a Best New Artist field filled with R&B artists Khalid and SZA as well as rapper Li'l Uzi Vert is a nice sign of progress too. Heck, though it isn't much of a surprise, even seeing Español megahit "Despacito" nominated for Song and Record of the Year is encouraging.
In terms of personal favorites, it's fun to see Coldplay nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album; even if it was just an EP, Kaleidoscope was some of the best music they've made since Mylo Xyloto. Shoutout to Bob Dylan and Gorillaz, too.
The Snubs
Honestly, not too many to report. From a traditional perspective, Ed Sheeran being left out is a HUGE snub. The Grammys have seemingly always nominated the Pop smash of the year (25, 1989, BEYONCE, Red, Some Nights, etc.), and ÷, as well as its lead single "Shape Of You" absolutely dominated the radio this year. Objectively, it was a stunning development; subjectively, I don't think the music industry is rendered any worse for the wear by the fact that he won't be able to make off with the biggest awards of the night.
In a similar vein, the flipside of including 3 Rap albums for Album of the Year is the lack of variety in genres. There were albums from other genres that probably had a legitimate case for inclusion; from Country, for example, both Miranda Lambert's Weight Of These Wings and Chris Stapleton's From A Room: Vol. 1 were examples of the critically-acclaimed work that typically sneak into the General Awards field.
Personally, I had a few favorites I was bummed to not see listed at all. Namely, Fleet Foxes, The Killers, The Xx, and Vince Staples all could have (and should have) been at least nominated within their genre.
Rap vs. Pop
Last year, the biggest storyline was Adele vs. Beyoncé. Most expected the 2017/18 version of that mega showdown to be King Kendrick vs. Prince Edward. But Sheeran's snub coupled with the surprising level of recognition for Jay-Z and Childish Gambino instead posits the main head-to-head to be whether Rap will in fact rule the night or if the votes themselves will revert to the mean of awarding the biggest, not necessarily the best. In essence, will DAMN. or 4:44 take the biggest awards of the night, or will they still go to the "Despacito"s and Bruno Mars's of the year?
What's disappointing is that the Grammys' history has made the results somewhat of a lose-lose for fans of Rap and critically-acclaimed music and the overlap of the two. One has to assume that the sweeping Rap nominations are at least partially political; a response to overwhelming social media criticism, but especially to the increasing number of artists boycotting and not submitting music to Grammys, such as Frank Ocean, Drake, Justin Bieber and more. Thus, if the big awards go to the likes of "Issues," "24K Magic", and Melodrama, the landmark nomination spree will be seen as the tiniest increment in progress. Even if Jay-Z or Kendrick is the big winner, however, there will likely be a bit of an asterisk by their win if this year proves to be an exception in the awards' recognition of acclaimed black artists, rather than the trend for the future.
That reality should not take away, though, from how exciting it is to see a much-needed demographic change among the nominees, nor will it keep me from cheering full-throatedly for a Kendrick Lamar victory or swearing full-throatedly with any other result.