2020 Grammy Nom Reaction
Two weeks ago today, while you were engrossed in either the throes of the impeachment hearings or the beginnings of basketball season, depending on your level of political interest, the nominations for the 62nd Grammy Awards were revealed.
The vaunted awards show, which bills itself as “music’s biggest night,” will be airing a month earlier than usual in 2020, in response to the film industry’s Academy Awards also bumping their ceremony up by a month. What does this mean, other than being one month closer to exhilarating live performances and questionable award decisions? One result of the timeline shift was that the eligibility period for the ceremony ended in August of this year, after reaching back to October of the year before. So, just as there are several noteworthy songs and albums from the last couple months that will not be nominated, there WILL be releases from 2018’s last days nominated that you might have completely forgotten about. You have to recalibrate your mind from the “this year’s release = this year’s awards” paradigm that the Oscars and Golden Globes and others tend to employ.
In part because of this, predicting the Grammy field for major awards has become every bit as exciting and difficult, if not more so, than predicting who will actually win. The extended field— as of last year, all “General” categories such as Album of the Year and Best New Artist have 8 nominees rather than 5 —only makes this even more true. With more nominee slots to fill, and presumably a wider range of nominees desired, the greater the chance that you’ll see your underground favorite nominated, or a really off-the-wall band or artist in the mix.
That certainly held true this year, with a group of nominees that is chock full of surprises, snubs, names you expected to see, names you never expected to see, and names you’ve never heard of in equal doses. For the first time in the last several years, most of the chief awards will be exciting races with no clear frontrunner. Where better to dive in than with what will be the biggest, most anticipated Grammy of the night?
(For reference: here is the full list of nominees.)
Album of the Year
Over the last decade or so, we’ve witnessed an evolution in the nominees for Album of the Year. We’ve gone from essentially slapping one old vet amidst 4 of the most popular releases of the year, to gradually becoming hip to the times and including several Rap nominees, to now producing a field that looks like a music critic’s dream.
If you read my Album of the Year preview in September, you’ll notice that one of the two albums I advised you to reserve a spot for was not in fact included. Yes, for the second straight year, Taylor Swift is not among the nominees, a truth that honestly stuns me. This year’s snub of her August release Lover feels even more momentous than last year’s Reputation. Whereas last year her star power wasn’t enough to cover up her divisive album and public persona, this year Swift has become a much more endearing figure in the public eye, and also released her most critically-acclaimed album to date. It’s a sign that you can no longer write the massively popular artists a blank check at the Grammys, and that also manifests itself with the exclusion of Khalid’s Free Spirit, Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project, and the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper-driven soundtrack to the hit film A Star Is Born.
Taking their places instead are indie and alternative darlings like Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, and Lana del Rey, all of whom are partying like it’s 2011. That’s the year in which Bon Iver received his only other AOTY nod, and the latter two have never been nominated, despite both offering serious contenders (Modern Vampires of the City in 2013, and Born To Die in 2012, respectively). Count me among the people who did not expect to see any of these names nominated in 2019, but it’s not totally out of left field, as all 3 releases were among the best-reviewed of the year.
Of course, it’s not all indie circuit among the nominees. You’d be hard-pressed to tune into a radio station in 2019 and not hear Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Lizzo or some combination of the three. But these nominations, too, aren’t strictly based on commercial appeal, as the pop stars of varying age, race, and style all had albums that received comprehensive ratings in the mid-80s, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The clear exception to the rule here is Li’l Nas X. The 20-year old rapper/singer was an inevitable Grammy nominee for his megahit “Old Town Road,” but being recognized for his album 7 was not supposed to be in the cards. Not only is it just a seven-song EP, it was critically panned, and doesn’t really any fit in any clear genre. Somehow, all of this spelled out Album of the Year nominee.
Then there’s H.E.R., who represents a somewhat bizarre middle ground. Her release I Used To Know Her is a surprise nominee, to be sure, and falls under the umbrella of ‘critically adored rather than commercially successful,’ though to be honest, she is so underground that she can’t even be found on Metacritic, and the Wikipedia entry on the Grammy-nominated album is literally two paragraphs. All of these facts would be a recipe for an absolutely stunning nominee, except for the fact that H.E.R. was nominated for this very award just last year. Her late 2017 self-titled album put her on the map last year with an AOTY nomination, a Best New Artist nomination and a Grammy win for Best R&B Album. So, if you’re keeping score at home, here’s an artist who is 22 years old, has two albums (neither of which have topped #80 on the charts), who already has 10 Grammy nominations in two years. I genuinely wonder if she is close with someone high up in the Recording Academy, and I don’t mean that to insinuate she’s an undeserving nominee. H.E.R. is extremely talented, and I’d be elated for her to win any Grammy, I just honestly cannot understand how she’s been discovered and singled out to this extent already in her career.
I will save bona fide predictions for a later piece, but given the surprising nature of the makeup of our nominees for Album of the Year, I truly have no idea at this point in time who will take home the most coveted Grammy of all.
Record and Song of the Year
Moving to the individual tracks nominated for the biggest award, Li’l Nas X and Billy Cyrus’s “Old Town Road” was as much a no-brainer nominee for Record of the Year as “Despacito” two years ago, and “Uptown Funk” two years before that. The Hip-Hop/Country crossover broke records for how long it stayed at #1 on the charts. The perhaps silly question is, will voters take it seriously? The two ubiquitous predecessors I named were an ambitious and exciting Spanish-language hit or were fronted by Bruno Mars, who has as much cross-generational appeal as anyone in today’s music sphere. “Old Town Road” feels fairly exclusively ‘for the kids’; its immense popularity grew out of the popular social networking app TikTok, and with lines such as “Cowboy hat from Gucci/Wrangler on my booty,” comes across more as an ironic send-up of bro country than a genuine record. Time will tell whether voters are more inclined to reward a cultural phenomenon the likes of which we’ve rarely seen or to turn their attention a more ‘serious song.’
If another nominee is in fact going to knock “Old Town Road” off the pedestal for Record of the Year, it’s likely going to be one of the other double nominees, songs which are nominated for both Record and Song of the Year. Lizzo’s omnipresent “Truth Hurts” has already established its standing as the new anthem of a generation of young women, and Billie Eilish’s “bad guy,” a distorted pop smash indicative of its singer’s sensational appeal, was the song that actually ended “Old Town Road”’s record run atop the charts.
The Song of the Year category, which is differentiated from Record of the Year by the Grammys as recognizing the songwriter rather than the producer, trended more towards the slow and melodious in its nominee field. Where the Record of the Year field was basically 7 radio smashes and weirdly enough, Bon Iver, in this category Billie, Nas and Lizzo face stiff competition from a slew of acoustic and indie offerings. “Always Remember Us This Way,” Lady Gaga’s heartfelt ballad from A Star Is Born, marks the film’s second consecutive nomination for this award, after “Shallow” last year. Lana Del Rey’s title track “Norman fucking Rockwell” is, you guessed it, somber and full of piano and strings. Then there’s “Bring My Flowers Now,” a relative unknown slow-mover from country veteran Tonya Tucker, and of course H.E.R., whose doubly-nominated “Hard Place” is a soulful jam which actually saw its live performance debut at last year’s ceremony. It’s in this category that we see Taylor’s Swift only major award appearance and even that nominee, “Lover,” is one of her slower, more heartfelt offerings, rather than something in the vein of “Ready For It?” or “Shake It Off” or “Blank Space.”
Year of the Newbies
This is a more widespread and varied group of nominees than in recent years, and as such, for the second consecutive year, it’s difficult to project who in particular is poised to be the King or Queen of the night. But it’s not hard to figure out who the winners of the Grammy nomination announcement were, and these are names you have already read in this piece: Billie Eilish, Lizzo, and Li’l Nas X.
The 18-year old dystopian crooner, 31-year old powerhouse singer/rapper, and 20-year old rapper/country superstar (?) bring a multitude of genres to all four major Grammy categories: Album, Record, and Song of the Year, as well as Best New Artist. For reference, this four-peat feat had happened just three times in the 21st Century before this year (fun. in 2013, Amy Winehouse in 2008, and Norah Jones in 2003, the latter of whom went on to win all four). For a new artist to find their way onto the Grammy stage is not news; but for just one to so comprehensively dominate the major award nominations would be a rare feat, let alone for three to do so in the same year. Though all of them face stiff competition not just from one another but from several critics’ choices, if you were banking on any one artist to take the famous “hands full of Grammys!!” post-show pic, it would have to be one of these three.
The fact that we’ve said this much without discussing names like Maggie Rogers and Rosalia, who are nominated far less than expected, or like DaBaby and Megan Thee Stallion, who aren’t nominated at all, speaks to how much 2019 was dominated by new kids on the block.
No Love For Boy Bands, Selective Love For Beyoncé
It’s easy to forget at the end of the year, with how much the hype has been eclipsed by the Billie-Nas-Lizzo holy trinity, but for a good bit of 2019, the biggest story in music was the return of The Jonas Brothers. The trio of Joe, Kevin and Nick used to be one of the hottest tickets in the country, but fell out of the public consciousness after their disbandment in 2013, although Joe and Nick did pursue solo careers. In February, the Jonas Brothers announced they had buried the family hatchet, recorded another album, and would be releasing it in coordination with a behind-the-scenes documentary. For the first half of the year, America was again swept with Jonasmania, but all of this culminated in just two Grammy nominations: Best Pop Vocal Album for Happiness Begins, and Best Pop Group Performance for “Sucker.”
The Grammys can’t really cite boy bands being a thing of the past as a reason for the chilly shoulder to the JoBros: one of the largest worldwide acts in music over the last few years has been BTS, the South Korean band. Lest you think the 7-member K-Pop group is just an East Asian sensation, BTS made their Saturday Night Live debut this past spring, and sold out shows in the Rose Bowl, Wembley Stadium, and Soldier Field. If ever there were a year for the Grammys to recognize the legitimacy of K-pop, it would be this year, with this boy band. But alas, 0 nominations.
Speaking of worldwide sensations: Beyoncé! The Queen of criminal Grammy snubs had two different ways to cash in this year, fresh off being largely snubbed last year for Everything Is Love, her collaboration with husband Jay-Z. First came Homecoming, the recording of her historic Coachella performance one year prior. A live album seemed like a long shot to score nominations at the Grammys— it’s been 24 years since one was nominated for Album of the Year (The Three Tenors In Concert). But, if any live album could buck recent history, it would seemingly be this one, which was both a documentation of a significant cultural event and the best-reviewed album of the year. Grammy voters went against critical consensus, though, and instead highlighted Beyoncé for her work on The Lion King: The Gift, a companion album to the live-action Lion King film in which she played a role. This album was less universally acclaimed, but it was the one that put Queen B back on the Grammy map with nominations for Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Compilation Soundtrack, and Best Song Written For Visual Media. Will those three nominations from 2 albums in 2019 be enough to satisfy the Beyhive? Certainly not, but it’s at least more nods than Jonas Brothers and BTS combined.
Bizarre Snubs In Rap, Country, and Rock
After arguably reaching its Grammy peak in 2017 and 2018, Hip-Hop took another step back in 2019, scoring zero bona fide Rap nominations in the general fields, unless you’re counting Li’l Nas X, Lizzo, or Ariana Grande’s god-awful “7 Rings” as Rap, which I don’t think anybody is. Misery loves company, though, and Hip-Hop won’t be the only genre feeling slighted by the tag-teamed dominance of Pop and Alternative in this Grammy field: Country and Rock, too, have a few bones to pick.
Tyler, the Creator’s wildly inventive and mature IGOR was a trendy pick to be an Album of the Year nominee, and a frontrunner from the Rap genre, but as it turns out, received one total nod: Best Rap Album. It’s not just the disrespect in the major awards that will have fans scratching their heads, though, it’s the snubs even within their own lanes. Tyler’s most popular songs to date, “Earfquake” and “A Boy Is A Gun,” received zero traction in the song categories, and Rapsody’s Eve was nowhere to be found even in the Rap categories. This is particularly confusing considering a. Eve was the most critically-acclaimed Rap album of the year, b. the defending Rap Grammy champion is Cardi B, so the awards clearly aren’t averse to rewarding female rappers, and c. Rapsody was nominated for her 2017 release Laila’s Wisdom, so the Recording Academy knows who she is.
Another talented female artist who will likely feel largely slighted is Maren Morris. Like Tyler, the Creator, her album GIRL wasn’t just supposed to be a Country frontrunner, it was supposed to be in the running for Album of the Year. When the dust settled, GIRL wasn’t even up for Best Country Album, and Maren has found herself with one measly Grammy nomination, for Best Country Duo Performance. The Rock categories do, fortunately, include the under-appreciated Gary Clark, Jr. and Brittany Howard, though neither of those artists’ well-received work garnered any general category attention. But Rock, too, is perhaps more notable for the names that are left out: The Black Keys and The Raconteurs both returned with new music this year after hiatuses of 5 and 11 years, respectively. Strangely, though, given the Grammys’ affinity for both the Keys and all things Jack White, nothing from either “Let’s Rock!” or Help Us Stranger were anywhere to be found amidst the nominees.
The confusing genre nominations beg not just the question of who will win at these Grammys, but also, what awards will the broadcast even show? 2 years ago, one of the first awards of the ceremony was Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, but I can’t imagine a field of DJ Khaled, Lil Baby & Gunna, and Li’l Nas X (but not for THAT song) is as interesting to the TV viewer as 2018’s Jay-Z & Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar & Rihanna, and Travis Scott & SZA was. Will anybody tune into a Best Rock Album award that has neither the old stalwarts (Metallica, Foo Fighters), the millenials’ favorites (The Raconteurs, The Black Keys), nor the new-age radio choices (Imagine Dragons, Twenty-One Pilots)?
All these questions point to one fact: we’re in for a very entertaining night in January.