Grammys 2021

[Barry 5,934]

They shouldn't really mix recognising popular music and "quality" music together, they should come down on one side or the other but because they don't there will always be outrage how someone who made really popular music or someone who made really good music got snubbed when they year before or year after they did the opposite. So it's just luck.

Rap Album nominations always sum it up, they used to only really nominate more classic sounding rap albums and ignore more pop/mumble/trap ones. The first time they really nominated a non "good" rapper was Iggy Azalea in 2015, since then they also nominated Migos in 2018, Cardi B (who actually won in 2019), Travis Scott also in 2019 and 21 Savage in 2020 so they do recognise pop/trap/mumble/"cheap" hip-hop yet this year they ignored it all even though in 2020 the two best selling albums are both rap albums by Lil Baby and Pop Smoke and went back to nominating all only old school classic type rapper music even though none of their albums were even slightly popular.

[Trash Magic 28,392]

Don't Start Now deserves ROTY and SOTY. Folklore is the best album nominated but Future Nostalgia is definitely the "Album of The Year" amongst all the nominees. Jhene and Coldplay are particularly laughable. Jessie Ware should have been recognised and of course The Weeknd. Justin is... nothing and isn't worth any conversation.

 

Their typical outlier wildcard choices for AOTY should have included Mercury Prize Winner KIWANUKA at least because it is actually good, not just there to cause shock. I love a few songs from the HAIM album so I'm happy to see them there. 

[TheBoss 13,508]

20 minutes ago, Barry said:

They shouldn't really mix recognising popular music and "quality" music together, they should come down on one side or the other but because they don't there will always be outrage how someone who made really popular music or someone who made really good music got snubbed when they year before or year after they did the opposite. So it's just luck.

Rap Album nominations always sum it up, they used to only really nominate more classic sounding rap albums and ignore more pop/mumble/trap ones. The first time they really nominated a non "good" rapper was Iggy Azalea in 2015, since then they also nominated Migos in 2018, Cardi B (who actually won in 2019), Travis Scott also in 2019 and 21 Savage in 2020 so they do recognise pop/trap/mumble/"cheap" hip-hop yet this year they ignored it all even though in 2020 the two best selling albums are both rap albums by Lil Baby and Pop Smoke and went back to nominating all only old school classic type rapper music even though none of their albums were even slightly popular.

 

Cardi and Travis had great albums and great eras, but thisss poor Lil Baby and also Run The Jewels, at least Pop Smoke was nominated in something 

[electra 20,644]

42 minutes ago, TheBoss said:

 

It always gets me sad when a deserved artist gets snubbed, regardless of gender, but I agree 100% that a lot of women got absolutely snubbed, Fiona Apple for example, the fact that she didn't get an AOTY nomination while having submitted and having literally the most acclaimed album of the year is so unfair. Fiona, Twigs and JoJo are only a couple that I can think of from the top of my head.

 

I do "understand" however some of these snubs, I mean at the end we all know that this is a race, I do feel like some understimated their own work. Rina for example, didn't submitted SAWAYAMA to any category, wich was really dumb imo because she had a big chance to snatch a nomination. Twigs submitted Ego Death for Christ sake, a song that did literally ZERO sound, I mean Mary Magdalene was right there. Although both of them got snubbed in their rightful categories, Best New Artist and AOTY/BAA.

 

Some other incredible artists like Tinashe, blew all her chances when she submitted for AOTY instead of Best R&B Album.

 

As for The Weeknd I feel like more people are pissed at the fact that Blinding Lights (literally the SOTY) was ignored instead of his AOTY nomination, I mean After Hours is an AMAZING album but there's a couple albums that are nominated that are just better (Dua, Taylor, HAIM), and like always some that are not (Coldplay sweetie, you don't belong here).  His post (which was very late in the day) seemed fair to me, especially when the CEO talked about your lack of nominations early in the day and gave the most BS explanation ever when you know exactly the reason why you didn't get none.

 

agree 100%. maybe the grammys needs to diversify more. i definitely think the recording academy should take a step back and reconsider categorisation. we actually commented when watching the announcement that a lot of the categories are unfair (why is there a christian category? and no other religions? as noted a few months ago, the dalai lama released an album earlier this year to positive response). the grammys really need to reconsidered the structure of their award shows. maybe the grammys shouldn't let artists submit and should just let people well-versed in their field make the judgement of all releases they consider under their category. i'm sure if i were selecting for a category and an album i loved wasn't submitted i would be very upset to not be able to vote for it.

[Barry 5,934]

46 minutes ago, electra said:

 

agree 100%. maybe the grammys needs to diversify more. i definitely think the recording academy should take a step back and reconsider categorisation. we actually commented when watching the announcement that a lot of the categories are unfair (why is there a christian category? and no other religions? as noted a few months ago, the dalai lama released an album earlier this year to positive response). the grammys really need to reconsidered the structure of their award shows. maybe the grammys shouldn't let artists submit and should just let people well-versed in their field make the judgement of all releases they consider under their category. i'm sure if i were selecting for a category and an album i loved wasn't submitted i would be very upset to not be able to vote for it.

 

They should split things up into more categories as certain types of music shouldn't really compete with each other. They seem to categorise Jazz, Latin and Gospel music well as there is 11 different Album awards for those 3 styles with them breaking them down into different categories yet they group Pop, Hip-Hop, Rock, R&B and Country into only 7 different Album awards, 2 for Pop, 2 for R&B and 1 each for Rock, Hip-Hop and Country. The "Alternative" award is also a weird mix and shouldn't be a thing.

There could be like Contemporary, Traditional and Alternative Pop, Country, and Hip-Hop. As those types all have a more old school style, a more modern style then people who kind of do it but do it differently.

The Rock award definitely could be split up into about 6 or more different categories as they have everything together in that Muse, My Chemical Romance, Led Zeppelin, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Neil Young, Black Sabbath, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen competing together. 

R&B they also have too big a mix for there only to be R&B and Progressive R&B as they are putting Funk, Soul, old  R&B, new R&B and then like The Weeknd which is more of an alternative R&B into just 2 things.

[partymonster 4,722]

 

[electra 20,644]

30 minutes ago, Barry said:

 

They should split things up into more categories as certain types of music shouldn't really compete with each other. They seem to categorise Jazz, Latin and Gospel music well as there is 11 different Album awards for those 3 styles with them breaking them down into different categories yet they group Pop, Hip-Hop, Rock, R&B and Country into only 7 different Album awards, 2 for Pop, 2 for R&B and 1 each for Rock, Hip-Hop and Country. The "Alternative" award is also a weird mix and shouldn't be a thing.

There could be like Contemporary, Traditional and Alternative Pop, Country, and Hip-Hop. As those types all have a more old school style, a more modern style then people who kind of do it but do it differently.

The Rock award definitely could be split up into about 6 or more different categories as they have everything together in that Muse, My Chemical Romance, Led Zeppelin, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Neil Young, Black Sabbath, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen competing together. 

R&B they also have too big a mix for there only to be R&B and Progressive R&B as they are putting Funk, Soul, old  R&B, new R&B and then like The Weeknd which is more of an alternative R&B into just 2 things.

 

literally exactly this. even electronic music, like in this day and age you couldn’t have giorgio moroder, skrillex, arca and charli xcx in the same category. even fiona apple shouldn’t be in the rock category. her work on fetch the bolt cutters doesn’t even have a classified genre for a start.

[lamms 11,605]

If the Oscars are able to modify their rules to allow for more diverse contributions, I don't see, how the Grammy can't do the same. It's not sustainable the way it's been going now for a while and they'll just get more and more backlash.

[slang 1,532]

Rufus Wainwright nominated at the Grammys:
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new traditional pop recordings.

 

I've got to say, that while I hope Rufus wins this category, he is kind of snubbed by the fact that Unfollow the Rules is a very strong set of *original* songs, which is competing against 3 covers albums and an EP of original songs (Bacharach and Tashian). I would have liked to see Unfollow the Rules in the AOTY noms.

 

However, he did sing in a traditional way (i.e. appropriate to the category, I guess). At times he seemed influenced by his having written an opera or two (Prima Donna is worth checking out, if you like/tolerate opera). Also his voice, though still showing character with its imperfections, seems to get better with age, imo.