{"id":267058,"date":"2019-02-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1011533"},"modified":"2019-02-08T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T12:00:00","slug":"the-truth-about-the-2019-grammys-biggest-snubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/the-truth-about-the-2019-grammys-biggest-snubs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About the 2019 Grammys’ Biggest Snubs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When the August 2017 single “Look What You Made Me Do” wasn’t nominated<\/a> for any Grammys last year, Swifties were miffed by the snub but dealt with it, long since having come to terms with the fact that Taylor Swift<\/a><\/strong>‘s usual album release time table\u2014November\u2014meant a whole year would have to go by before the Recording Academy would give reputation\u00a0<\/em>its real due, as it did for Swift albums in 2010 and 2015.\u00a0Recognition in its entirety\u00a0was\u00a0to be expected.<\/p>\n

Few were\u00a0ready for what happened next.<\/p>\n

The 2019 Grammys<\/a> will carry on Sunday without Swift, as reputation<\/em>\u00a0only received one nomination<\/a>\u2014Best Pop Vocal Album\u2014and she is busy working in London. Ed Sheeran<\/a><\/strong>, the winner in that category last year, chose to skip the ceremony after his mega-hit\u00a0\u00f7<\/em>\u00a0was surprisingly passed over for the more high-profile\u00a0prizes, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But why\u2014when the Recording Academy is perennially accused of being dismissive of\u00a0what the kids are into these days, while being simultaneously under the gun\u00a0to attract a bigger audience to a splashy show that, like all the other splashy award shows is steadily declining in viewership\u2014was the first album to pass 2 million sales since Adele<\/a><\/strong>‘s\u00a025<\/em>\u00a0left so devoid of big nominations?<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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As it turned out, there simply wasn’t room this time to\u00a0conduct business as usual while also hoping to appease\u00a0those who perennially decry Grammy voters for being way behind while music and the artists who make it are at the forefront of cultural change in so many other arenas.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0Grammys have been busy climbing out of a big hole,\u00a0which they only dug themselves further into last year by featuring one female winner during the three-hour-plus telecast and\u00a0not offering\u00a0Lorde<\/a><\/strong>, the only female Album of the Year nominee in 2018, a solo performance slot as\u00a0the\u00a0guys in her category were offered. The odd production choice was followed by now-outgoing Recording Academy president Neil Portnow<\/strong> saying that women needed to “step up” if they wanted to be included more.<\/p>\n

With that bizarre choice of words ringing in its ears, in October the Academy invited 900 new creators (from singers and composers to producers and engineers) into its voting ranks, all of them\u00a0checking at least one of three boxes\u2014women, people of color, under 39\u2014to help inject fresh taste into the voting process. NBC News reported<\/a> that the Nominations Review Committee was up to 51 percent women and 48 percent people of color, from 20 and 30 percent, respectively, in 2017.<\/p>\n

With Bruno Mars<\/a><\/strong>‘ perfectly predictable\u00a0win<\/a> for Album of the Year also ringing in their ears, this year they expanded the Album of the Year category to include eight releases for the first time (six instead of five have been nominated three times over the years, and not since 1971), and the nominees include work by five female artists.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Janelle<\/p>\n

Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A slew of women will be performing, including all<\/em> of those nominated for Album of the Year\u2014Cardi B<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Kacey Musgraves<\/a><\/strong>, Janelle Mon\u00e1e<\/a><\/strong>, H.E.R.<\/strong> and Brandi Carlile\u2014<\/strong>as well as Best New Artist nominees Chloe x Halle<\/strong> and Dua Lipa\u00a0<\/strong>in addition to\u00a0Lady Gaga<\/a><\/strong>, Jennifer Lopez<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0St. Vincent<\/strong>, Camila Cabello<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Maren Morris<\/strong>, Dolly Parton<\/a><\/strong>, Katy Perry<\/a><\/strong>, Diana Ross<\/a><\/strong> and\u2014performing a tribute to Aretha Franklin<\/a><\/strong>Yolanda Adams<\/strong>, Andra Day<\/strong> and Fantasia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Alicia Keys<\/a><\/strong> is hosting, the first woman to do so in 14 years.<\/p>\n

There\u00a0will be men performing, too, such as country duo Dan + Shay<\/strong>, Ricky Martin<\/a><\/strong>, Shawn Mendes<\/a><\/strong>, Red Hot Chili Peppers<\/strong>, Arturo Sandoval<\/strong>, Young Thug<\/strong>, Post Malone<\/a><\/strong>and\u00a0J Balvin<\/a><\/strong>. But the most chattered about\u00a0young men of the year, the seven-member K-pop sensation BTS<\/strong>, won’t be performing on Sunday but will<\/em> be presenting\u00a0after coming up empty in nominations, minus\u00a0recognition for art director HuskyFox in the Best Recording Package category for the look of their album\u00a0Love Yourself: Tear<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Taylor<\/p>\n

Frederick M. Brown\/Kevin Winter\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The album did come out during the eligibility period, Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2018, yet most of the speculation among those who “discovered” BTS when in November 2017 they became the first Korean boy band to ever perform at the American Music Awards<\/a> had their heart set on a Best New Artist nomination. Which in theory sounded promising, except that the group has been recording (in Korean and Japanese) since 2014.<\/p>\n

However, the Grammys are infamous for honoring “new artists” who aren’t particularly new (2012 winner<\/a> Bon Iver<\/strong>‘s first album came out in 2007, and singer-songwriter Justin Vernon had been burning up the indie scene), so anything was possible until the nominations were announced.<\/p>\n

Still, you ask, with the Grammys repeatedly accused of not having its finger on the pulse, why no slam-dunk nominations for BTS, Swift, Ariana Grande<\/a><\/strong> (whose Sweetener<\/em> is up against reputation<\/em> and who was in talks to perform Sunday but ultimately rebuffed<\/a>\u00a0producers’ refusal to let her pick which songs to do) or Carrie Underwood<\/a><\/strong>whose Cry Pretty<\/em> was one of the best-selling albums of the year and was shut out entirely? (Not that Underwood would have attended\u2014she’s got a brand-new baby<\/a> at home!)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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If the nominations were purely based on Twitter hosannas, then you would probably have the entire Pop Vocal Album field (Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, Pink<\/a><\/strong> and Kelly Clarkson<\/a><\/strong> along with Swift and Grande) vying in the Album, Record and Song of the Year categories.<\/p>\n

If it were up to critics’ best-of lists,\u00a0you might end up with a healthy dose of nominees that\u00a0most casual appreciators may not have even heard.\u00a0If the noms were based only on sales…well, then\u00a0The Greatest<\/em> Showman<\/em>\u00a0and A Star Is Born<\/em>\u00a0soundtracks\u00a0<\/em>would be right up there with\u00a0Drake<\/a><\/strong>‘s\u00a0Scorpion<\/em>\u00a0(which was<\/em> the biggest release of the year overall, including streaming numbers) for Album of the Year and maybe you get Hugh Jackman<\/a><\/strong> performing.<\/p>\n

But maybe look at it this way: Grammy voters took that pop vocal album category super-seriously and nominated the most delightful polished pop they heard all year. There were just\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0needle-moving albums and records to consider in the meantime.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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As Ed Sheeran told Ellen DeGeneres<\/a><\/strong> after his platinum-selling\u00a0\u00f7<\/em> didn’t earn an Album of the Year nomination, the true honor was\u00a0his fans’ response<\/a> to the music\u00a0(not to mention the sales numbers).<\/p>\n

“But that’s the point, that’s where you win,” the English artist said. “That’s where the validation comes from, where you actually see people\u2014genuine people\u2014enjoying the songs. I’d rather have, like, a lifetime of people coming up to me and saying, like, ‘This song affects me in this way, in a positive way,’ and like, ‘This song is my wedding song,’ ‘This song was my first kiss,’ than anything else. I think that’s where the validation comes.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0growing\u00a0Academy\u00a0seemingly tried to make the 2019 nominations more representative of what everyone\u00a0<\/em>is listening to across platforms\u2014a thankless task, but that’s just the nature of award shows. When someone’s favorite song\/movie\/show goes unrecognized, it’s a snub.<\/p>\n

However, one fandom took it particularly hard.<\/p>\n

Cardi B, who just\u00a0attended her first Grammys<\/a>\u00a0last year,\u00a0has five nominations, including an Album of the Year nod for\u00a0Invasion of Privacy<\/em>, her debut studio album, and Record of the Year for “I Like It”\u2014all of which\u00a0Nicki Minaj<\/a><\/strong> fans were livid over, especially considering their queen’s Queen<\/em> was shut out entirely after its roller-coaster ride to fruition.<\/p>\n

But with a packed field of contenders, at some point critical reception plays in and\u00a0Queen<\/em> didn’t garner Minaj’s best-ever reviews.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ESC:<\/p>\n

Phillip Faraone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Despite some spectacular moments,\u00a0Queen<\/em>\u00a0has a flabby, meandering mid-section,” wrote\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em>‘s Mosi Reeves<\/a> (who also called Minaj “one of the best rappers of her generation,” hence the un-met\u00a0expectations). Pitchfork’s Briana Younger agreed<\/a>, writing that the album’s peaks came at the beginning and end, while “the middle faces an impossible task of keeping the pace over an hour-long hike.”<\/p>\n

The headline on\u00a0Spin<\/em>‘s review simply stated<\/a>: “Nicki Minaj’s\u00a0Queen<\/em>\u00a0Doesn’t Transcend the Controversy.”<\/p>\n

Just as with politics, one side will never believe that and will continue to insist that their candidate was robbed. And though Cardi B isn’t as accomplished of a rapper as Nicki, her album hit all the right notes, the\u00a0Latin-crossover smash\u00a0“I Like It”\u00a0was one of the biggest songs of 2018 and few music personalities are as compelling as she is right this minute.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Invasion of Privacy<\/em> is one of four (if you have to slot them) hip-hop albums vying for Album of the Year\u2014Scorpion<\/em>, Black Panther<\/em> and Post Malone<\/strong>‘s Beerbongs & Bentleys<\/em> are the others\u2014which lessens the chance that\u00a0they split the vote\u00a0as Jay-Z<\/strong> and Kendrick Lamar<\/a><\/strong> are thought to have done last year, rendering Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic<\/em> the winner. Mars’ title track also won Record of the Year and “That’s What I Like”\u00a0was named Song of the Year, among his seven Grammys for the night.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are eight albums in the mix total, and The\u00a0New York Times<\/em> music critics and\u00a0industry reporters on the Popcast\u00a0<\/em>podcast had a good laugh last month, though, over how Brandi Carlile’s\u00a0By the Way, I Forgive You<\/em> would probably slip in to win Album of the Year, and Portnow would drive\u00a0off into the sunset blasting her song “The Joke” (a nominee for Record and Song of the Year).<\/p>\n

Which is not to say that Carlile’s album isn’t good, or that winners in recent memory weren’t\u00a0good<\/em>. But it’s a reference to the fact that the Recording Academy\u00a0has historically liked\u00a0to tease with a culturally significant group of nominees and then snatch ridicule from the jaws of praise.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kendrick<\/p>\n

TIMOTHY A. CLARY\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Grammys have become known for favoring not exactly “safe” choices, per se, but rather arguably inarguable picks, such as Ray Charles<\/strong> and U2<\/a><\/strong> over Kanye West<\/a><\/strong>in 2005 and 2006,\u00a0Herbie Hancock<\/strong> over Amy Winehouse<\/a><\/strong>(and West), Taylor Swift over Beyonc\u00e9<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>Mumford\u00a0& Sons<\/strong> over Frank Ocean<\/a><\/strong>, Beck<\/a><\/strong> over Beyonc\u00e9\u00a0and\u00a0Adele<\/strong> over Beyonc\u00e9 (even Adele was barely having it<\/a>). No\u00a0one is going to\u00a0begrudge\u00a0Ray Charles’ posthumous Album of the Year win in a year when the entire show was dedicated to him, but, 14 years later, are you still listening to\u00a0Genius Loves Company<\/em> or\u00a0The College Dropout<\/em>? (Or the just-as-enduring\u00a0American Idiot<\/em> or\u00a0The Diary of Alicia Keys<\/em>, for that matter.)?<\/p>\n

To this day, only two rap albums have ever won Album of the Year, Lauryn Hill<\/strong>‘s\u00a0The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill<\/em> in 1999 and Outkast<\/strong>‘s\u00a0Speakerboxx\/The Love Below\u00a0<\/em>in 2004. So that was not-quite-a-trend that petered out fast, and critics and fans\u00a0are wondering what the purveyors of some of the best-reviewed, most relevant, best-selling and, now, most-streamed albums of the year have to\u00a0do<\/em> to get back up there.<\/p>\n

Black Panther: The Album<\/em>,\u00a0by the way, is the Academy’s fourth attempt in six years to honor Kendrick Lamar, who produced, co-wrote all the songs and performed on the blockbuster film’s original soundtrack,\u00a0<\/strong>in this category. (Lamar, whose consolation for not winning last year was a Pulitzer Prize for DAMN.<\/em>, is also nominated for an Oscar.)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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The array of nominees in the highest-profile categories seemingly reflects the new young blood in the voting pool, but there\u00a0are around 12,000 eligible voting members of the Recording Academy (people vote in respective categories).<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, this year’s tally looks like a lot of other years’ tallies, with Lamar leading the entire field with eight nominations, Drake (who hasn’t attended since 2013) next up with seven and veteran singer-songwriter Carlisle leading the way among female artists\u00a0with six nominations, tied with Scorpion\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Invasion of Privacy\u00a0<\/em>producer Boi-1da<\/strong>‘s six.<\/p>\n

Only when the envelopes are opened on Sunday will we know if Grammy voters listened to all this music and really heard it.\u00a0And maybe we’ll see Ariana Grande up there, thank you, next year.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the August 2017 single “Look What You Made Me Do” wasn’t nominated for any Grammys last year, Swifties were miffed by the snub but dealt with it, long since having come to terms with the fact that Taylor Swift‘s usual album release time table\u2014November\u2014meant a whole year would have to go by before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-267058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 12:23:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}