Jason Isbell, who has two nominations for American roots song and Americana album, on how he plans to celebrate with his wife, Amanda Shires Isbell, in an interview with the Associated Press on Monday.
Advertisement
The searing rap of Kendrick Lamar, quirky R&B of The Weeknd and simply digestible pop of Taylor Swift direct the nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. And that’s only if the broadest possible definition of the term is employed. To that end, I opt now to relish in the Compton-bred emcee netting a historic 11 nominations – including those in major categories like Album of the Year and Song of the Year.
“I don’t make records with the thought of awards”.
The nominees for best new artist are Sam Hunt, Meghan Trainor, James Bay, Tori Kelly and Courtney Barnett.
Scarborough native The Weeknd continues to dominate the worldwide music scene, scoring seven Grammy Award nominations for his album Beauty Behind the Madness. Beating her with an almighty 11 noms is Kendrick Lamar – now that’s impressive.
To Pimp A Butterfly left the hip hop world divided in 2015. Regarding this notion, Cage The Elephant’s Matt Shultz (whose band’s album Melophobia was nominated for Best Alternative Album in 2015) tells Medium’s Cuepoint: “It definitely opened up some doors for us and created opportunities that maybe weren’t there before”. Lauryn was a Columbia-educated, movie-star beauty who also sang; Miseducation wasn’t even entered in the “Best Rap Album” category, winning “Best R&B Album” instead.
Swift bared her soul for the masses once again with her fifth album, “1989”, so if this were merely a popularity contest, one of the above three mentioned artists would easily score the trophy.
Despite this year’s disappointing news, she hasn’t exactly fallen short before.
In terms of combined album and ticket sales, she outsells just about anybody, in any genre. This notion set off all sorts of options on timelines, from “I can’t believe this got nominated, TPAB’s boring.” to “I can’t believe y’all think TPAB’s boring”. When will the Academy finally acknowledge the way that many people (and most young people) prefer to listen to records (streaming, and probably on their phones)? Other album-of-the-year nominees are Alabama Shakes for “Sound & Color” and veteran country songwriter Chris Stapleton for his debut album, “Traveller”. That latter category also includes contributions from My Morning Jacket, Wilco and Tame Impala – all of whom deploy guitars, sometimes prominently – and Bjork, who does not.
He hit the Billboard hot 100 charts as a guest on several other artists’ songs too, including his duet with Ariana Grande, Love Me Harder, which reached number seven.
We all know how Taylor Swift is, her friends are supposed to be successful in every aspect … just not more successful than her. Taylor has always publicly endorsed Kendrick Lamar, and it’s no secret that Kendrick and Taylor are pals on and off the stage.
But the reason the Hello singer missed out on any Grammy nods is simple – her latest album wasn’t eligible as it missed the cut off. He’s up against savvy southwest Louisiana combo the Revelers, whose members weave elements of Cajun, zydeco, swamp pop and Americana into their musical tapestry.
The 2016 Grammy nominations were publicized on December 7, and three of the four acts on the countdown made the list. Rapper Lil Wayne, who now calls Miami home, is featured on a pair of nominated Nicki Minaj tracks, “Truffle Butter” and “Only”.
If those nods feel like progress for the Grammy Awards, though, the nominations for best new artist lack a certain imagination.
Advertisement
In fact, if West’s Paul McCartney collaboration “All Day” wins the rap song category, a total of 19 songwriters can line up to take the stage February 15 at the Grammys broadcast at Staples Center in Los Angeles when winners are announced.
