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Northeastern music expert Andrew Mall sounds off on this year’s Grammy nominations, including Beyonce’s nominations for her first country album.
It’s been a notable year for music. This was the year Beyonce released her first country album, Kendrick Lamar and Drake beefed through rap, and longtime performer Sabrina Carpenter broke into the mainstream with her earworm, “Espresso.”
All this is reflected in this year’s Grammy nominations. Beyonce secured 11 nominations, including nods for album of the year for “Cowboy Carter” and record of the year for her first country single, “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Despite being one of the most decorated artists when it comes to the Grammys, she has never won before in those categories.
Lamar got seven nominations, including record of the year, song of the year, best rap song, and best music video for his track “Not Like Us,” which was aimed at fellow rapper, Drake. Taylor Swift received six nominations for her work on her latest album, “The Tortured Poets’ Department.”
“The vibrancy of pop music struck me,” Andrew Mall, associate professor of music at Northeastern University, said of the nominations. “The other thing that struck me is Beyonce. She made a statement with ‘Cowboy Carter.’ There was a lot of conversation about (whether) this is really country music or not and she did not receive any nominations for the Country Music Awards earlier this year, so to see the Grammys recognize her in all these different categories, I thought was really fascinating.”
Beyonce received nominations across several genres, including best melodic rap performance, best country solo performance, best country duo/group performance, best country song, best country album, and best Americana performance.
“I don’t think ‘Cowboy Carter’ is her best record, but it’s a really great record,” Mall said. “It’s really impressive, the scope of it and the scale of it, what she accomplished with her collaborators and partners. To have it recognized as such would be great.”
Also notable were the nominations for best new artist, which included Chappell Roan and Carpenter. People expressed surprise at this nomination given that Carpenter has released six albums; the singer herself even joked that she is the “best old artist.”
In fact, all of the singers nominated for best new artist have produced previous work, which Mall said is part of a shift.
Where once the artists nominated for this were really new, the Recording Academy has shifted eligibility criteria for this category from having a maximum amount of music an artist could have released to qualify for this nomination to none at all.
The fact that many of the artists nominated are ones who have had a significant presence this year indicates the Recording Academy is considering not just the music, but the artists and their careers.
“There are a handful of artists that have kind of been around for a while, but are like actually have been finding really strong traction among audiences and listeners in 2024,” Mall said. “We’re talking about Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, artists who have been kind of exploding, even though they have had some presence. … There’s a cynical side of me that is looking at these nominations as a way to attract an audience for the awards show.”
However, Mall said these awards are crucial for artists; a win can signal to a label that they are worth an investment.
“The way voting works, it’s all the opinion of the people who receive those ballots,” Mall said. “I’ve talked to people who do vote for the Recording Academy and they all take very different approaches to it. There’s no criteria for what your vote should be based on.”