Who’s missing and a few other surprises
Sam Smith is out. Backstreet Boys are in. And where’s K-pop?
The Recording Academy may have expanded the field in the four general categories from five to eight, but considering that thousands of eligible albums came out in the past year, snubs, surprises and oddities are not only inevitable but pretty much guaranteed. ¶ Here, The Times’ pop music staff digs deep into the 84 Grammy categories to find some overlooked artists and story lines. Among this year’s slate of nominations, we see one of the largest pop artists on the planet largely ignored and an opportunity for a former president to make history.
One year you’re in and the next ...
Past Grammy love is no guarantee of continued nominations. Take, for example, former best new artist winner Sam Smith.
The platinum singer performed “Pray” at January’s ceremony and was the king of the proceedings in 2015, when he received best new artist and his smash ballad “Stay With Me” took home honors for record and song of the year. This year? Nothing. Despite issuing a sophomore album, “The Thrill of It All,” within the eligibility period, neither the album nor any of its singles earned nominations. One reason: Despite generally positive reviews, the album wasn’t nearly as inescapable as his debut.
Elsewhere, Taylor Swift certainly wasn’t lacking in critical or commercial success, but that didn’t help her earn any prestige nominations. Her “Reputation” album got just one nod, in the pop vocal album category.
Swift has tough competition, most notably from odds-on favorite Ariana Grande’s record “Sweetener.” Also competing against them: Pink, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes.
Two other stars, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, could very well have run the field for their record “Everything Is Love.” But these are the Grammys, and although the couple tower over pop music like giants stomping through the Manhattan skyline, Recording Academy voters apparently didn’t see it that way this year.
In the past, both have received plenty of love in the album-of-theyear field — Beyoncé most recently for her 2016 album “Lemonade” and Jay-Z for 2017’s “4:44” — so it’s a bit of a surprise to see them absent from the top field this year. Still, the charismatic duo got three nominations: R&B performance for “The Summer,” urban contemporary album for “Everything Is Love” and music video for “Apeshit.”
Shockingly absent from any of the jazz categories is Los Angeles sax player and composer Kamasi Washington.
His album “Heaven & Earth” was one of the most acclaimed of the year, and it landed on many critics’ yearend lists. Considering the ways in which Washington’s work has reinvigorated the West Coast jazz scene, the exclusion is notable.
But maybe it’s not too surprising after all. Washington was snubbed in the 59th Grammy Awards as well, when his breakout album, “The Epic,” failed to get noticed by voters. — Randall Roberts
K-pop arrives via a packaging nomination
The past year was a banner one for K-pop in the U.S., with BTS becoming the first South Korean act to land atop the Billboard album charts.
“Love Yourself: Tear” hit the chart milestone in May for an album universally applauded as a sleek, inventive statement piece for contemporary K-pop. If K-pop were ever to get Grammy acceptance on its own terms, this would be the album to do it (even if the Grammys are terminally reluctant to award pure pop that appeals to young audiences).
Grammy voters are probably due to reckon with K-pop as a genre sooner or later. So it’s a little curious and a little obvious that they chose best recording package as the way to get BTS (and the attendant social media deluge) into the ceremony without having to grapple with what its music means in a Grammy context.
And certainly, “Love Yourself: Tear” is a lovely, modern piece of album artwork. The design comes from the Seoul-based firm HuskyFox, which chose an atypically austere color palette and typesetting for this installment of the “Love Yourself ” trilogy (which itself came in several versions).
K-pop is usually known for saturated colors and elaborate, futuristic set pieces, but the restraint on “Tear” emphasized that this emotional album was playing for different stakes. To judge by the chart success, it worked.
The album is up against St. Vincent’s “Masseduction,” Mitski’s “Be the Cowboy,” the Chairman’s “The Offering” and Foxhole’s “Well Kept Thing.”
But there’s likely a long way to go before a K-pop act gets top category recognition at the Grammys, given voters’ tendency to give the cold shoulder to pure pop, especially when not sung in English (give or take a “Despacito”).
But this nomination does prompt the question: Is it time for a dedicated K-pop Grammy category? — August Brown
Never count out President Carter
Few in 2018 besides perhaps Kendrick Lamar can be virtually assured a Grammy nomination after releasing a recording, but followers of the spoken-word category know better than to bet against former President Carter after he drops an album.
The 39th president earned his ninth nod in 21 years in the category, this time for his reading of “Faith: A Journey for All.”
Oddsmakers likely will note that despite Carter’s track record, he’s won only two.
To secure his place in history, Carter needs this Grammy. The only other Nobel-Grammy winner, Barack Obama, also has two spokenword trophies — and a new book on its way.
Which is to say, start campaigning now, President Carter. — Randall Roberts
It’s the MTV heyday all over again
For the first time in more than 15 years, the Backstreet Boys are nominated for a Grammy.
That’s right, the bestselling boy band in history (not counting the Beatles) is up for pop duo/group performance for “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” — the first release from the group’s upcoming album, “DNA,” its first in six years.
And considering the category also includes Christina Aguilera’s “Fall in Line” featuring Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake’s “Say Something” featuring Chris Stapleton and Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” featuring Cardi B, it’s a race that conjures up some serious nostalgia for the days of “Total Request Live,” MTV’s groundbreaking video countdown show that once upon a time was required afterschool viewing.
For a generation who hit puberty during the great pop explosion at the turn of the millennium, there wasn’t a more pivotal era for pop than 19992002.
Boy band heartthrobs like Backstreet and the Timberlake-fronted ’N Sync dropped blockbuster albums, Aguilera led the wave for pop princesses everywhere, and Maroon 5 emerged with its hit-making debut, “Songs About Jane” — all of which played heavily on “TRL,” a show that was ground zero for pre-digital fandom. (Who doesn’t remember the throngs of young, screaming fans standing on the street below the network’s Times Square headquarters with signs, just hoping for a glimpse of their favorite pop stars?) Much has changed since then. For starters, music videos don’t live and breathe on MTV the way they once did.
Timberlake is nearly two decades into a thriving solo career (as evidenced by that nomination with Stapleton for their stellar R&B-tinged country-rock ballad, “Say Something”).
Maroon 5 has become one of the biggest bands on the planet while the Backstreet Boys and Aguilera are fine examples of how pop artists can survive and thrive.
Backstreet Boys, Timberlake, Aguilera and Maroon 5 face some serious competition. They’ll battle Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s heavily nominated duet, “Swallow,” as well as “’S Wonderful,” a collaboration between Tony Bennett and Diana Krall, and Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey’s behemoth hit, “The Middle.” — Gerrick D. Kennedy