STAYING POWER?
Billie Eilish, at right, Lizzo and Rosalía are up. But what does it tell us about pop longevity?
The nominations for the 62nd annual Grammy Awards that will be handed out Sunday provide a window into now, the artists that defined 2019: Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Rosalía, Lil Nas X.
The trouble with “now” is making it last.
Just ask Taylor Swift and Chance the Rapper, relatively recent big winners at the Grammys who were nudged aside in this year’s nominations for a wave of newcomers. Only Swift was nominated in one of the top categories. The title song of her recent album “Lover” got a nod for record of the year. But given her 10 previous Grammys, including two for album of the year, the exclusion of “Lover” in the album-of-the-year category — despite critical acclaim, platinum certification (1 million sales) and 18 top-100 singles — came as a surprise.
Chance made Grammy history by garnering seven nominations and three awards in 2017 after releasing his debut album, “Coloring Book.” He became the first artist to win a Grammy for music that was streamed for free instead of sold. Yet this year, Chance’s follow-up album, “The Big Day, was shut out by the Recording Academy. The Chicago MC’s only nomination came for a feature on a YBN Cordaesong, “Bad Idea.”
Even Lady Gaga, who once seemed like a shoo-in for a boatload of nominations for the soundtrack to her 2018 “A Star is Born” movie with Bradley Cooper, was snubbed for album of the year (though she did receive a record-of-the-year nomination for the single “Always Remember Us This Way”).
But in the free-for-all that is the digital era, the turnover in pop comes faster than you can say “Harlem Shake.”
Swift was the youngest artist ever to win album of the year, at 20 in 2010 for “Fearless.” Chance the Rapper was 23 when he had his big Grammy night three years ago. Their careers are hardly over, but the Grammy spotlight has shifted to relative newcomers such as the 18-year-old Eilish and 20-year-old Lil Nas X.
Whereas the Grammys once specialized in rewarding veteran artists with major awards later in their careers, as if making up for past oversights, recent years have seen a pronounced shift toward the younger artists stirring up the most buzz on social media and digital streaming platforms. This is partially a matter of survival.
The Grammys may pay lip service to the idea of rewarding musical excellence, but the