Gaga never really built an Album of the Year narrative

[ARTGOD 3,266]

The Grammys are shady and no one ever knows what they actually want.

Some years they’ll give AOTY to a bland but commercially successful album, and other years they’ll give it to some critically acclaimed heifer nobody’s heard about.

It’s more about politics, luck, playing the game and licking their asses than actually making the best music.

Releasing good albums helps, but it’s never enough.

She’s also always had bad luck. TFM was the closest she ever got but they gave it to Arcade Fire. BTW was also a good candidate but Adele was never gonna lose it. ASIB could’ve got it had it not been a soundtrack. Her albums that were not nominated had good reasons not to. They either didn’t have that much impact or didn’t get rave reviews.

I just hope that whenever she wins it it’s for an album that’s undeniably great. I don’t want it to be consolation prize. Winning over someone more deserving is bad PR and it’s worse than losing in my opinion. It’s better to be robbed than to rob someone else.

I’m actually relieved L4S didn’t win. Imagine if her only AOTY (cuz I don’t believe the Grammys would be eager to give her another one in the future) was for a covers album and people dragged her for it lmao.

[KURUSHITOVSKA 20,451]

We shouldn't mind that much. There are AOTY winners that haven't hold onto a career. 

[StrawberryBlond 14,829]

16 hours ago, Medulla said:

The secret committee was created because of Tony Bennett (the irony) because he won in the 90s with a live album of covers and the Grammys received media backlash for this because it wasn't a big release with original music, they were labelled 'out of touch' with the trend of the times, since then they decided to create this secret circle of group that always had the final word on general field nominations until this year after 'the Weeknd' mess (apparently they snubbed him last year because they didn't find a deal to perform there), and at the same time like you said they put on main categories songs that were low with general votations, it seems H.E.R for example was the one who benefit the most in the last years from this process (since she has relatives connections with the Record Academy according to rumors).

That being said, in years that i follow the Grammys and their shenanigans I'm pretty sure ASIB was blocked by the secret committee probably because they fear the album would have won easily with appealing multiple branches, it was the album who sold the most in the eligibity period, Gaga already won an Oscar, Golden Globe, 2 Grammys for 'Shallow' and tones of other awards as you know, I'm sure they blocked it in order to favourite Billie Eilish because ASIB in 2020 was already old news in the sense that something belonging to previous season and probably they thought Gaga had her moment already and that she would have won in the visual media categories like it happened. Note that year also 'Lover' by Taylor Swift didn't receive the AOTY nomination that could have been a treat, Eilish was clearly being favourite, the only pop album being nominated was Ariana with TUN that was never going to win since Ariana is not very liked by the Record Academy.

Gaga that year didn't even bother to thank them for winning two, I'm sure she was pissed, her silence was speaking volume, but we know she's a class act and she kept it classy as usual plus it would be dumb cutting ties with them, she still has 13 which is already a lot even if it sucks she hasn't general fields ones.

Here some articles about:

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/grammy-awards-secret-committees-945532/

https://ew.com/awards/grammys/grammys-eliminate-secret-nominating-committees/

That would make a lot of sense with the amount of nominations that H.E.R has. She doesn't win most of them but the sheer amount of them are strange considering she's never had a proper hit and only just released her first ever proper album last year. I can't get over how her 2 compilation albums (as Wikipedia bills them) got nominated for AOTY. I mean, Gaga already was breaking the mould when she got nominated for TFM which is an EP in a lot of people's eyes, yet it got into AOTY because EPs are included, despite the name. But H.E.R's albums were not official albums, they were compilations of previous EPs with only 5/6 new songs added, respectively. I suppose, if cover albums can get nominated, then so can these but it would be hard enough to get just one such album nominated, never mind twice. So, that would indeed suggest a lot of connections in the industry to at least get those nominations. Jay-Z's 4:44 album getting the most nominations of the night some years ago despite it not selling well and the public forgetting about it quickly is also suspicious and naturally, Beyonce's unwavering ability to get nominated nigh on every year, even for songs that made no splash whatsoever and even in years where she didn't even release an album is also right up there. Normally, to get heavily nominated for the one song (ROTY, SOTY, best genre performance, best music video, etc), it must be a major hit. When some little-known song can achieve all this, I call BS.

And definitely, labels want a good return on investment with new artists. They likely wanted a new young talent to triumph during ASIB's year. There's undoubtedly narratives they want to push, whether genuine or bribed. I've said for years that labels are willing to pay big bucks to ensure that new artists on their books get the best start possible with good album reviews, top billing at promo events, general hype and clearly, awards nominations. But it can only go so far. The public are the ones who decide if this praise is warranted and how gets to stick around.

[Medulla 32]

46 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

That would make a lot of sense with the amount of nominations that H.E.R has. She doesn't win most of them but the sheer amount of them are strange considering she's never had a proper hit and only just released her first ever proper album last year. I can't get over how her 2 compilation albums (as Wikipedia bills them) got nominated for AOTY. I mean, Gaga already was breaking the mould when she got nominated for TFM which is an EP in a lot of people's eyes, yet it got into AOTY because EPs are included, despite the name. But H.E.R's albums were not official albums, they were compilations of previous EPs with only 5/6 new songs added, respectively. I suppose, if cover albums can get nominated, then so can these but it would be hard enough to get just one such album nominated, never mind twice. So, that would indeed suggest a lot of connections in the industry to at least get those nominations. Jay-Z's 4:44 album getting the most nominations of the night some years ago despite it not selling well and the public forgetting about it quickly is also suspicious and naturally, Beyonce's unwavering ability to get nominated nigh on every year, even for songs that made no splash whatsoever and even in years where she didn't even release an album is also right up there. Normally, to get heavily nominated for the one song (ROTY, SOTY, best genre performance, best music video, etc), it must be a major hit. When some little-known song can achieve all this, I call BS.

And definitely, labels want a good return on investment with new artists. They likely wanted a new young talent to triumph during ASIB's year. There's undoubtedly narratives they want to push, whether genuine or bribed. I've said for years that labels are willing to pay big bucks to ensure that new artists on their books get the best start possible with good album reviews, top billing at promo events, general hype and clearly, awards nominations. But it can only go so far. The public are the ones who decide if this praise is warranted and how gets to stick around.

Yeah it's exactly like that, H.E.R. case is honestly so blatant, like she's not even on Tinashe level of popularity and she has a general field win in SOTY, category that has always been won by big hits or occasionally by legends like U2 if they weren't major hits. It's appealing how she even managed to win an Oscar, yet nobody in real life knows who she is or can name a song of her.

While we have legends like Queen, Bjork and many more who never won a Grammy.

Grammys are nice, Gaga having 13 is definitely deserving in her case and impressive, she even deserved more, she's overdue at least for one AOTY eventually, but at the same time they have a lot of fishy schemes-shenanigans behind the scenes, they don't really define the impact and the legend status of a music artist.

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,705]

the Grammys are so overrated 

[Sunny21 608]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:51 AM, Bradley said:

Brits, VMAs, EMAs, SNL, iheartradio, jingle bell ball, coachella, rock in rio, X Factor, Graham Norton, NFJ, AMAs, holiday specials

Uh, no. GRAMMY VOTERS are professionals, NOT fans! 😄

NO music industry professional has the time or inclination to sit through all these talk shows or award shows... What for?? The Grammy is music's only peer-voted award! 

Gaga has been around since 2008. She is NOT an up-and-coming artist on her first or second album. 

She's a Grammy REGULAR, nominated on a regular basis. Joanne (Piano Version) won BPSP over big hits like Havana, God Is A Woman, and Better Now. 

If a fellow musician/Grammy voter is remotely interested in Gaga and/or dance pop, they'd have listened to Chromatica the week it was released! Either they like it or they don't. 

Artists like JON BATISTE, who WON Album of the Year in 2022, wouldn't even be invited to most of these shows! He's not a pop star or rapper under 30.  

Tours, concerts and festivals are for FANS, not Grammy voters, let's be real. 😄

[Sunny21 608]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:51 AM, Bradley said:

When ASIB smashed the fck out of the world, she gave zero performances for ARUTW and INLA and the album got ignored for the rest of the year after the Oscars.

Two words: JON BATISTE. Times have changed! 🙂

Jon's album, WE ARE, won AOTY at the 2022 Grammys. It's an R&B and jazz album which peaked at #86 on the Billboard 200. Yes, #86. 

All bets are off now that the (allegedly) "corrupt" nominations review committees have been ELIMINATED. You can't win if you're not nominated, right?

"Nominations in all of the GRAMMY Award general and genre fields will now be determined by a majority, peer-to-peer vote of voting members of the Recording Academy."

I'd be very surprised if ASIB wasn't in the Top 8 for AOTY... That album got 7 nominations in multiple categories! Would it have won? Probably not, because it's a soundtrack, but we'll never know.  

Now's the time for artists who were snubbed in recent years (Katy hasn't been nominated since Prism) to win their first Grammy, or get their first nomination.

Selena was nominated for the first time this year. 

[Sunny21 608]

Personally... I think Gaga writes songs, not albums. It's not a bad thing. Every artist is different. 

e.g., Joanne (title track) is great, Dancin' In Circles is good, but maybe shouldn't be on the same album. 😉

ASIB is more cohesive than most, but that's because Gaga had no choice. She had to follow the plot.

[metalguru 1,553]

I love reading insightful topics like this one.

She needs that win with a cutting-edge album, though. Her avant-garde promise never truly completed in the form of an LP. All the ingredients are there, except motivation and a good producer. Her Bjork/Bowie kind of electro funk experiment will surely benefit her career greatly. Rihanna had it with Anti, Bee with Lemonade, Taylor with etc… A curious and bold producer will make or break it but is worth trying. I also want to see her colder, grandiose, and message-free. Let the music speaks. 
 

I recently re-listened Bjork’s Utopia, the one co-written and produced by Arca, and it made me think of Gaga, and her potential to expand her sonic aura into new territories with a help of another talented musician.
 

I am old believer of art as consolation or catharsis thus I feel like there are big personal moments behind masterpieces so it is also a matter of inner revolution. She plays it a bit safe these days but am sure the bold persona will arisen again soon.