Undeniably, 2024 was a terrific year for the music scene, and with an abundance of transformative music being released, many are labeling 2024 a “pop renaissance.”
From well-established pop artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé releasing major albums to artists finally getting more mainstream recognition for their work, such as Charli XCX and Chappell Roan, this past year has proved to be nothing but refreshing.
The music industry is often considered a heavily male-dominated space, but looking at the charts of the past year, 2024 has said otherwise. With women dominating the charts this year, it is highly reminiscent of the early 2010s when those “well-established pop artists,” as mentioned before, were new and trailblazing the way of the modern pop scene.
While every few years, there are a few artists who can crack into the mainstream or re-brand themselves to leave a cultural mark, the expectation of just “a few” artists being able to do so was left in the dust. Considering this, the results for who will win each category in the upcoming 67th Grammy Awards are anticipated to be an exciting yet competitive battle between the great work and artistry put out from Sept. 16, 2023, through Aug. 30, 2024.
In this article, I will discuss this year’s Grammy nominations for what is considered the most major category: Album of the Year, alongside my overall views of the nominated picks and who I feel stands the best chance of winning.
Album of the Year
Determining a winner for any Grammy category involves several metrics, such as production quality, songwriting, creativity and cultural impact. However, the Album of the Year award has always stood out as holding the most prestige, as it uses these metrics to judge an entire portfolio of work. This past year, those portfolios varied distinctly, each with its differentiating strengths.
Starting with André 3000’s album “New Blue Sun,” the album is very well produced and beautifully strung; however, it lacks a mainstream appeal, which, in André 3000´s defense, was presumably not his goal when creating his project.
For context, André 3000 is typically known for his rap music, in which “New Blue Sun” is on the complete opposite end, as an alternative jazz ambiance album with no lyrics. While an album being good is not measured by commercial success, I think this album may struggle to appeal to many people due to the long track lengths and its similarities to meditation music. While that may just be a general audience perception, my concern for this album is that it may be too out of left field for the Academy to award for this specific category.
Like André 3000 going out of his usual genre, Beyoncé was another artist who deviated from her usual R&B-influenced pop hits, releasing her country album “Cowboy Carter,” which has been controversial in some conservative circles. However, it has proven to be a stunning album – vocally and thematically – that challenges the boundaries of what country music is often associated with, paying homage to the history and influences of black country music, which is frequently disregarded within the county genre as a predominantly white space.
Beyoncé, while being the most decorated artist in terms of Grammy wins, has yet to win Album of the Year. Though met with a lot of tough competition, I believe this year could very well be her year for this coveted category.
Despite being a newer voice when it comes to mainstream success in the music industry, compared to someone like Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter’s album “Short n’ Sweet” has been quickly well received both commercially and critically, and it is exceptionally well deserved.
In its entire essence, the album is playful and fun but is elevated with Carpenter’s beautiful vocal delivery and clever lyricism.
When comparing Short n’ Sweet’s success to Carpenter’s past albums, it becomes pretty clear that Carpenter’s issue with pushing out her music to the mainstream was never a lack of talent but a lack of effective marketing. In Carpenter’s previous album, “emails i cant send,” listeners were able to gauge Carpenter’s impressive singing abilities and fun songwriting with songs like “Feather” and “Nonsense,” however, the project as a whole lacked a cohesive direction, and for Carpenter that meant vague personal branding.
If anything, “Short n’ Sweet” reflects how to turn something good into something extraordinary. While I am not sure that this is the exact category I expect Carpenter to win, one thing is for sure: she has an incredible music career ahead of her.
In a similar boat to the enormous amount of newfound success is Chappell Roan, with her album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” I think what makes this album so special is that beyond being a campy, fun, girly-pop album, it has resonated with many people through Roan’s storytelling and themes of being LGBTQ+ in a smaller Midwest region.
It’s an album that, while ranging from sadder and upbeat tracks, never loses cohesion and feels like a profoundly raw and personal account from Roan herself of what it means to navigate love and the nuance of emotions of breaking out of a small town to pursue bigger things. Combining this with Roan’s incredible voice and the album’s catchy nature, I think it is a promising contender for the win.
A bit more on the chaotic side comes Jacob Collier’s album “Djesse Vol.4.” At first impression, I didn’t have much of an idea of what I would be going into, and coming out, I cannot say I have an exact clear read on how to describe Collier’s style of music since all the songs are incredibly unique from each other from gospel influences to jazz. Nonetheless, I found the album impressive in its own right for tackling so many different-sounding tracks. Despite their differences, they all share a grand cinematic-like quality that feels like they belong to dramatic movie sequences, a testament to Collier’s astounding production style, as he self-produces all of his music.
I think where many albums attempt to tell a specific story through the whole tracklist, Collier’s album instead showcases how flexible he is in creating stories through the songs individually. Although this might not be the way to grab mainstream attention, I could see this being a dark horse pick for the academy to vote upon due to the production quality alone.
A less of a dark horse pick falls on Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” As a Grammy darling, Eilish’s work has long been appreciated amongst the academy since the release of her debut album, “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” and this year, I see nothing being different.
Over the years, Eilish has produced consistently good work, and this album is no different. One of the most substantial things Eilish has going for her is that, like her track record, there are no low points on this album. It is beautifully written, produced, and sung. Yet, while a lot can be said for her other work, this album feels much more mature through its vulnerable subject matters of sexuality and insecurity.
Speaking of another artist well-accredited by the academy, whose newest release is especially vulnerable comes Taylor Swift with her album “The Tortured Poets Department.” In general, it is hard for me to critique “The Tortured Poets Department” as a bad album, as there are no significant blunders in vocals and lyricism; however, compared to her past work, the album somewhat falls short.
Over the years, Swift has built a reputation for herself, particularly excelling in her lyrical and storytelling abilities. While the album is undoubtedly raw and honest, the lyrics seem to lack complexity compared to what Swift has proven capable of on albums like “folklore” and “Red.”
At the end of the day, while I don’t think it is a bad album, using a word like “poets” in the title felt a bit disappointing and, at times, pretentious when the results did not seem to match expectations. I think that if this album wins the award, it will certainly be a controversial decision, considering Swift’s controversial win last year for the award for “Midnights,” and on a personal level, a snub for some of the other albums in this category.
The final album up for nomination goes to Charli XCX’s “Brat,” which has become quite the cultural phenomenon over the summer, with many coining the 2024 summer as a “brat summer,” which I can only best describe as the idea of being unapologetically yourself, all the while living your best life mess and all.
At first glance, the fun hyper-pop beats and heavy autotune might allude to “Brat” strictly being a party album, but beyond the surface, it is a profoundly deep album that is a juxtaposition between the careless party girl and the girl who is incredibly self-aware in her faults and shortcomings.
Although Charli XCX has been in the music industry for years, this album feels like her big first breakthrough alongside an incredible feat to have a hyper-pop album get this much outreach. If I had to pick what album I hope wins Album of the Year, “Brat” would be it, and I am excited to see how the Grammys will approach it, considering hyper-pop is not a prominent genre within the typical Album of the Year nomination.
Do the Grammys even matter?
It is hard to fit an entire year of music into a singular category, and it is even harder to appeal to everyone with something as subjective as music. Whether it be someone getting snubbed for a nomination or the award itself, it is guaranteed that you can not make everyone happy.
As someone who is not involved in the music industry, I find the Grammys and seeing who wins purely entertaining. However, it is entirely understandable why some artists choose not to submit their work to a system they feel is rigged or underappreciates their own or others’ art.
Ultimately, the Grammys are not a certification of what makes good music good music, but nonetheless, it is fun to see our favorite artists and projects get recognized and celebrated.
