We Need to Talk About These 2025 Country Grammy Nominations
The Grammys announced their nominations for the 2025 awards on Friday (11-8), and there were some reasons to cheer as a country music fan. Unfortunately though, none of those reasons to cheer presented themselves in the country Grammys. They were all down in the American Roots categories, where Charley Crockett finally received a nominated, Sierra Ferrell received four of them, and names like Rhiannon Giddens, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Billy Strings appeared.
The country categories had plenty of familiar names too, but the majority of the nominations were filled by performers from outside of the country music genre. This goes far beyond feeling like your favorite artists lost out on an opportunity. When massive superstars from other disciplines such as Beyoncé, Post Malone, and Jelly Roll dominate the country nominations, it creates a very pernicious problem.
At this point, you can’t really be taken off guard that pop stars are moving into the country space in 2024 like never before. Beyond Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, Machine Gun Kelly won a People’s Choice Country Award earlier this year, and Chappell Roan premiered a country song last week on Saturday Night Live. Everywhere you turn, pop is going country.
The irony here is that country music in 2023 and 2024 has never sounded more country overall, irrespective of these pop stars. This is the trend that has been most prevalent in the last few years. The trend also parallels how country music has never been more popular. That is the whole reason so many pop/hip-hop stars see it as the time to move into the country space, however temporary.
But what makes all of this problematic is that at the peak of its popularity, it’s not actual country performers receiving recognition, it’s all the pop stars moving into exploit it. You look at the lists of Grammy country nominees that include Beyoncé, Shaboozey, Post Malone, and Jelly Roll, and you very well could be looking at pop or hip-hop categories.
Country Album:
Cowboy Carter – Beyoncé
F-1 Trillion – Post Malone
Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves
Higher – Chris Stapleton
Whirlwind – Lainey Wilson
Country Solo Performance:
“16 Carriages” — Beyoncé
“I Am Not Okay” —Jelly Roll
“The Architect” — Kacey Musgraves
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — Shaboozey
“It Takes A Woman” — Chris Stapleton
Country Song:
“The Architect” — Kacey Musgraves
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — Shaboozey
“I Am Not Okay” — Jelly Roll
“I Had Some Help” — Post Malone Feat. Morgan Wallen
“Texas Hold ‘Em” — Beyoncé
Country Duo/Group Performance:
“Cowboys Cry Too” — Kelsea Ballerini With Noah Kahan
“II MOST WANTED” — Beyoncé Featuring Miley Cyrus
“Break Mine” — Brothers Osborne
“Bigger Houses” — Dan + Shay
“I Had Some Help” — Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen
We let our guard down worrying about the formation of the mono-genre because country has been doing so well and sounding so country. But the Grammy Awards—which is usually the most reliable of the awards organizations—has foisted the issue right back on the front burner.
What is the mono-genre? That’s when all popular music sounds the same, and is played by the same ultra-wealthy superstars no matter what genre you listen to. That would also be a good way to describe these Grammy country nominees for 2025.
Navigating around country music social media feeds over the last few days, as opinion sharing about the Presidential election died down, it’s been noisy with people who usually don’t get exercised about such things saying, “What happened?” with the Grammy’s country nominations in sometimes viral posts.
“Look. While I appreciate that mainstream country stations that play this are no competition for us, this is getting out of hand,” said 95.9 FM The Ranch Program Director Shayne Hollinger out of Ft. Worth. “They are killing country music and it’s sad to see.”
And while some cheer the diversity of having nominations for Beyoncé and Shaboozey—which make for the first time two Black performers have been nominated in the same country category—it feels like a hollow victory with songs and albums that empirically sound more like pop and hip-hop projects, and from performers who didn’t start in the country genre. This is the opposite of diversity. It is the absence of diversity. It’s the mono-genre.
Beyoncé doesn’t even consider Cowboy Carter a country album. She said so herself in no uncertain terms. In 2021, the Kacey Musgraves album Star-Crossed was moved out of the country category for not being country enough. The same happened to the Beyoncé song “Daddy Lessons” in 2016. Both of those decisions were criticized publicly, but probably were the right ones to make. Now that The Grammy Awards are weighing “artist intent” more heavily, this is less likely to happen.
Musgraves’ current album Deeper Well and the song “The Architect” probably fit better in the folk/Americana or pop realm. And Beyoncé even has her song “Ya Ya” competing in the Best Americana Performance category, meaning Americana isn’t even a refuge from being overshadowed by superstars anyone. Luke Combs released the most critically-acclaimed album of his career with Fathers & Sons, has the Grammy’s top “moment” earlier this year with Tracy Chapman, and still isn’t enough of a superstar to compete with the pop superstars dominating country this year.
And very likely Beyoncé will win some, if not most of these country awards. But is this really what the country music community wants? Will this really be representative of country music in the present tense? Or are the Grammy Awards being compelled to prop up Beyoncé out of fear? Cowboy Carter doesn’t even appear in the Billboard Top 200 anymore. It has no organic appeal or support.
The real fear should be codifying the mono-genre with these nominations and awards. Beyoncé has 11 nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards across four separate genres. She is nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Levii’s Jeans” with Post Malone, while Post Malone has three nominations in country too. Beyoncé is also nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Spaghetti” with Shaboozey, while Shaboozey is nominated in two country Grammys.
Meanwhile, Shaboozey’s country nominations come off his track “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which is a remake of a 2004 hip-hop single from J-Kwon. It’s not even an original song. “A Bar Song” is also up for the Grammy’s all-genre Song of the Year. Post Malone is also nominated for three more Grammys for his collaboration with Taylor Swift, “Fortnight.” Taylor Swift started her career in country.
Everywhere you look in popular genres in the Grammy nominations, it’s the same names. This is the mono-genre by definition. And during a year when country music should be dominating popular music categories, it is pop music that is dominating country categories. There are no actual country performers represented in the “Big 4” categories (Album, Song, Record of the Year, Best New Artists), because it’s pop stars that are being used as the country representation.
Some love to claim “gatekeeping” whenever you make these kinds of arguments. There is most certainly gatekeeping happening. But it’s with super rich and popular pop/hip-hop stars pushing country stars outside of the gates in their own genre.
Country music will not be the hot commodity forever. These things move in cycles. But fans and historians use the Grammy Awards and their nominations as a reference point for what best represents a genre in a given year. At a time when actual country performers are inspiring pop stars more than ever, it should be those country performers represented in the country categories, not the pop and hip-hop stars they’re inspiring. That’s what the pop and hip-hop categories are for. Leave country for country.
November 11, 2024 @ 9:52 am
“We are really out of touch and have no idea who the good country artists are. Who should we nominate?”
“How about Chris Stapleton again?”
“Perfect!”
November 11, 2024 @ 10:03 am
‘Boy band pop’ has been accepted for years, thanks to the likes of Rascal Flatts and (boy band rejects) Dan & Shay. Alan Jackson got it right in 1994 with ‘Gone Country’!
November 11, 2024 @ 10:22 am
The “monogenre” is exactly what the three or four multinational corporations that own most of the major Nashville (and elsewhere) labels are aiming for. With physical album sales cratering, they can’t afford to limit the potential audience for music played on country stations only to fans of traditional or neotraditional country music. Cross-format and international hits make up for whatever mainstream listeners abandon mainstream country radio and stop buying mainstream product, no matter how you spin the numbers for the “good guys” like Flatland, Moonpies/Silverada, etc. Those acts aren’t moving product or filling seats with paying customers in the UK, Europe or Australia. The ones who can get their songs on stations in multiple formats do. Imagine how huge (cash-wise, not body-wise) Jelly Roll would be if his criminal record didn’t prevent him from touring outside the US and (just recently) Canada.
That said, the Grammy nominations seem intended to virtue-signal that country music is this open, everyone’s-welcome genre that accepts not only a wide range of ethnicities and races but a ridiculously wide range of influences that barely leave a trace of identifiable country music behind. It’s the easiest way to get millennials, whose popular music has been largely bereft of depth and melody for the past three decades, to consider listening to “country” radio as well as pop and hip-hop/urban radio. It’s a lot easier to sell Shaboozey or Dasha or Kane Brown to 20- and 30-somethings who’ve grown up on rap and soulless, mechanical, Ecstasy/Molly-fueled EDM.
The true puzzlement for me remains Beyonce, who, logic would tell us, has utterly failed to connect with country audiences (despite the endorsement from that walking, talking endorsement machine named Dolly Parton) through radio airplay or album sales. Her presence in the nominations is strictly crass virtue signaling. I’m curious to hear what comes next from her. My gut feeling is that it will contain nothing even Dolly would bear endorsing, nor will it be nominated for the following year’s country Grammys.
November 11, 2024 @ 11:40 am
” no matter how you spin the numbers for the “good guys” like Flatland, Moonpies/Silverada, etc. Those acts aren’t moving product or filling seats…”
Neither is Beyonce. She has been a commercial flop, and if she sells out a tour, it’s due to nostalgia, not “Cowboy Carter.”
Forget Flatland or Silverada. How about Luke Combs? Is Luke Combs not even big enough to get a nomination? Not in 2025, apparently.
And this is the Grammy Awards. This is a non-profit, peer-voted award. This is not supposed to be about the industry affirming the most commercially successful, but performers themselves highlighting the critically-acclaimed.
November 16, 2024 @ 2:03 pm
I don’t know how much you know about how Grammy nominees are calculated, but there are a lot people in the voting rolls who have no idea who a lot a lot of the artists up for consideration even are. A lot of it boils down to “I think I’ve heard of this person before, so I’ll just check the box next to their name.”
November 11, 2024 @ 6:45 pm
Dolly gives out endorsements to anything that makes her look good in mainstream culture.
She is the grandmother that approves of her granddaughter getting a nose ring.
November 11, 2024 @ 10:28 am
Monogenre? More like moneygenre.
I’d love to see some evidence for the Grammy Awards being afraid of Beyonce. I’d point to what her husband said about her last year: ‘I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys; never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.’
I thought we’d see Tayonce, a musical version of Barbenheimer, but it seems Beyonce had her moment in the sun this week.
November 11, 2024 @ 10:28 am
Trigger and Saving Country Music readers — who would you nominate instead?
November 11, 2024 @ 11:28 am
That’s the thing. Country music is in a bit of a drought. SCM readers are going to start responding with The Red Clay Strays, Johnny Blue Skies, and Shane Smith & the Saints, but if we are being honest, they are about as country as Beyonce.
Maybe Charles Wesley Godwin’s “Family Ties” was released late enough last year to be eligible in this Grammy cycle? I was surprised Willie didn’t get nominated for “The Border.” A bunch of there country alternatives, George Strait and Billy Stings, were released too late to be eligible.
It’s really been a down year for country music. And the “Americana” label is muddying this up even further. There seems to be a push to make artists like 49 Winchester “Americana” (whatever the hell that means). “Leavin’ This Holler” is probably going to be my COUNTRY album of the year.
November 11, 2024 @ 11:30 am
Who nominate instead? Seriously?
First, there are Sierra Ferrell and Charley Crockett, who appear in the category Americana, while they are 100% country.
Then, there’s Red Clay Strays, a brilliant band that won a lot of success and following. Their album “Made By These Moments”, a solid contender for album of the year, even in the all genre categories.
If we talk about real country, there would be a lot of other albums, like 49 Winchester’s “Leaving This Holler” or Zach Top’s “Cold Beer and Country Music”.
2024 is full of real country music albums and artists.
And that’s the year chosen by Grammys to pick up pop and hi hop artists for country categories.
That’s a perfect non-sense.
November 11, 2024 @ 12:03 pm
“Sierra Ferrell and Charley Crockett, who appear in the category Americana, while they are 100% country.”
This is where I respectfully disagree. If it wasn’t for that Americana category, neither of these performers could claim to be “Grammy nominated” now. I would love to see Charley Crockett competing for a country Grammy. But the truth is his sound has a lot of vintage blues and R&B influences, and really isn’t straight country. Sierra Ferrell has Appalachia folk and Depression era jazz in her sound. This is what “Americana” is for—artists that have country influences in their sound, but also include other roots genres.
As hoptowntiger said, The Red Clay Strays aren’t really country at all. They would also fit more in Americana. They also probably deserved a nomination.
In country, I think of Kaitlin Butts, who put out a straight country album. Zach Top who did the same.
Unfortunately, there is still a thing where it seems that big commercial artists get called “country,” and smaller artists get called “Americana.” Is Chris Stapleton any more country than 49 Winchester? They both include a lot of country soul in their sound, and in roughly equal portions.
I go back and forth about the “Americana” distinction. But I am happy there is at least SOME avenue for roots-leaning country artists to get nominated in some category with the Grammys. It would be nice if the CMAs did the same. the Canadian CMAs have a “roots artist” category.
November 11, 2024 @ 8:53 pm
Yet they are both a fuck-ton more country than any of the actual country nominees not named Chris Stapleton. So clearly they’re “qualified” for a country nomination from the meaningless (to me) Grammy’s. And this year’s award for running the best campaign for best album goes to…
November 11, 2024 @ 11:45 am
Everyone’s list of nominees will be different. The most important thing is that they make at least some attempt to represent country. I would have Kaitlin Butts and Zach Top up there, both of whom had critically-acclaimed albums that also saw strong commercial performances. I think you have to be pragmatic about these things. I don’t even have a problem with Beyonce or Shaboozey getting a nomination or two for a big, popular song. But when you can’t even get Luke Combs a nomination because you’ve given so many slots to pop stars, you given up the game to being rigged to minimize criticism to the institution as opposed to representing the community you’ve been entrusted to represent.
November 12, 2024 @ 12:59 pm
Kaitlin Butts put out an awesome album, but lets get real, there is a threshold of popularity you have to hit before you get enough name recognition for these nominations.
I had $20 tickets to see her in a basement club with 200 people this weekend, and it didn’t sell out (missed the show due to stomach flu ripping through our whole household – which I’ll be regretting for a long long time though).
November 12, 2024 @ 3:13 pm
Kaitlin Butts is still coming up and I’m sure it’s market dependent on how she draws. Here in Texas she’s playing Gruene Hall and Billy Bob’s Texas, which is as big as a club act can get.
Let’s not forget that just a few years ago, Sturgill Simpson was nominated for the all-genre Album of the Year right beside Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Drake, and Justin Bieber, when he was probably a 2,000-3,000 capacity theater act. He also won Best Country Album. Brandy Clark can’t be much bigger than Kaitlin Butts, though she does have bigger name recognition. She was nominated numerous times last year.
The most pernicious thing abut this is how tour capacity/name recognition can factor into who is considered “country” and who is considered “Americana.” If Chris Stapleton was playing theaters, he’d be an Americana act.
November 11, 2024 @ 6:46 pm
Josh Turner’s new album
November 12, 2024 @ 2:09 am
…well, cody johnsons’ “leather”, ernest’s “nashville, tennessee” and miranda lambert’s “postcards from texas” were all very much country albums – and rather good ones at that. then again, they are what they are: seriously proper country music. hence, somewhat lacking the “wow!” or standout buzz of those albums actually nominated, which is not a petty ingredient, when it comes to grammy album nominations. just take taylor swifts latest, which for good reason didn’t make the grade in the overall album category, because it was rather boring to non-swifties.
megan moroney’s “am i ok?”, ella langley’s “hungover” and katlin butt’s “roadrunner”, which i feel are on par with lainey wilson’s rather brave “whirlwind” would have perhaps deserved some consideration too in a perfect world that was not overwhelmed by output like this year. zach top’s “cold beer & country music” perhaps too – even though one would have had to get over the fact first that it was its complete lack of imaginativeness that acatually made it quite imaginative. purely from an acoustic point of view, his vocals have been da thing with brandon coleman’s (red clay strays) this year when it comes to new male voices.
not nominating sierra ferrell in the overall categories too, is probably one of the bigger mishaps there – then again there’s has been so much worthwhile output and talent to consider from everywhere.
note to the country-quakers hiere: compared to waylon at the time, post malone sounds country (almost) like a biscuit on “f-1 trillion” and i don’t want to imagine country music without waylon… or garth.
November 12, 2024 @ 7:39 am
Cody Johnson….Leather for Country Album. Dirt Cheap for Country Performance and Country Song. But…maybe not being nominated for Country Album is a good thing. The new deluxe edition has an added 13 songs. With over 50 percent of new material, it will be eligible again next year. Collectively, it’s strong enough to get a nomination and perhaps even a (well-deserved) win.
November 11, 2024 @ 10:35 am
Most of the nominations are just not country. Even one of the artists nominated made clear her music is not country! It isn’t! Jelly Roll, Post Malone, Shaboozey and Dan & Shay could be as honest as Beyonce and make the same admission. Their music is not country. Sad to see these nominations, when there is so much great country music being released. It is another irrelevant awards show.
November 11, 2024 @ 11:04 am
Another interesting article from Trigger!. Perhaps Trigger is finally coming around to my thinking—-Good for you “son”. Our first disagreement was about “saving country music” and then about the issue of “Diversity” which ended up with the topic about racism—-the American way. What we both agree on in 2024 is: “Leave Country For Country” (Trigger 2024 – Saving Country Music Writer).
However, out of all the Grammy Award nominations, Chris Stapleton is the only legitimate Country Music writer and singer. Trigger, you can ask “Rickey Skaggs” to tell you about “Bill Monroe” of Kentucky before you ever write or comment about “Bluegrass Country Music” with due respect.
November 11, 2024 @ 11:34 am
At the very least we need “Traditional Country” categories. They offer these in both the R&B and Pop fields. This would not be a solution, but it would help with recognition and be a start.
November 11, 2024 @ 11:56 am
I keep telling y’all that this is a concerted effort to destroy Country Music as a beautiful American music genre. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and this is a bitter, bitter pudding at that.
Become vocal about it now, folks. Trigger and SCM can’t do this alone. Get it out to your social media, share these articles, open the discussion. I know I do.
This genre needs to remain Country Pure and they are doing to it what will become its ultimate demise – they will pop it all up until it is just more generic crap you can hear on POP, HIP HOP and R&B FM radio (or streams now) – and then it will cease to exist as a genre altogether.
Pop can be pop. R&B can be R&B… but Country BAD and clearly needs doing away with.
I will keep warning ya, but it’s on you folks to do some more and keep Country being Country.
November 11, 2024 @ 6:47 pm
Jimmy,
You have been a great addition to the SCM community.
November 12, 2024 @ 12:13 pm
I appreciate the sentiment, CountryKnight, just as much as I appreciate when you add to the mix. Your take is usually spot on.
November 11, 2024 @ 12:13 pm
I do find the post Malone part of this interesting because he’s kind of coming at this same thing from the other direction. He’s a guy who achieved popularity and success getting some of rap music’s finite time and attention. And he’s basically abandoned what got him fans in the first place to seemingly go fully country. Which asks why should rap music give attention to these guys who will at the first chance abandon rap to play a guitar once they’re ready to be taken seriously. See also the beastie boys or machine gun Kelly.
Cause I do think post Malone is here to stay? I don’t think this was a one off to get award show buzz. I think he is just going to be a country singer now. Shame how little respect he has for the people that made him famous enough to do that
November 11, 2024 @ 12:29 pm
I’ve never gotten the vibe from Post Malone that he’s in country music to stay. He might release more country songs or collaborate with country artists, or maybe even release another country album in the future. But it felt very one off how “F-1 Trillion” came about, esp. the ton of collaborations. But we’ll see.
It’s also fair to say that “F1-Trillion” is a country album. I was pretty disappointed in it. But unlike the albums from Jelly Roll, Shaboozey, Beyonce of course, or even Kacey Musgraves, it’s pretty standard modern country music.
November 11, 2024 @ 12:34 pm
Trigger do you have any insight into the make up of the Grammy nominating body and process? I wonder if the reason these categories look like this is because there’s minimal representation from the genre and the nominations simply reflects name recognition cause the body literally does not know any better. Ex. If a nominating member is say Kanye or Chad Kroger, do we really expect them to know what was quality output in country this year anymore than George Strait could judge hip-hop and rock output?
November 11, 2024 @ 2:11 pm
I honestly don’t know much about their nomination process, aside from it being a peer-voted award. So you have to be an artist, songwriter, musician, producer, or engineer to vote. I also want to say that there is a a limited amount of categories people can vote in, but don’t quote me on that. For sure though, there has always seemed to be a familiarity bias with nominees and winners. It was especially obvious this year. But in previous years we have seen a lot more variety among the respective country categories, and a lot more attention to the critically-acclaimed like Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, and Brandy Clark.
November 11, 2024 @ 4:09 pm
I thought the nominations were done by committee as opposed to members voting. At least they used to do that.
November 11, 2024 @ 12:44 pm
Ha ha. The Grummies continue to prove my assertions. They are irrelevant, liberal messaging, and completely woke. Glad they confirm my biases. To say they are a garbage association is an insult to garbage.
November 11, 2024 @ 2:15 pm
That might explain the nominations for Beyonce. Jelly Roll also somehow has curried the favor with the folks who lobby for “diversity” in country music. But that doesn’t really explain Post Malone who’s hanging out with Joe Rogan and Tony Hinchcliffe, especially when two of Post’s nominations come with Morgan Wallen coatttails.
November 11, 2024 @ 8:50 pm
The rise of Jelly Roll still baffles me. (Less so than the lies pitted against Joe Rogan as being this Alt-right figure. He was self-admittingly on the Left until only a month or two ago.)
Even to the people who actually care about “problematic” personal ties, Jelly Roll is on a bunch of Upchurch songs. Why is that never brought up?
Jelly Roll’s music slaps as hard as the turd from a Brantley Gilbert and Staind combo meal against the porcelain on a truck stop toilet bowl. People with shitty taste in music love him though.
November 11, 2024 @ 4:07 pm
Wayne, while I’m not at all disagreeing with the Grammys being “woke”, I think the more important point is that they think they know better re country awards than country music people themselves. It’s smug. Arrogant. Self righteous. And out of touch with country music.
November 11, 2024 @ 6:29 pm
Agree.
November 11, 2024 @ 1:59 pm
As a person with a broad music taste I can tall you that the Grammy’s don’t have their finger on the pulse of music lovers in almost any genre.
Metallica released their most mediocre album ever last year. It was received with yawns and disinterest in the larger metal community. They won best metal album.
Killer Mike released Michael which was also released to very mixed reviews. Won best hiphop.
Mumford and Sons won best album in 2013. U2 in 2006. Beck in 2015. Jon Batiste in 2020. Steely Dan in 2001. All these albums were flops, either artistically or financially.
Don’t think for one second the grammies are a measure of quality.
November 11, 2024 @ 8:31 pm
That Steely Dan album sold over a million copies. I can’t think of another band with more artistic integrity than Steely Dan.
November 12, 2024 @ 2:34 am
That’s why I said “either”
November 11, 2024 @ 2:01 pm
“But fans and historians use the Grammy Awards and their nominations as a reference point for what best represents a genre in a given year.” I think many music lovers know that all awards shows, Grammy’s included, can no longer be viewed in this way. For years now, what is reflected on awards shows isn’t reality. For me, awards shows have been a joke for a long time. Same for Rolling Stone. Something that once held water is now just a joke of a ‘music magazine’. Same for radio. Many of the things that once meant something are now meaningless, irrelevant, and frequently laughable.
I’d like to see the specific genre breakdown of voting Grammy members (and all the data behind these awards shows in general). I don’t trust anything anymore and more often than not ‘follow the money’ is where to look to find answers. When things are being shoved down our throats collectively, it’s a good sign that ‘the money’ is pushing an agenda. I’d also like to see the financial breakdown of corporate sponsors of the recording academy. Same for Rolling Stone. Same for radio. Let’s shine some light on those pulling strings behind the scenes.
Looking at Trig’s ‘Dewey Decimal system of subgenres’ post from a few months back – I can confidently say the ‘peers’ that are doing the nominating don’t have a clue of the many facets that make up country music. (I can also confidently say that even Music Row doesn’t have a firm grasp of this either.) Not to mention I don’t agree that someone who is primarily in the Rap, Metal, or Jazz field can potentially be casting a vote for country (and vice versa).
You know how Dolly originally declined the Rock Hall nomination? Beyonce should do this for all her ‘country’ nominations. Seeing most of the names nominated in the country arena, it reads to me like a giant middle finger to country music and its audience. I am over radio. I am over Rolling Stone. I am over awards shows. I am over cross-genre collabs. I am over pointless festival pairings. I am over Music Row writing the same song sixteen different ways. Everybody stop with the money grabs and trying to squeeze every last nickel out of a $h!t song. God bless the few that are keeping country music alive. We see you and are so excited you are doing it!
November 11, 2024 @ 2:20 pm
I think ‘Cowboy Songs’ by George Birge should replace ‘A Bar Song’ by Shaboozey. George’s song also takes place in a bar, but has actually feeling behind it.
November 11, 2024 @ 2:35 pm
Beyonce can say whatever she likes, but her album is country. Folk-country specifically. She says that so that purists don’t jump on her. What a mania to deny country. And the other way around too, they define themselves as country but no way. Texas holdem is one of the best danceable country songs in a long time. She simply has two billion dollars to hire the best country songwriters and musicians. She could make a polka album and it would do well too. I don’t like her album anyway, not at all, I look for authenticity in artists, not a fake, prefabricated pose.
My beloved Zach should be given the award for best country artist and only him all the country awards, but it’s a matter of I’m in love with him, he, he, he.
The song watermelon monshine that’s for silly girls who like Disney, not a bad song, but cheesy and sappy.
Post Malone is a country mercenary, he has made some of the best country albums, better than some supposedly pure country albums. He is a genius. I play Pour me a drink when I’m drunk. I like him, he’s the typical nice but ugly friend in the gang of friends.
Nowadays who believes in those rigged awards? Thanks to the internet people decide, and the Grammy mafia sucks.
November 11, 2024 @ 3:21 pm
I mean Beyonce´style is new-country (modernized), not folk at all, and maybe 2 or 3 pure country olde style songs.
November 11, 2024 @ 11:57 pm
It’s a fine work, well put together and heartfelt. But its not country. It’s country influenced, country inspired, country adjacent. If anything it is a combination of styles, and that’s fine.
Gatekeeping, no. Historic Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Olivia Newton John and Tina Turner did “country” albums in a traditional form, not reinvention.
I wonder if other forms of music would tolerate this “reinvention” I think not – I can just hear the screams of “apprproation”, “gaslighting” and “watering down”. But then again only certain (relatively young) forms of music seem to be allowed “tradition” and “purity” – where as Country is not allowed to relish its century old traditions undiminished. So who’s gatekeeping now? And what ever its so called “roots” were evolved from, Country has maintained its own form.
So enough of this fawning and cloying behaviour to pop acts invading this form perniciously and force reinventing something that doesn’t need reinvention. (Including Imacs, Linn drum machines and foul language). And enough Beyhive trolling; you won’t win any battles here.
November 11, 2024 @ 3:25 pm
A similar phenomenon occurred last year with The Returner by Allison Russell. Who in the world had the audacity to nominate this album, soaked with pop, funk, R&B, and even a bit of jazz, as Americana-album of the year?
I mean if you promise me an Americana album, I don’t expect to be dragged into a Bee Gees party. ‘Stay Right Here,’ for example, feels like I should head straight for the dance floor, complete with shiny bell-bottoms and an afro wig bigger than a Texas hat. It sounds like Gloria Gaynor and Bob Dylan had a one-night stand in a studio full of disco lights.
What we have here is an example of a growing problem: the term Americana is now used for anything that sounds a bit rootsy, regardless of whether it resembles country, folk, or blues. The Returner may not be a bad album but it fits Americana like a glitter suit on Willie Nelson.
Fortunately, it all ended relatively well last year: Russell missed out on the award. I sincerely wish the same for Beyoncé, Shaboozey, Post Malone, and other fake country-artists
November 11, 2024 @ 3:33 pm
I say a variation of this every year, but the CMA awards are what matters as far as country, Grammys are nonsense.
Now, the CMAs are hardly perfect (go count the number of times George Jones was nominated for male vocalist pre-He Stopped Loving Her Today…).
November 11, 2024 @ 3:36 pm
Cody Johnson, to me, makes the most sense from an aggregate commercial and critical perspective to have represent one of the coveted slots in their categories. He’s had such a massive year and it definitely deserves to be reflected in the nominees.
I also agree with Kaitlin Butts and Zach Top representing two other slots in multiple categories.
I also feel Ella Langley/Riley Scott’s “you look like you love me” should definitely be among the Country Song and/or Country Duo/Group Performance categories. It can’t be overstated just how massive that has been and has such broad resonance.
I respectfully disagree with Luke Combs’ “Fathers And Sons” being a top contender because even though it got critical acclaim and I personally consider it his best record to date, its commercial potential was kind of hampered by releasing it lowkey on Father’s Day and it also just feels more like a passion project than a proper studio album era: which I feel is reflected in its more limited commercial returns.
November 11, 2024 @ 4:04 pm
“Fathers And Sons” was definitely a passion project, and those projects have done well at the Grammys in the past when they deserve it. Think of Ashley McBryde’s “Lindeville.” It was a total commercial flop, and still got a Grammy nomination.
Cody Johnson is another good name that could have been recognized this year, and would have given someone for traditional country fans to root for.
November 11, 2024 @ 6:49 pm
Riley Green, not Riley Scott.
And that song is terrible.
November 11, 2024 @ 7:15 pm
Yeah, definitely meant to say Green. Damn Seasonal Affect Disorder, hehe!
It’s undeniably been one of the single most buzzworthy breakout mainstream hits of this year, though, so I’m surprised it wasn’t nominated. Especially considering Langley came virtually out of nowhere from a mainstream perspective and Green has had a rather inconsistent, yo-yo chart run since his breakthrough single in 2018…………”you look like you love me” has lowkey been quite an event song.
November 11, 2024 @ 8:18 pm
It is so terrible. Agreed
November 11, 2024 @ 7:54 pm
“I also feel Ella Langley/Riley Scott’s “you look like you love me” should definitely be among the Country Song and/or Country Duo/Group Performance categories. It can’t be overstated just how massive that has been and has such broad resonance.”
You are 100% correct, Nadia.
But, no way was this song going to be nominated.
It is sad that true talent is ignored.
People are not comfortable with persons who are at the top of the game.
Insecurities get In the way.
More important to quash that talent, so mediocrity has a chance when chasing the almighty $.
Perfect example would be Ashley McBryde.
Very talented.
And yet, we all know who the awards were going to.
That’s ok.
Let the wannabee’s keep playing their games.
In the meantime, enjoying some great music from local/regional/national artists, when can.
November 12, 2024 @ 7:36 am
I’m guessing that “You Look Like You Love Me” was released too recently to qualify for nomination for the 2025 awards. It should be a huge presence in awards shows later in 2025 and the 2026 Grammys.
November 11, 2024 @ 4:32 pm
In this context “country” is just a marketing term. It represents a certain demographic. What is being marketed to them? Laney Wilson, Shaboozey, Chris Stapleton, Post Malone, etc. It would be cool if say Zach Top or 49 Winchester was marketed to this demographic, but they’re not.
November 11, 2024 @ 4:46 pm
Luke Combs got nary a Country Grammy Nomination ? LUKE COMBS ?????????????????????????????? Why not nominate Billy Currington or Jarrod Nieman in the Country Music Wannabe But Never Was Superstar category,which Brantley Gilbert could also contest ?
November 11, 2024 @ 8:27 pm
Beyonce slipping into the Americana catergory is incredibly egregious. With all the pop-bullshittery it’s still expected that the roots genre will remain pure. Why can’t she sneak her way into the Jazz or Blues charts?
I’m sure plenty of you won’t agree but I think country music brought this on itself for one big reason: auto-tuned and pitch-corrected vocals. Electronic assistance to vocals allowed other factors to dillute country music in favor of pop appeal.
I was thinking about this today and I would blame Carrie Underwood as being one of the first offenders of this. Taylor Swift is the most egregious example. Anyone who doubts me should compare her acoustic performances to her full band live shows from this year. It’s Milli-Vanilli’esk. A genre cannot allow such a blatant sin of pitch correction for vocals, especially live, and be respected as a legitimate genre with boundaries.
November 12, 2024 @ 10:04 am
Pitch correction technology has gotten so good that the “phony” sound we’ve associated with Auto-Tune over the years is becoming harder and harder to detect, both in recordings and live. I think we all would be quite surprised if someone in the know were to come up with a list of performers who have pitch correction in the audio chain for their live performances. Every singer or group has a bad night, or even a few botched notes on several songs. It doesn’t seem possible to me that as many live performers as I’ve watched in the Auto-Tune era have been 100 percent pitch perfect, show after show, yet that’s what meets the ear way too often.
November 12, 2024 @ 5:12 pm
Exactly. After watching many old clips on Youtube it was common for great performers to have minor mistakes live – anyone from Freddie Mercury to Patty Loveless. This constant pitch correction has fooled consumers into thinking this is normal and artists who did sing live for acoustic performances would be ridiculed in the comments despite their voices being fine and honest with the studio recording. Digital assistance created this unrealistic expectation and also met a business need so idk how this demon can be sent back to hell.
There are a few guys on Youtube who have done comparisons of live concert audio and compared them to other concerts and have shown how they match exactly. Taylor Swift uses prerecorded pitch corrected live vocals that are fed thru the mains and then she lip syncs most of the show. and the engineer will turn down the prerecorded audio for his live speaking parts. Worship music in many large churches has live pitch correction – which seems to violate the very act of worship itself but I digress.
Singers can have bad nights or be under the weather and in the smart phone era that will immediately be plastered all over the internet. Where is the acceptable line between a digital “safety net” and reliance on prerecorded live sounding vocals that have been digitally altered?
I mentioned Carrie Underwood earlier because while she can definitely sing, her most belted out notes don’t have a natural sound. They lay so perfectly level on pitch without fluctuation that it sounds fake. (I also have hated her music from the beginning but couldn’t articulate a reason why I hate how all her high notes sound)
November 11, 2024 @ 9:06 pm
The only one I saw of that slide is post. He stated nearly 10 years ago that when he reached a certain age he was going to release a country album. It was always on his agenda to do. Sadly it just happened to coincide whilst every other pop artist is trying to jump on the trend
November 11, 2024 @ 9:27 pm
I’m amused at how people here can get themselves so worked up over this.
Awards are inherently arbitrary and these are doubly so: What is or isn’t country is arbitrary and which records were the best is arbitrary.
Heck, the old guard–at the time–didn’t think the outlaws were country.
If you don’t like who the Grammy organization chooses, then ignore it. It’s not like an artist who does not get nominated will lose his record deal or not be able to perform at certain venues. Few fans even know who wins the award in a given year, let alone know or remembers who won it in the past.
November 12, 2024 @ 7:05 am
Chris Malpass told me Merle Haggard had a Grammy he used as a doorstop… so there’s that.
November 12, 2024 @ 7:19 am
Grammy Tried
November 12, 2024 @ 7:40 am
Tell me how you really feel. Ok here’s a probably unpopular opinion from an old, lifelong country music fan. Someone that real country music has been the sound track of his life. Most (maybe not all ) real country music has already been made and recorded. Most ( not all ) the country musicians who made that music are gone now, Thank God for recordings. I have an extensive collection of albums and playlists that I have made. I’d say 3/4 of that music was made by country singers who are not with us anymore. Everything changes with time, well almost everything. This is just one man’s opinion, but I bet I’m not alone.
November 12, 2024 @ 8:33 am
The field across the board is so unbelievably poor that I’m hesitant to attribute this mess to malice.
Legacy acts, diversity for the sake of diversity, and ignorance abound.
Country and Americana is bad, but the Rock and Metal nominations are on the same level of “WTF”. I would have loved to have seen the Strays get nominated in the Rock category because that field is so incredibly stale.
I’ve never been a fan of bashing artists. But watching a name that’s rightfully billed in an 11 am slot at every festival they’re invited to, be up for their like 6th Grammy while others in the space can’t buy exposure is brutal. While your average NPR enjoyer’s idea of what Sheryl Crow used to sound like 30 years ago seems to dominate the most of the Americana nominations in the 2020s, I’d put Gabe Lee’s discography against half of that field’s and the comparison shouldn’t be remotely close to any objective ear.
Really hope Charley, Sierra, and my Kentucky boys Knocked Loose come home with some hardware.
November 12, 2024 @ 12:11 pm
I liked the Beyonce project, its not Country and shouldn’t be in that category, but overall it is my favorite project out of the albums nominated in the country category.
I am, however, most irritated by Beyonce putting in her album track Ya Ya (not released as a single) into the Americana category. Maybe that is the best genre fit for the track, and it will surely win, but megastars going after Grammys in the smaller categories that are there to shine a light on less popular genres feels icky.
Now if she had submitted the how project into the Americana genre, and used her star power to elevate the spotlight of the Americana genre at, say, the Americana awards, it would be more palatable, but there are no signs of that happening. It just appears to be a cheap way for the marketing team to highlight that Cowboy Carter won ‘x’ number of Grammys,…..at the expense of an artist who could do with (and likely deserves) that publicity much much more.