The Grammy Awards are perhaps the most exciting and most controversial event in music every year. I grew up watching them — getting thrilled when Taylor Swift won, discovering new artists, and feeling disappointed when other favorites lost awards I felt they deserved. As the years have passed, the discourse around the Grammys seems to have become more and more contentious — the whole world appears to have something to say about them. A disclaimer: please take what you’re about to read with a grain of salt; it is truly just my opinion based on my personal music taste. But as someone who has listened to a good number of the nominated albums and artists, here are my thoughts on the 2024 Grammy Awards winners.
One of the most coveted awards, and what the Grammys might be most known for, is the award for Album of the Year. Naturally, this sparks the most debate. This year’s nominees were Midnights by Taylor Swift, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey, GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo, SOS by SZA, the record by boygenius, World Music Radio by Jon Batiste, The Age of Pleasure by Janelle Monáe, and Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus.
If you know me, you know I’m a huge Swiftie. So of course, a large part of me was happy that Swift won this award. There is something to be said for the fact that it is her fourth win of Album of the Year, which has set the record for the most wins by a single artist in this category. It is incredible that this record was broken, and noteworthy that it was done by a female artist. I’ve said this before, but whether or not you are a fan it is hard to deny that Swift really has defined the music industry for our generation.
That said, I am not the sort of Swiftie who thinks she is perfect or infallible. While I liked Midnights, there were definitely other albums in that category that I feel deserved the award more. Admittedly, I’d never heard of World Music Radio before the Grammys this year, so I can’t speak on it. The Age of Pleasure and Endless Summer Vacation were fine, but in comparison to their respective artists’ previous work, they didn’t stand out. GUTS could’ve won, but I’m not mad or surprised that it didn’t. I think that the record was honestly well-deserving of this award, but boygenius did take home a few others, so I am less upset by their lack of success here. The two artists whose losses I am most upset by are Lana Del Rey and SZA.
Between Lana Del Ray and SZA, I have conflicting feelings on who should’ve won, but ultimately, I think SOS was the better of the two albums. SZA is a noteworthy artist doing groundbreaking things with her music. Not only are her vocals stellar, but I find her ability to blend pop, R&B, and even rap in songs like “Smoking on My Ex Pack” quite impressive. I don’t often have the attention span to listen to full albums more than once, and there’s no denying that SOS is particularly long, but it has held my interest. It strikes the perfect balance of feeling cohesive, yet each song remains individual. I am so glad that she at least won Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Ghost in the Machine” (which features Phoebe Bridgers) but she also deserved Album of the Year.
The other artist who I thought was robbed, snubbed, etc., was Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey’s musical journey has been incredible. While I loved her first couple of albums, the difference in her first album versus her most recent is astounding. When she first started making music, it portrayed a very specific aesthetic that reflected her own struggles with addiction. Flash forward, she writes calmer songs with a more mature sound, and she has been sober for over 10 years. She has grown remarkably as an artist. Yet, as apparent by a leaked ballot, voters completely disregard this fact. The ballot is quoted as saying, “I haven’t taken Lana Del Rey seriously as an artist since her infamous SNL performance and never will.” The performance in question was not her best, and she might’ve been under the influence during it. However, it was over a decade ago. The fact that this is the reason that Grammy voters aren’t even considering her is absurd, and it angers me that this is the standard she is being held to. So many artists have bombed performances and done questionable things — Chris Brown still won a Grammy in 2012 after his assault charge against Rihanna. If this is not a reason to refuse someone a Grammy, one bad performance is certainly not one either. I feel that Lana Del Rey is being held to an impossible double standard, and I wonder if the fact that she is a woman has something to do with that.
However, some have been saying that Lana Del Rey should have won Best Alternative Music Album instead of boygenius, and have implied that boygenius did not deserve that award. I wholly disagree with that. The record is existential, covering mental health struggles, complicated relationships, and even venturing into politics and philosophy. Above all, however, it celebrates the friendship between the three band members: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. As displayed in their previous work, their lyricism is outstanding. I could write an entire article on the meaning of the repetition of “Always an angel, never a god” in “Not Strong Enough.” They write all of their own music, and when they perform they play all of the instruments themselves. I truly think they are one of the defining bands of this generation.
Boygenius’ Best Alternative Music Album win, alongside Paramore’s Best Rock Album win for This Is Why is the main factor that allowed me not to completely write off this year’s Grammys as a popularity contest. Rock and alternative music are genres that have been historically dominated by men. This is not for lack of talented female-fronted bands, but rather the way rock and alternative music are discussed in the media. I did a bit of a deep dive on this for a class once, and have to thank Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power by Marion Leonard for most of my information. What I gleaned is this: music journalism and writing favors and highlights male artists. The majority of rock journalists are male. The way the music industry works is that it creates a surplus of product — that is to say, more songs than necessary — since there is a constant search for the next “hit.” But in the process of selecting these newest “hits,” female artists are at a disadvantage, since they are less often granted a level of cultural importance by those music critics, writers, and journalists.
It seems to me that this would affect the Grammys as well, proven by the fact that Paramore was actually the first female-fronted band to ever win Best Rock Album. On one hand, it’s about time, and it’s ridiculous that it has taken until 2024 for this to happen. On the other hand, this is worth celebrating. It seems that barriers are finally being chipped away; this win is historic. The fact that Paramore won this award, and that a group of women — specifically queer women — won Best Alternative Music Album does give me a shred of hope. Even Taylor Swift’s win of Album of the Year, though debatable in terms of whether or not she was more deserving than the other nominees, is noteworthy. Every major win by a female artist or female-led group is essential in proving that women deserve a space in music, and our voices deserve to be heard.
