It’s the middle of January and practically every facet of the entertainment industry is smack dab in the middle of awards season, and the music business is no exception.

The 58th annual Grammy Awards is on Feb. 15, and the nominees have been chosen.

With some obvious choices and a handful of less overplayed-on-the-radio tunes getting hat tips, the night is sure to be an interesting one.
The eligibility period of these 2016 Grammy Awards was between Oct. 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2015, and during that time, no one could stop talking about Taylor Swift’s 1989 album.

Swift is up for seven awards this year, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Blank Space” and Album of the Year for 1989.
With all the hype surrounding the former country singer that embraced her edgier pop side, her list of nominations don’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. Swift may not win every category she is up for, but it’s safe to assume she’ll make it out with at least three or four of those little gold gramophones.

The Weeknd is also up for seven awards for his Beauty Behind the Madness album, the ever-popular single “Can’t Feel My Face” and his contribution to the movie soundtrack world with “Earned It.”
Swift and The Weeknd may each have a handful of nominations in this year’s Grammy’s, but they’re nowhere near this year’s frontrunner: Kendrick Lamar.

The hip-hop and rap artist released his newest album To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015 to wild success, which earned him nominations for Best Rap Album and Album of the Year. His single “Alright,” which was also released on his new album, is nominated for four awards on its own and is competing with another song that Lamar wrote for Kanye West titled “All Day” for Best Rap Song.

Lamar has four other nominations for songs he collaborated on with other artists, giving the 28-year-old 11 Grammy nominations in total. With so many nominations, he’ll undeniably be walking away with his hands full.

Every genre has its own award or two, but the four general field awards of the night cross all genre lines and are what most people look forward to. Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist nominations can come from literally anywhere on the music spectrum, and this year’s showcase all kinds of talent.

This award show’s Best New Artist category includes Courtney Barnett, James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly and Meghan Trainor. For an artist to be considered new, they must have released “the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist,” according to the Grammy’s nomination list. With three singer-songwriters and a country artist making up four of the five, it seems like honest melodies and a solid guitar is what the Academy is interested in this year.

Besides Swift’s, Lamar’s and The Weeknd’s spots on the Album of the Year nomination list, alternative rock band Alabama Shakes got a nod for their Sound & Color album as did Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, a country and bluegrass album.

It seems as though the eternal question that surrounds Grammy nominations and the awards is the distinction between Record of the Year award and Song of the Year award. Whereas Song of the Year honors the songwriter(s) who wrote the year’s most incredible music, Record of the Year recognizes the performer(s) of the song and the recording team.

For Song of the Year, Swift and Lamar’s melodies will compete against Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again.” The winning song’s writers will be the ones receiving the awards which, depending on the song, may or may not be the artist themselves.

And, of course, for Record of the Year, Swift, The Weeknd, Sheeran, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk” and the lesser-known “Really Love” by D’Angelo and The Vanguard will be crossing their fingers for that gold gramophone.

Now that the nominations are out, predictions can begin to be made about who’s guaranteed to win, who could get snubbed and what outrageous performances will grace the stage this February.

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