Along with a new year comes another award season. The beginning of the award season started by congratulating various creatives at the Golden Globes and the Emmy Awards. However, no award show is more significant or divisive for the music industry than the Grammy Awards.
The Grammys airs on Feb. 4 with new categories such as “Best African Music Performance,” “Best Alternative Jazz Album” and “Best Pop Dance Recording.” Overall, there are 94 categories this year. Although all Grammy awards hold much weight in the industry, some categories are considered more prestigious. These categories are known as the “Big Four.”
Consisting of the awards for “Record of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” “Best New Artist” and “Album of the Year,” the Big Four sees a lot of buzz from artists and fans alike. Winning even one of these categories is an incredible achievement, and the lack of genre criteria allows a large variety of nominees. Some artists have even won all four categories in one night, such as Billie Eilish, who was the second person to do so during the 2020 ceremony.
Record of the Year is an award given to the artists and producers involved in recording a track. Nominees this year include “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius, “Kill Bill” by SZA and “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift.
“Not Strong Enough’ by boygenius I personally think should win record of the year, but realistically, I think it will be ‘Vampire’ by Olivia Rodrigo or ‘Anti-Hero’ by Taylor Swift,” senior Lila Halper said.
Song of the Year is often confused with Record of the Year, and while they often overlap, there’s a critical difference between the two categories. Song of the Year recognizes songwriting and composition; the award goes to the song’s writers. This year’s nominees include “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, “Butterfly” by Jon Batiste, “A&W” by Lana Del Rey and “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo. Senior Naima Goffney predicts that the winner will be either “Anti-hero” or “Kill Bill.”
“Kill Bill’ and ‘Anti-hero’ got so much buzz when they were dropped because, obviously, SZA and Taylor Swift are huge artists in the music industry; not only that, but they went viral almost instantly on TikTok and other social media, which made them blow up even more,” Goffney said.
Best New Artist is a category that recognizes artists who made breakthroughs in the music industry and into the public’s hearts during the past year. Nominees for this category include Coco Jones, Gracie Abrams, Ice Spice and Noah Kahan.
“I think that Noah Kahan should win best new artist because he has grown dramatically throughout this year from hosting small concerts to performing in Radio City Music Hall,” Halper said
Goffney predicts that it will be either Noah Kahan, Ice Spice or Gracie Abrams taking home the award.
“Noah Kahan writes such deep, soulfully touching songs, and Gracie Abrams invokes such powerful storytelling in her songs in a semi-reminiscent way to Taylor Swift, while Ice Spice is so iconic as a woman of color making empowering music,” she said.
Last but certainly not least is one of the most anticipated awards of the Grammys: Album of the Year. The nominees for 2024 include “The Age of Pleasure” by Janelle Monáe, “GUTS“ by Olivia Rodrigo, “Midnights” by Taylor Swift, and “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” by Lana Del Rey.
“My top predictions are boygenius for ‘The Record,‘ SZA for ‘SOS,’ Olivia Rodrigo for ‘GUTS’ or Taylor Swift for ‘Midnights.’ I personally think any of the albums above could win. I think it is just a waiting game on this to see who actually ends up winning these awards,” Halper said.
Whatever the results, all the artists nominated have shown their strength in the music industry. This year’s Grammys are sure to be a night to remember.
