Thoughts On The 48th Annual GRAMMY Award Nominations

-There was a point when it seemed like the Grammy voters nominated people no one really knew or cared about. Now, it seems like they're just randomly nominating popular people instead of deserving artists. Every album nominated for Album Of The Year was "highly anticipated" and all of them (with the exception of Paul McCartney's album) were huge sellers. Yes, I liked the songs Gwen Stefani released from Love.Angel.Music.Baby, but I'm not sure that it really deserved an Album Of The Year nomination. I'd rather have seen Demon Days by Gorillaz, Be by Common, or Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes instead. However, I'm very glad that they didn't nominate Coldplay or 50 Cent.

-Despite my misgivings about some of the Album Of The Year nominees, I think they got Record Of The Year right. It's one tough race this year and I don't really know what I'd pick.

-I was very happy to see John Legend get nominated. He's probably the freshest male R&B voice in a long time and his album, Get Lifted, was excellent.

-Continuing my "rant" about popular stuff getting nominated over more deserving stuff, I must show my disappointment in the Grammy voters ignoring Röyksopp's wonderful album The Understanding in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category. I like Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk but the two of them put out lackluster efforts over the past year. Palookaville has some good songs but is a shadow of Fatboy Slim's earlier work. Human After All is as shallow as they come and also, at times, somewhat annoying. The Understanding was better than both these albums (and was actually a little better than The Chemical Brothers' Push The Button too). Maybe the Grammy voters disqualified Röyksopp because they couldn't figure out how to pronounce their name.

-Why were so many tracks nominated from So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute To Luther Vandross? Five tracks from this album were nominated for R&B Grammys. I haven't heard this album, but now I'm curious, especially since Luther was such a great artist. Are the Grammy-nominated covers performed by Alicia Keys featuring Jermaine Paul, Usher, Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé and Stevie Wonder, and Jamie Foxx really that great?

-"Cater 2 U" by Destiny's Child is nominated for Best R&B Song? What the hell?

-I think 50 Cent must have threatened some Grammy voters...how else could you explain his stuff getting nominated over The Game's? The Massacre got nominated over The Documentary. "Candy Shop" got nominated for Best Rap Song (a songwriter's award, mind you) versus something like "Dreams" and the only award The Game gets nominated for is for the song "Hate It Or Love It" with 50 Cent. Quite simply, The Documentary was a better album than The Massacre. The Massacre didn't deserve a Best Rap Album Nomination and "Candy Shop" (of all 50 Cent's songs) did not deserve to be nominated for a songwriter's award.

-While it was very nice to see Danger Mouse and The Neptunes nominated for Producer Of The Year, I honestly wanted to see Kanye West and/or Jon Brion nominated as well. Late Registration wasn't really as good as The College Dropout, but I thought the production was excellent.

-I hated R. Kelly's TP.3 Reloaded album, but at least the best thing about it got nominated...the Longform video for "Trapped In The Closet (Chapters 1-5)."