The music industry knows well that the best way to pump blood into an anemic business is to nominate already-successful CDs from all over the musical map, creating positive buzz for as many genres as possible. The nominations for Album of the Year say it all.
The category includes two rap CDs, Eminem’s “The Eminem Show” and Nelly’s “Nellyville,” that also happen to be two best-selling albums of 2002-selling 7.6 million and 4.9 million, respectively. Also earning a nomination here: The Dixie Chicks’s “Home,” that country-esqe release that (surprise) was the fourth biggest CD of last year, with 3.7 million copies in sales. With rap and country represented, Grammy voters also gave a nod to good old-fashioned rock and roll by including Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising.” And what genre was left to promote? Oh yeah, jazz. Norah Jones’s “Come Away with Me” fit the bill perfectly.
Other categories offer further evidence that Grammy voters believe big hits make the best nominees. The Record of the Year contenders include blockbuster singles from Eminem (“Without Me”) and Nelly (“Dilemma”), as well as the band Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me,” which was the most-played track of 2002, according to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. Song of the Year nominees include Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” which topped the pop charts this summer for several weeks, and Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning),” a single off his CD, the eighth best-selling record of the year.
And Best New Artist? Grammy voters nominated both Lavigne and Ashanti, whose debut CDs were the third and seventh biggest-sellers of 2002, respectively. The message to new acts is a simple one: sell big and we’ll spoil you with awards. Right now, the music industry is too beleagured to take a higher road.
