The Recording Academy’s most prestigious honors are given out in the general field Grammy categories, also referred to as the “Big Four”: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Each category had five candidates for the Grammy Awards’ first six decades, although in subsequent years, that number has increased. The categories first grew to eight candidates each in 2018, and then, just before the 2022 event, they unexpectedly increased the number to 10 before revealing the nominees. It is now returning to eight.
According to the New York Times, some academy members objected that raising the number of nominees lowered the bar for winners, possibly enabling an artist to triumph with just over 10% of the vote. Harvey Mason Jr., the president of the Grammys, denied receiving any complaints of this nature to the New York Times, but he added that members had taken into account considerations along these lines when voting last month to whittle down the candidate lists once more: “Does the vote get split? Are ten too many? Is the nomination minimized? These discussions were taking place in an effort to determine the ideal number.
The bar for names to be nominated for an album is likewise being raised by the Grammys. A person had to perform on at least 33% of an album’s songs in order for their name to be listed with a nomination before the Academy dropped that requirement to zero in 2022, which resulted in nominations with more than 100 names attached. The cutoff point has been increased once more to 20%. The eligibility period for the awards for the next year is an unusual 11 1/2 months, running from October 1, 2022, to September 15, 2023. Three new categories have recently been added to the Grammys for 2024.
English