Taylor Swift Got Robbed. But Why?

The singer gets just one Grammy nomination
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2018 1:45 PM CST
Biggest Grammy Snub? Taylor Swift
This May 8, 2018 file photo shows Taylor Swift performing during her "Reputation Stadium Tour" opener in Glendale, Ariz.   (Photo by Rick Scuteri/Invision/AP, File)

"Here lies Taylor Swift's reputation—or at least the final nail in the coffin of her Reputation era." So writes Brittany Spanos in a Rolling Stone piece that mulls the singer's Grammy nomination "snub": no mention of the album or its singles except one lonely listing in the Best Pop Vocal Album Category. Consider that Reputation was 2018's top-selling album and its fourth single, "Delicate," became "a sleeper hit this year" and "a massive radio hit." Plus Swift is a Grammy darling, the youngest artist ever to snag Album of the Year with Fearless at age 20 and the first woman to win twice when 1989 triumphed in 2016. So wither the love?

OK, Reputation was dark and different. And it wasn't released in time for the 2018 Grammys, so it had to wait a year. There was also the controversy after 1989 beat Kendrick Lamar's "astounding" To Pimp a Butterfly—and "this year's eight-album lineup is deservedly hip-hop and R&B-heavy" with albums like Lamar's Black Panther soundtrack, Drake's Scorpion, and Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy, notes Spanos. But is the Grammys really about fairness and representation? Not to one commentator: "The Grammys isn't a benevolent process," writes Maeve McDermott at USA Today. "...And if Post Malone got an album of the year nod, which says it all about the kinds of music the Recording Academy deems Grammy-worthy, Swift sure as hell deserved to be recognized too." (More Taylor Swift stories.)

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