Grammy Awards to honor industry’s top sellers, trendsetters

Global Business

Grammy NomineesThis combination of files photos shows L-R: singer Beyonce, singer Pharrell Williams and singer Sam Smith. (AFP PHOTO / FILES)

The Grammy Awards is all about honoring the best in the music industry, but it’s also about putting on a great show. This year, there will be a record number of performances by artists across the music spectrum, including Madonna, Rhianna with Kanye West, and Paul McCartney. Meanwhile, Sam Smith is nominated in all six of the major categories, including best new artist. CCTV America’s May Lee reported this story from Los Angeles.

Smith is the kind of artist that the Grammys love. He’s a new artist, but he sounds classic. Old voters love him because he sounds the way singers used to sound. New voters like him because he’s cool, new, and making great music.

Beyonce is also nominated for six categories, including for her self-titled album that was unexpectedly debuted on iTunes without any pre-promotion. The album broke the iTunes record for sales, with 167,000 albums sold in just three days.

The nominations point to a trend in music, experts have said, and it’s all about women. The major categories are a strong reflection of where our culture is at in pop music. The song and record-of-the-year nominees are dominated by female artists.

These nominations include Meghan Trainor and her runaway hit “All About That Bass,” Taylor Swift with “Shake It Off”, and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea and her hit “Fancy.”

There are some Grammy snubs this year, including “Let It Go” from Disney’s animated film “Frozen,” a song that children young and old just couldn’t get enough of.

Although the soundtrack was the second biggest selling album of 2014, music experts said Grammy voters likely didn’t nominate it for the major categories, best song and album, simply because it’s a soundtrack to a cartoon.