WRITTEN BY CHLOE CROOKS
Sunday, February 2nd at 7 pm CT saw the beginning of the year’s largest night in music, the 67th Grammy Awards, the culmination of musical arts for 2024.
The event is also the culmination and spark of large debate amongst any individual who considers themselves up to date on pop culture. Nowhere is that debate over music more alive than in the University of Alabama Office of Student Media.
Yelling echoed down the halls as the awards got announced, falling dead silent before cheers erupted at Doechii winning Best Rap Album. Opinions are not quiet here, and as such, we have quite a few opinions to share on who we wish would win.
Best Pop Solo Performance
This award recognizes a musical performance where only one artist is singing or playing an instrument. This year celebrates the second year in the history of the award where no male musicians were nominated. It’s a strong nomination class,, titans in the era of ‘Girl Pop’ that 2024 fostered. It is by no surprise then that our pick for Best Pop Solo Performance coincided with the Recording academy’s. Receiving 47.4% of the vote, Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter seemed to be everyone’s pop pick of the year.
“I’ve heard how hard it is to sing live” WVUA-FM Staff member Sarah Hardy commented about the song. And yet, Carpenter pulled it off flawlessly in her performance during the show. It was even more than flawless as while she not only sang, she also had choreography and quite a few outfit changes across the performance. And on top of all that, she also added a classic Hollywood to her act, interpolating her song with some Big Band flare and paying homage to classic slapstick comedy with her stage direction.
It was fun and campy in a way that not only represented her, but her nomination class as a whole. And we loved it. As commented by WVUA-FM staff member Resse Gabrielson, “She’s hot!”
Best Pop Duo Performance
Similar to Best Pop Solo Performance, this award recognizes a musical performance where two artists are singing or playing an instrument. It almost seems as though we were too on the nose with our votes so far, so there was quite a bit of disappointment at our top pick not winning the award. With 66.7% of the votes, We picked “Guess” by Charli XCX and Billie Eilish as our winner for best duo performance.
“The rest suck and have no cultural relevance,” comments Jeb Rine. A blunt opinion shared by the majority of our live watch party.
“I’m not surprised, but I’m also not happy,” said one attendee at Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s win for “Die with a Smile”.
At the very least, our moods were greatly uplifted by Charli’s live performance later in the evening. The British star had us all yelling as she appeared in a skimpy denim bikini style suit accompanied by an oversized black fur coat over another denim piece, her jacket. It is a look WVUA-FM Program Director christened a “Junderwear moment”, a portmanteau of jean-underwear.
The outfit, along with the flashing lights, raining dollar bills and short-shorts, combined with heels and tight tops is a clear indicator of only one thing. Clubbing is back in the culture, spearheaded by Charlie XCX alone.
Record of the Year
This award is for song production and performance, the musical aspects of a song. Of the people nominated, one track was a standout of our picks. Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” received 40% of our vote.
“‘Not Like Us’ is one of those songs that people will be looking back on for decades, especially after the presumed Super Bowl performance. There really hasn’t been a diss track that this popular since Tupac’s iconic Biggie diss, but even that wouldn’t have been played in Bryant-Denny Stadium multiple times. The song is masterfully crafted to be as nasty and cruel as possible, while also being an incredibly danceable banger of a track. It deserves to win, even though all of the other contenders are good,” said Crimson White staff member Benjamin Smith.
The track’s release was by no doubt one of the biggest events of the year. Not only is it the culmination of a month’s long feud between two titans of the genre, but it also serves as a masterful collaboration between Lamar’s writing and DJ Mustard’s timeless production. The award going to Lamar for this track is momentous, as Not Like us winning means it’s only the second ever rap song to win record of the year, joining the exclusive club with Childish Gambino’s 2019 hit “This is America.”
Quite a few of the other songs nominated also received accolades from our staff, particularly at the nomination of The Beatles for “Now and Then.” “The Beatles are unmatched,” commented Abby Cope, staff member of the Crimson White and Alice magazine.
Album of the Year
This award is for the album’s production and performance. The collective elements of the whole album. In the era of streaming and the structure of an album becoming a lot looser as a whole, there were a few stand out picks in the nominations this year. None of the nominations were as impactful to us as Charli XCX’s album Brat, which received 40% of our vote.
“Charli managed to make her album a brand, which none of the others can say,” wrote Crimson White staff member Jeb Rine. “You can’t see that shade of green or font now and not think brat.”
Another major pick for the award, with 25% of our vote, was Chappell Roan’s debut album “Chappell Roan The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess”.
“Chappell had so much growth this year and went from performing for people in a park to the most attended concert in Lollapalooza history. She’s earned it, off of sheer growth and exposure alone,” wrote Abby Cope.
Needless to say, it came as quite a surprise when Beyoncé was announced for the win. The award comes as her first ever win for Album of the year honoring her venture into the world of Country music and an album that functions as a critique on Genre as a whole. The award is her 35th from the Recording Academy, arriving 25 years after her first nomination.
“I’m not mad at it.” Said WVUA-FM Music Director Hannah Holderby, “It wasn’t my top pick. Maybe third overall. Charli and Chappell were just so good this year.”
Song of the Year
This category is for song writing and is based on the lyrical or literary quality of the song, not composition or performance. It’s an award that has seen a lot of discussion these last few years, especially after Bonnie Raitt’s 2023 win for “Just Like That” winning over favored tracks like “All Too Well” and “The Heart Part 5”.
This year saw Lamar’s redemption for the award, taking home the Grammy for “Not Like Us.”
In this category too it received 40% of our vote. The general sentiment of the win was put very well by Jeb Rine, “There’s a reason Kendrick won a Pulitzer.”
It wasn’t a complete sweep though, as 30% of the vote also went to Chappell Roan for “Good Luck Babe!”
Chappell Roan has long been loved by WVUA-FM. “Red Wine Supernova” in particular has been on a pretty regular rotation since January of 2024, and as such people felt strongly about seeing her win after the sensational breakthrough she had.
“I feel like this is the song that introduced so many people to Chappell,” commented Lauren Mueller, staff member at WVUA-FM, about Good Luck, Babe. And although she did not win song of the year for the single, the fact that she was even nominated is a testament to her skill as an artist.
Best New Artist
This award recognizes artists that have had a significant breakthrough this year. This is the category in which the office of Student Media’s love of Chappell Roan really shines through, sweeping 40% of our vote, followed by Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter with 20% each.
Lukas Hislop, a WVUA-FM staff member summed up the award succinctly: “I mean… Femininomenon.”
Chappell’s win was far from controversial amongst the viewing party either, most of the group leaping to their feet to shout in joy as the award was announced. What happened after that was the most notable moment of the night for a lot of us.
Chappell Roan, know well for her over the top outfits and give no quarter attitude, approached the stage wearing a comically tall princess hat, a buttercup yellow notebook in one hand as her other clutched the award. She wasted no time in using the platform to take a stance.
“I told myself if I ever won a Grammy, and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry, profiting millions of dollars off of artists, would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” opened Roan.
The group fell silent as we listened to her speak.
“Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” Roan asked, staring down the camera, insisting that her message was heard. It was a striking moment, fellow new artist nominees and well-established artists alike standing and applauding her as she finished her speech. It was a brilliant and bold move, something that has been a staple of hers in both performance and social interaction.
And from the cheers it received, not just by her peers but from us college students as well, it was well worth the risk.
“So happy to see a queen winning,” said one staff member.
Final Comments
Overall, there were not many huge disappointments or surprises as far as the awards go, most of the complaints to be had were more about the structure of the awards as a whole. Over the course of the three and a half hours event, only nine categories were awarded, 9.57% of the total categories honored by the Recording academy.
Instead, the time was widely filled with performances by various artists, which gave the awards a concert-like feel that was very divisive for us. Many performances, like the medley performed by Doechii featuring an army of clones of herself were very well received, one individual commenting how she is almost unmatched in her visuals this year, pulling references to old school hip hop with her flow and her design choices being call backs to the likes of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” MTV awards performance.
Conversely, performances like that of Benson Boon fell flat, with the majority of us wishing that both he and his skintight blue glitter suit would just get off the stage. Similar, a lot of the segments paying tribute to Quincy Jones felt slightly dull in comparison to what they could have been.
The Awards were a fun time overall. As a collection of pop culture as a whole, they will definitely stand the time as a testament to the year we’ve had in music. 2024 was a brilliant year, not just in music, but for the University of Alabama Student Media staff as a whole, and we are so happy to get to share our reflections with you. At the end of the day, we just wish for one thing out of these awards, for our favorite musicians to be honored for the joy they have given us, for the world to recognize who we think is deserving of each honor.
We wish for one thing from our predictions, as one WVUA-FM staff member wrote, “I hope I’m close.”
Photo credits from Andrew Jaugerui
