Fourth Estate/ Madalyn Godfrey

An analysis of the Grammys’ Album of the Year winners past, present and future

BY MARY DEMARCO, STAFF WRITER 

In the 66 years of the Grammy Awards, the last time an R&B album won Album of the Year was in 1999 with Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

That was 25 years ago. How have we gone that long without another AOTY for an R&B album? I thought this year SZA had it in the bag. 

Looking closer into the Grammys, you will find that only 11 black artists in all of Grammy history have won AOTY according to the Grammy Awards’ website. 

This is not a criticism of the white AOTY winners, instead my criticism is of the Recording Academy.

Shout out to the 2024 winner Taylor Swift! I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan and consider myself a Swiftie. 

Before understanding what the Recording Academy was, I assumed it was a group of out-of-touch people who ran the system. But I was wrong. 

According to the Recording Academy’s website,  it’s a group of 2,400+ musicians with the goals to advocate, celebrate, educate and serve the music industry. 

Billboard interviewed Kelley Purcell, the vice president of the Recording Academy, to learn what qualifies a person to be a legitimate member of the Academy. 

Purcell explained that all members are required to have some music technician experience. Of that group, the 1000 that are allowed to vote are required to have some expertise and experience within the categories they vote for. These voting members are also limited to having input on 15 of the Grammy’s awards. 

Now, let’s talk about their decisions. 

As mentioned before, I am a huge Swiftie. I love Taylor Swift’s art and, for the most part, who she is as a person. However, I still appreciate other artists. 

I love Lana Del Rey’s reminiscent album “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.,” Janelle Monae’s 2023 album “The Age of Pleasure” was so fun, Olivia Rodrigo’s teenage-angst album “Guts” was an amazing mix of rage, remorse and unseriousness, and boygenius’ album “The Record”  is well…genius. All these artists created amazing works.

To me, the album that stood out the most was SZA’s “SOS” album. For this album, she went above and beyond to create a beautiful production with a creative and original sound. 

When I listen to the album I feel like I’m getting an unfiltered look inside SZA’s thought process. We get this ebb and flow of her emotions, almost as if we’re with her processing something along-side her. She’s not afraid to be imperfect, mean, and self-deprecating. At the same time, we see how loving she is and how much she truly cares. It’s so refreshingly human compared to a lot of the music I’ve heard lately. Along with this, her amazing lyricism is accompanied by her unique voice. That’s something that will forever set SZA apart: her sound.

If you haven’t listened to the full album yet, I suggest you start with her second track Kill Bill. Then when you find yourself replaying it over and over again, try listening to her song Conceited.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought “Midnights” by Taylor Swift was an amazing album. However, her win for the AOTY for 2023 was undeserved. It should’ve gone to SZA.

While “Midnights” was good, especially the “3am edition,” it wasn’t AOTY-worthy. “Midnights” felt like a glory album: something to throw out after her success with “Folklore,” “Evermore” and her re-recordings. 

The Grammys is notorious for having these amazing record-breaking success stories. At the 2023 Grammys, Beyoncé became the most award-winning person in Grammy history with 32 Grammys and  Billie Eilish became the youngest person to win Album of the Year in 2020. 

To clarify, this is not my criticism or dissatisfaction with the winners; I’m simply pointing out a pattern. I believe Beyoncé deserves all the awards she’s gotten. However,  it’s nothing new for the Grammys to root for the record-breakers, which is what I think drove the Recording Academy voters to vote for Taylor. 

I think the academy needed to be more patient. I predict that Taylor’s upcoming album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is going to be an AOTY-worthy album. However, I don’t think it will win the AOTY next year. Swift won this year and it would feel repetitive if she won next year. The public may think that the Grammys are playing favorites.  Although it will probably be an amazing album, the general public probably won’t be begging for it to win AOTY. 

While it’s disappointing how this year’s Grammys turned out, all I can do is look forward to next year. Although the full album Cowboy Carter isn’t released yet, there’s no way Beyoncé won’t earn Album of the Year for 2024.