The nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards have been announced, and although there are a few surprise exclusions in the major categories (no Bob Dylan?! No KT Tunstall?!), there are still some pleasant surprises (Gnarls Barkley and RHCP for Album). Anyways, I am aware that the nominees for Record and Album of the Year are included in Acclaimed Music, so here are the nominees:

RECORD OF THE YEAR
* "Be Without You" (Mary J. Blige)
* "You're Beautiful" (James Blunt)
* "Not Ready to Make Nice" (Dixie Chicks)
* "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley)
* "Put Your Records On" (Corinne Bailey Rae)

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
* Taking the Long Way (Dixie Chicks)
* St. Elsewhere (Gnarls Barkley)
* Continuum (John Mayer)
* Stadium Arcadium (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
* FutureSex/LoveSounds (Justin Timberlake)

Corin Bailey Rae has an awesome single. Is that Gnarles Barkley album any good? I've never been a fan of male songwrites but if you're a male songwriter who's NOT even getting played on college radio you know you terrible. They always play male songwriters but I've yet to hear a single John Mayer song on college radio.

The Dixie Chicks won Album of the Year AND Record of the Year last night at the Grammy Awards ceremony.

Just at a curiosity, Henrik, would you ever consider including "Song of the Year" wins and nominations in AcclaimedMusic?

"I've never been a fan of male songwrites but if you're a male songwriter who's NOT even getting played on college radio you know you terrible. They always play male songwriters but I've yet to hear a single John Mayer song on college radio."

um..............right. Anyone else make sense of this? I've never before heard anyone say that if you're a male songwriter and you're not getting played on college radio than you're terrible. Why college radio? Why only males? Why songwriters? Why John Mayer? And why do you think he doesn't get played on college radio?

Female songwriters can get played anywhere and become stars without being college radio darlings. Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette rarly got airplay in college radio and they both released phenominal debuts. When was the last time you saw someone rave about Jason Mraz or John Mayer? They both got pushes from adult contemperary because AC needed competition from college radio with the success of Sufjan Stevens, Bright Eyes, Pete Yorn, Ryan Adams and Damien Rice so they recruited whomever they can find and that's where John Mayer steps in. His album tanked with critics but it's the closet thing AC has to Ryan Adams.

First of all you're misusing the term "songwriter". A songwriter is someone who writes songs. It could be for commercials, for soundtracks or, very commonly, for another artist to record. If you mean Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, John Mayer, etc. those are singer/songwriters. That's a very important distinction. Secondly, there are TONS of female singer/songwriters who cannot find ANY airplay. Not that they necessarily deserve airplay, but generally speaking it's just as hard for them as it is males (though if you want to get into finer details there are biases in regards to certain genres but really that's just splitting hairs ). Besides, college radio plays pretty much everyone. There are no limitations on college programmers as to who they can play, so pretty much everyone from AC/DC to Sarah Slean to Broken Social Scene to 50 Cent to Oasis to Modest Mouse to Enya to God Knows Who gets played on college radio. It's a melting pot, not a crucible. Next, there are TONS of male singer/songwriters who have very acclaimed careers without getting any attention from college radio, no more than normal anyways. Are you telling me Johnny Cash was a college radio darling? Not even when he came back in the early nineties with American Recordings did he rely on college radio. Also, I'm not sure if you realize that Alanis Morrisette's debut was in the 80's, and I'm not sure why you don't think it didn't get college radio airplay. Same with Tori Amos, I don't know why you think she didn't get college airplay. I mean, it's not like college programmers get together and decide who they're going to promote (like commercial stations do). They don't even speak to each other! And there's new programmers every term, and since there's really no qualifications for the job any Tori Amos fan can have a show and play her as much as they want, and I'm sure plenty have. I don't even know what you mean by "They both got pushes from adult contemperary because AC needed competition from college radio with the success of Sufjan Stevens, Bright Eyes, Pete Yorn, Ryan Adams and Damien Rice so they recruited whomever they can find and that's where John Mayer steps in. His album tanked with critics but it's the closet thing AC has to Ryan Adams." When does someone "need" competition? When was Sufjan Stevens ever "successful"? He's been making albums since the mid-nineties and it was only 2005 that anyone started noticing, and he still doesn't sell much, definitely not compared to his so-called competition "John Mayer". You're making the mistake of thinking that AC cares about critical acclaim. They couldn't care less. All they ever care about is one very simple thing: ratings. If Sufjan Stevens will get them ratings they'll play him. If people decide John Mayer sucks and their ratings drop they'll ditch him. It's got nothing to do with what some reviewers think. Of course all of this ignores your major flaw which is that you group ALL female singer/songwriters and ALL male singer/songwriters together. Yeah, right, because PJ Harvey has SO much in common with Tori Amos and Kate Bush and Bjork and Alanis Morissette and Joni Mitchell and Avril Lavigne.

Back to the question if "song of the year" should be included at AM. I don't think so, since the "songs" here at AM are actually "recorded performances". And there is already a GRAMMY prize (record of the year) that matches this definition.

I think the main difference is that the song of the year is more the writing and the record of the year is more the performance and production. Celine Dion will never win song of the year, but she might win record.

There was no such thing as "college radio" when Johnny Cash was around. Yes Tori had Y Kant Tori Reed and Alanis had her pop records in Canada but you know very well that I'm talking about their singer/songwriting career. Sorry for forgetting to put the word SINGER in front of songwriter Mr. Grammer police. By college I'm talking AAA. Ever go to CMJ.com? You don't see any AC/DC on their charts. You know very well that college always refers to "alternative." When was the last time a urban rapper had a #1 on college radio? AC isn't about acclaim but they want their own Elliot Smith or Jeff Buckley because it's been forever since they've had someone like Elton John dominating their playlist.