Here’s everything you need to know to keep them straight.
There are just four categories at the Grammy Awards where artists from all musical genres compete against each other — Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. In these four races, country artists bump up against R&B musicians, and they both take on pop stars. If an artist wins one of these awards, they’ll make headlines and get to give a nice long speech at the awards telecast.
But the Grammys’ many, many categories are already steeped in confusing industry-speak, and the top four awards are no different. With the exception of Best New Artist, it’s easy to confuse the other three.
Here’s everything you need to know to keep these categories straight.
Album of the Year
The Album of the Year award is the most prestigious Grammy there is, the rough equivalent of the Best Picture Oscar. The category honors an entire LP, from the first track to the last, and everything about the production of the album’s sound.
Originally, the Album of the Year award went only to the artist credited with the creation of the album, and to the album’s producers.
But starting in 1999, with Lauryn Hill’s win for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the sound engineers and mixers of the album have also been honored, as have any featured artists who appear on the album. If you participated in the creation of the sound of the album, you get a golden gramophone. However, the album’s songwriters are not included in this award.
How to remember it: The whole album gets an award! Some people confuse Album of the Year with Record of the Year, since albums used to be on physical records and, thus, the two terms are often used interchangeably in common parlance. But singles also used to be on physical records, and you wouldn’t call a single song “Album of the Year.”
The 2019 nominees for Album of the Year are: Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B; By the Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile; Scorpion, Drake; Beerbongs & Bentleys, Post Malone; Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe; Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves; and Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar
Record of the Year
Record of the Year is often confused with Song of the Year, since both awards go to individual songs. But the distinction is actually pretty simple to remember. The Record of the Year honors, first and foremost, the performing artist. Song of the Year honors the songwriter.
Record of the Year is given to the performing artist, the producers, the sound engineers, the master engineer, and the sound mixers.
The award directly correlates with the way song copyrights are created. For every song, there are at least two copyrights: The first goes to the songwriter, and the second goes to the performer. Those copyrights determine how a song’s contributors get paid, and how much they are paid. The people who make the sound of the song (not the words and melody), own the “Sound Recording” copyright. Hence, Record of the Year.
How to remember it: Instead of thinking of “record” as a physical, spinning record, think of it as the product of a recording studio. Everyone who would be in a recording studio working on the Record of the Year–winning song receives a golden gramophone for this award.
The 2019 nominees for Record of the Year are: “I Like It,” Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin; “The Joke,” Brandi Carlile; “This Is America,” Childish Gambino; “God’s Plan,” Drake; “Shallow,” Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper; “All the Stars,” Kendrick Lamar and Sza; “Rockstar,” Post Malone; and “The Middle,” Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey
Song of the Year
The Song of the Year Grammy doesn’t actually honor the performer of the winning song. Instead, it goes to the people who wrote the song.
It’s easy to get this award confused with Record of the Year because there is often overlap in who is accepting the award. For example, if an artist has songwriting credit on their nominated song — a pretty common occurrence — then the artist might accept the award and give the speech. But they are receiving the award for writing and constructing the song, not for their performance of it.
Legally, this side of the copyright is known as the mechanical copyright. (Its name stems from the invention of mechanical pianos.) That copyright only goes to the songwriter, as does this award.
How to remember it: Try to think of it as Songwriter of the Year, rather than just Song.
And the 2019 nominees for Song of the Year are: “All the Stars,” Kendrick Duckworth, Solana Rowe, Al Shuckburgh, Mark Spears, and Anthony Tiffith; “Boo’d Up,” Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai, and Dijon McFarlane; “God’s Plan,” Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels, and Noah Shebib; “The Joke,” Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth, and Tim Hanseroth; “In My Blood,” Teddy Geiger, Scott Harris, Shawn Mendes, and Geoffrey Warburton; and “This Is America,” Donald Glover and Ludwig Göransson
Author: Kelsey McKinney
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