2013 Grammy Nominations - Good, Bad, and Ugly

Good

• After last year's disastrous set of General nominees (I mean seriously, some of them were just bad), I am happy to see that overall they did a lot better.
• A Lot better includes nods for Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Jack White, Kelly Clarkson, Alabama Shakes, Frank Ocean, and none for the overdone acts of Katy Perry, Rihanna, Maroon 5, etc. While all of them received genre nods (probably as space fillers), at least they managed to missed the cut above.
• A lot more variety was also present with rock, pop, R&B, and country represented across the top four categories. The only noticeable exception was anything from rap. While the more radio-friendly rap artists had a down year (although Drake's Take Care was both popular and critically acclaimed), works from Nas, The Roots, G.O.O.D Music, which all got genre nods, would have been nice additions as well.
• Pop - glad to see Florence + The Machine, Kelly Clarkson and P!nk, and also glad to see some continuity amond the several categories unlike some of the other categories. 
• No Justin Bieber or One Direction
• Americana Album is probably the best genre album category this year, with one notable exception...

Bad

• Mumford & Sons are great, but British, maybe the Americana nod was a bit of a stretch? 
• I love Kelly Clarkson, but if one of the pop divas was going to rack up in General categories, it should have been P!nk (actually should have been both, but whatever). 
• The R&B Categories are simply a mess (and have been now for two years), Frank Ocean snubbed out of R&B song and performance after getting ROTY and AOTY nods? Only three in this newly worded Urban Contemporary (Why can't they just go back to R&B and Contemporary R&B categories)? Only one nod for Estelle? 
• Rick Ross, The Roots, and Lupe Fiasco getting Rap Album nods, but no other nods within the genre? 
• 2 Chainz 
• Can we all agree that Coldplay isn't rock? I like them, but they are not rock.
• So basically, they needed to give Taylor Swift something because she was hosting the special, and they put her in a sixth slot for ROTY, with no other nods in Country or Pop categories for the song. This seems like a cheap way to avoid an awkward situation, and more importantly, that obnoxious, immature, and ridiculous song does not belong among four respectable nominees and Gotye. 
• Speaking of Gotye, he is not alternative....period. 

Ugly

• LMFAO, Maroon 5, and 2 Chainz (again). 
• No Killer Mike a real travesty if you ask me. 

Overall, I am pretty happy with the nominees, considering how random and unpredictable the Recording Academy can be, and hopefully February 10th will be a fun night! (pun sort of intended)