Music
The Recording Academy Actually Addressed Some Of The Biggest 2021 Grammy Nomination Snubs
Getty Image Recording Academy interim president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. spoke about The Weeknd and Harry Styles missing out on major nominations. …

Every year after the Recording Academy announces its extensive list of Grammy nominations (which it did this morning), music fans take to the internet to point out the artists and works they feel should have been up for certain awards. One thing that doesn’t usually happen, though, is the Academy addressing those snubs, but interim president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. has done so this year.
The Weeknd didn’t earn a single nomination despite having one of the year’s most successful and beloved albums in After Hours, and Harry Styles’ Fine Line and accompanying singles were also excluded from the Big Four categories (Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist). Mason was asked about that in a new Billboard interview, as the publication’s Paul Grein said, “I was shocked that The Weeknd wasn’t nominated at all, and that Harry Styles wasn’t nominated in any of the Big Four categories. Why do you think they weren’t nominated?” Mason responded:
“For The Weeknd, in every year you only have a certain amount of people you can nominate for each category. As for Harry, he has some great nominations this year [even though he wasn’t nominated in the top categories]. We are excited about some of the other categories where he was nominated. It’s never easy to tell where people are going to land.”
The interviewer then continued, “There was a day where both of these artists would have been nominated for album, record and song of the year. The Grammys have shifted in terms of what they value. Now they seem to value championing newer and less well-known artists over reinforcing things that have already been rewarded in the marketplace.” Mason “hesitantly” (as the publication put it) responded, “Yeah, it’s interesting.”
It was later pointed out to Mason that country artists weren’t well-represented in the Big Four categories, to which he responded, “There are a certain amount of nominations that we can give out. The voting body really determines where those nominations go. We take it very seriously. We review every bit of music that is submitted. From year to year, it is really hard to predict who is going to be nominated and who’s not. I personally wish we could give everybody a nomination, but there are only a certain amount of slots. There were some amazing records that did not get nominated.”
Mason was then pressed, “There doesn’t seem to be a high priority given to making sure country is represented, like there is to making sure the nominations are diverse.” He replied, “We don’t sit down and decide we have to have this person and we have to have that person; We have to have that genre; and we have to have this race. We really are trying to land on quality. In my experience, it’s not really been about trying to even the playing field for every different group and make sure that everyone’s included. It’s really about trying to highlight quality and excellence. We really hope that is a diverse group; that it represents a lot of genres. I think this year if you look at the overall nominations, we have represented more genres than we generally do in our Big Four categories. They’re very diverse across the board in gender, age, and genre.”
Read the full interview here.
Artist Spotlight
GOODTWIN shares reflection with indie-pop single, “Soak It Up”
The indie-pop project GOODTWIN offers a subtly stirring new single, “Soak It Up,” that’s sort of like taking a deep breath after drowning out the world for so long. The track combines avant-garde jazz elements with their indie-pop sensibilities. “Soak It Up” is more of a quiet rallying cry than a rousing proclamation.
The song gently explores the push-pull of life between external pressures and inner peace, the feeling of being pulled in multiple directions while seeking a soft place to land. GOODTWIN’s leading force and vocalist, Gus Alexander, wrote the song in response to that insidious, yet understated, influence on modern life, and the need for validation, doing something useful with your time today, and, at the same time, being attractive enough to get what you need gutted from someone else.
“Soak It Up” offers an encounter with the concepts by attending to how it was made, with a focus on presence rather than performance and on significance over distraction. The balance between warmth and precision in the production is immaculate. The track, produced and engineered by Carly Bond and Germaine Dunes of Sound and Hearing at Altamira Sound, has a refined yet raw feel that doesn’t seem polished but rather suggests a human element, which suits its introspective tones.
Jack Doutt’s mastering adds another layer of depth to a soulfully rich composition, leaving enough space for each element to shine without overwhelming the others. The result is a cohesive, immersive sound that feels intentional throughout. For fans of indie-pop with a sprinkle of jazz, introspective verses, and emotionally driven production, the track is an exciting addition to GOODTWIN’s blossoming discography. It’s a piece of music that invites a slower tempo, that forces attentive listening, and, with it, an experience more fully lived.
Artist Spotlight
G3 the Plug moves like a ghost on latest release “Danny Phantom”
G3 the Plug goes darker with his new single, “Danny Phantom,” a moody slice of hip-hop whose chord, and melody-led chills make it feel less like a song and more like this state of mind you have after the witching hour. Emotionally understated and raw, the track embodies that quiet intensity of moving through the city when everything is far away and everything seems blurred, half-seen.
Built on a minimal trap foundation, “Danny Phantom” excels in its simplicity. The production is intentionally loose, leaving room for the emotions to breathe rather than smother. It’s a beat that doesn’t beg for attention, it settles in, serving as an enveloping setting that mimics the song’s motifs of isolation, motion and presence. Every bit of sound seems deliberate, supporting the introspective mood rather than competing with it.
G3 the Plug doubles down on understatement. He chisels away rather than overexplain, allowing space to pass like streetlights out a car window. It has that drifting feeling, of being in a place while actually not being there at all, that gives the album its ghostly contours. The title seems right, G3 floats through the track like a ghost, invisible but powerfully present, in landscapes where silence is as telling as language.
The key to making “Danny Phantom” stand out is its emotional honesty. This isn’t a track intended for the spectacle, it’s meant for reflection. It’s a record that speaks to anyone familiar with the sensation of being alone in motion, tumbling toward some destination and hauling thoughts up from the depths after dark. Lying in the land between underground rap and atmospheric hip-hop, “Danny Phantom” makes clear G3 the Plug’s capacity to convey mood through music without forcing it. It’s a slow-burn record, one that uncovers itself with more listens, with the music lingering long after its final beat.
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