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\n\tIn 2024, music award shows are defined more than anything by what (and who) they\u2019re missing. Who got snubbed? Who should\u2019ve performed but didn\u2019t? Who didn\u2019t bother showing up at all? In a moment where panic about the fading relevance and impact of so many of our past cultural institutions is consistently palpable, these questions of absence are usually what drives the most discussion and engagement relating to shows like the Grammys \u2014 to the point where they often overwhelm whatever and whoever actually is <\/em>there. <\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s what made it so conspicuous that the 2024 Grammys, which took place in Los Angeles on Sunday night (Feb. 4), felt so, well, full<\/em>. The artists who\u2019d defined the previous year in music were basically all present and accounted for: six of Billboard<\/em>\u2018s top seven picks for the Greatest Pop Stars of 2023<\/a> were in the building, with Morgan Wallen (whose relationship with the Recording Academy remains understandably frayed) the lone holdout. The top categories were suspenseful, and the wins cathartic, occasionally historic. The performances were a dazzling mix of contemporary pace-setters and all-time legends. The energy on the floor was buzzing \u2014 sometimes even a little too audibly during the quieter on-stage moments. It was the extremely rare three-and-a-half-hour award show that felt\u2026 not necessarily shorter than that, but not significantly longer either, an accomplishment in itself. <\/p>\n \n\tIt was as successful a Grammys in providing just about everything you could want from the show that we\u2019ve had in recent memory, very possibly one of the greatest Grammys in the telecast\u2019s 54-year history. But it wasn\u2019t quite complete, as the dearth of representation from a genre at the core of the show\u2019s greatest issues in recent years lingered uncomfortably at its center \u2014 even being loudly and specifically called out on stage by one of the defining figures in the genre\u2019s history. <\/p>\n \n\tOf course, this being an award show in 2024, the night began and ended (in near-exact bookends) with Taylor Swift. The world-conquering pop star showed up to her table midway through host Trevor Noah\u2019s introductory remarks, mere seconds after his first mention of her, invoked like an awards-show genie. Swift would not be performing on the evening, but as she proved at the MTV Video Music Awards and even the Golden Globes in recent months \u2014 not to mention however many NFL Sundays \u2014 she was more than capable of dominating the evening with her mere presence, a constant cutaway as she danced and sang along and palled around with fellow superstar (and designated bestie for the evening) Lana Del Rey. And as with the last two VMAs, Swift also came armed with a major reveal: the April arrival of The Tortured Poets Department<\/em>, follow-up album to 2022\u2019s Midnights<\/em>, which she announced while accepting the best pop vocal album Grammy for the latter set \u2014 officially ending one album cycle by kicking off the next, just in case you mistakenly thought she might be putting her imperial phase on pause for 2024. <\/p>\n \n\tAnd of course, that wasn\u2019t the last award of the night for Taylor Swift or Midnights<\/em>: It also emerged victorious in the final category, for album of the year. The win was a historic one for Swift, breaking her tie with Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra and making her the lone recording artist in history with four album of the year Ws. You could argue about whether or not Midnights<\/em> was definitely the most deserving winner \u2014 in a loaded AOTY race, it was one of multiple plausible candidates \u2014 but not about whether it made intrinsic sense that Swift should emerge the biggest winner from Music\u2019s Biggest Night, shortly after wrapping up Music\u2019s Biggest Year<\/a> of the entire 21st century.<\/p>\n \n\tPerhaps the ultimate testament to the strength of the 2024 Grammys, however, was that even with Swift looming so large on the evening, the rest of the ceremony didn\u2019t feel particularly stuck in her shadow: Dozens of other winners, performers and attendees also made their presences memorably felt. Superstar singer-songwriters Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish both added chapters to their growing Grammy legacies with strong performances, the latter even picking up her second song of the year trophy and sixth (!!!) career Big Four win for \u201cWhat Was I Made For?\u201d Victoria Mon\u00e9t capped one of the most satisfying breakout years in recent pop history with her best new artist victory, true mainstream validation for a veteran pop songwriter who\u2019d too long been stuck behind the scenes. And it was nearly as rewarding to watch a different kind of overdue industry acceptance bestowed upon Miley Cyrus, who \u2014 15 years after \u201cParty in the U.S.A.\u201d \u2014 finally took home the first two Grammys of her brilliant career, best pop solo performance and record of the year for \u201cFlowers.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tYou may notice a common theme among all the artists mentioned so far, and it was one that continued throughout the evening: Grammy night was, first and foremost, a night of women. Executive producer Ben Winston had mentioned<\/a> to the Associated Press that he\u2019d raised the idea of an a \u201cladies\u2019 night\u201d at the Grammys with an all-female roster of performers and rightly been shot down; such a heavy-handed setup would\u2019ve felt wildly unnecessary when the women present were clearly more than capable of controlling the evening regardless. From Karol G becoming the first woman winner of the best m\u00fasica urbana album award (for Ma\u00f1ana Ser\u00e1 Bonito<\/em>) to the long-absent Tracy Chapman reclaiming the spotlight (and her signature song) on her \u201cFast Car\u201d duet with Luke Combs to Annie Lennox paying heart-stopping tribute to Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor with an appropriately tearful rendition of \u201cNothing Compares 2 U,\u201d \u2014 to, yes, four different women artists taking home the Big Four categories, for the second time in four years \u2014 women across genres and generations were centered throughout. The most hardened Grammys skeptic would still have to admit gender equity has come a long way at the awards in the six years since \u201cstep up.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n \n\tAnd even among all the greatness on display on the Grammy stage on Sunday night, including long-overdue stage returns from Chapman and the 30-years-gone Billy Joel, special mention simply must be made of Joni Mitchell\u2019s spellbinding rendition of \u201cBoth Sides Now.\u201d Nearly a decade after Mitchell\u2019s health situation seemed dire enough for many publications to start writing pre-obituaries for the legendary singer-songwriter, to get any kind of performance from her on the Grammy stage (the very first of her career, unbelievably) would seem a small miracle. But to get a version of \u201cSides\u201d \u2014 a song that has soundtracked and defined countless life-changing moments among listeners for 55 years now \u2014 audibly imbued with the full weight of Mitchell\u2019s own 80 years of experience and her deepened, weathered, but still singular voice, was a moment as indelible as the Grammys has produced. You could see it in the cutaways to the folks (again, mostly women) in attendance, perhaps best in the fighting-back-tears shot of acting GOAT Meryl Streep and daughter Grace Gummer, no doubt reflecting the reactions of thousands of mother-daughter viewer pairs watching from home. It was as profoundly raw and beautiful a living-legend showcase as the show could\u2019ve hoped for, and will undoubtedly go down as an all-time performance in award show history.<\/p>\n \n\tBut as much progress as the Grammys has clearly made in recent years when it comes to the representation of women, it continues to come up short in doing the same for Black music. Mon\u00e9t\u2019s best new artist win saved the Grammys from the nightmare scenario of an all-white Big Four, but SZA was arguably the people\u2019s-champ pick in the top categories this year \u2014 particularly for album of the year nominee SOS<\/em>, which topped the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks and was only held from topping pretty much every 2023 year-end critics\u2019 list by the fact that it technically bowed at the end of 2022. No shame in losing to Taylor Swift in 2024, of course, but with echoes of the similar fate<\/a> that befell Beyonc\u00e9 and Renaissance<\/em> at last year\u2019s awards (to a dominant-but-not-Swift-dominant Harry Styles and Harry\u2019s House<\/em>), complaints of it seemingly never<\/em> being certain Black artists\u2019 turn would hardly seem unfounded. <\/p>\n \n\tThe audience got a specific reminder of Bey\u2019s career snubbing in the general categories \u2014 she\u2019s still never won album of the year, despite being the preeminent pop and R&B albums artist of her generation \u2014 from her own husband, rap god Jay-Z, during his acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. In addition to memorably airing grievances on his wife\u2019s behalf, Jay also voiced the longtime and continuing frustrations for hip-hop\u2019s perpetually poor showing at the awards, dating back to the first best rap performance award in 1989, which several nominees (including winners DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince) boycotted due to the award not being televised on the broadcast. He admitted that he and other rappers \u2014 even those who boycotted back in \u201989, only to watch the awards from their hotel \u2014 still care about the Grammys: \u201cWe love y\u2019all and we want y\u2019all to get it right\u2026 At least get it close to right.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tUnfortunately, we didn\u2019t get to see what Jay thought about this year\u2019s hip-hop winners, because the Grammys decided not to air any of the rap awards \u2014 Killer Mike, a beloved and recognizable figure in hip-hop but not a true crossover star, won in three out of the four \u2014 and rap played a minimal part at best in the general categories. (SZA\u2019s chances may have even been hurt by her modern hip-hop leanings<\/a>; the Recording Academy has historically preferred to reward R&B artists who are more retro-minded.) The irony, given Jay\u2019s \u201989-invoking speech, was certainly not lost on many viewers. It\u2019s easy to point to much-discussed downward trending in hip-hop\u2019s preeminence and the relative dearth of obvious four-quadrant rap releases on the calendar last year and say it was understandable for the Grammys to give hip-hop short shrift this year, but even in a down year, the genre remains music\u2019s biggest<\/a> by a wide margin. To see the Grammys\u2019 relationship with hip-hop only getting more fraught in 2024 is concerning. <\/p>\n \n\tAnd while hip-hop was also under-represented in the performances \u2014 a frustrated Travis Scott Utopia<\/em> mini-medley that felt a bit like an afterthought, particularly following Mitchell\u2019s showstopper, was rap\u2019s primary representative for the night \u2014 it wasn\u2019t the only essential 2024 genre to be lacking on stage. Not getting a single Spanish-language performance in such a massive year for Latin pop, reggaet\u00f3n and m\u00fasica Mexicana was inexplicable, and the awards\u2019 continuing lack of interest in (non-BTS) K-pop also remains disappointing. In fact, non-English-language pop music of any kind was strangely missing from the telecast, with Afrobeats star Burna Boy\u2019s multi-song performance serving as the lone indication of pop\u2019s rapid globalization of the 2020s. <\/p>\n \n\tBut even with these obvious blemishes, there\u2019s no denying that the 66th Annual Grammys was the most vital the awards have felt in some time. The performances were blessedly lacking in the kind of third-hour filler that have dragged the broadcast down in recent years, instead showcasing pop\u2019s current best and brightest, along with some true icons of the past. Even when controversial, none of the wins were outright perplexing, uniformly rewarding artists and works that truly felt crucial to the past year. And, well, Taylor Swift and Beyonc\u00e9 were both there \u2014 a good start to any event\u2019s case for being must-watch, center-of-the-culture fare right now. We\u2019ll remember this year\u2019s Grammys much more for what they were than what they weren\u2019t. And that\u2019s closer to getting it right than the great majority of award shows can claim in 2024. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n