The Grammy nominations were a scattershot of a slop-filled year in mainstream pop music. It lives up to the 2025 word of the year and reflects the taste epidemic plaguing the ears of Western audiences. Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” couldn’t sit atop the Billboard Hot 100 on its own; we (y’all) put it there. 

Since they made a slew of changes a few years ago, the Grammy Awards have entered their "give the people what they want" era. This year continues that tradition. The Grammys did the best they could with what they had – slop is still slop, no matter how you mold it.

Surprisingly enough, "Ordinary" was missing from the song and record of the year nominations. Instead, we got a random assortment of the top songs of 2025, from "DtMF" by Bad Bunny and "luther" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, to Billie Eilish's "WILDFLOWER," which was first released in 2024 but became an official single last year. 

There wasn't a clear front-runner for either category. Each song was marginally successful within its own cultural spheres. It's a symptom of the death of monoculture and lives guided by algorithms. In a world with infinite content to consume, few cultural moments stand the test of time. Sure, some of these songs hit No. 1 on the charts, but were they remembered? 

At the Grammy Awards show on Feb. 1, Eilish won song of the year for "WILDFLOWER." Was it an apology from the academy for last year’s snub(s)? Was it fraudulence? Did they just pick her name out of a hat? Who knows? The song is great, so we might just have to let it happen.

Lamar and SZA's win for record of the year surprised me as much as it did Cher. For a split second, she probably thought Luther........

© USA TODAY