The Grammys have long earned plenty of flak for how it awards its pool of music talent with no category generating as much confusion as Album of the Year.
Taylor Swift’s fourth win in the category on Sunday night for Midnights reignited the conversation (at no fault of Swift’s), as yet another album award for a pop titan like Swift or Adele meant yet another deserving artist with a critically acclaimed album was left without the honor.
You think back to when Swift’s album 1989 topped Kendrick Lamar’s historic To Pimp a Butterfly in 2016, which is widely regarded as one of the best albums in recent memory. It’s not that 1989 wasn’t deserving as much as To Pimp a Butterfly is one of those artistic achievements that stands alone.
Heck, generational music icon Beyoncé has actually never won in the category, which her husband and fellow icon Jay-Z astutely pointed out at Sunday’s ceremony. That still doesn’t feel real.
That’s always been the problem with the Recording Academy: While it has awarded plenty of talented musicians over the years, it’s always out of step with the culture and the daring, forward-thinking pieces of art that wind up defining their times. It’s usually way past due when an artist like Beyoncé finally wins in the category, if at all.
We’ve gone through the history of the awards show to find 30 albums that didn’t get recognized in the category (including perhaps Swift’s biggest risk of an album, fascinatingly enough). Some of these ignored albums will absolutely shock you.
SOS, SZA
SZA’s widely acclaimed sophomore album SOS featured radio hits like “Kill Bill” and “Snooze.” We hope it won’t take the Recording Academy long to recognize one of music’s true rising stars, working in her prime.
Renaissance, Beyonce
The Grammys couldn’t even give Beyoncé a makeup Best Album award last year for Renaissance, instead giving the honor to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House. Maybe one of these days they’ll make it right.
Sour, Olivia Rodrigo
Rodrigo’s debut album Sour is as notable and as accomplished as any first record we’ve gotten in recent years, with songs like “Drivers License,” “Deja Vu,” “Good 4 U” and “Traitor” basically taking over the music zeitgeist for the entirety of 2021.
DAMN., Kendrick Lamar
Lamar emerged as one of the defining artists of the 2010s, but he went 0 for 3 at the Grammys in Album of the Year during that decade with some of its most important albums.
DAMN. featured major songs like “Humble,” “Loyalty” and “Love” and weaved a piercing study of Lamar’s career in a post-To Pimp a Butterfly world, as well as where America was at such a delicate time as 2017.
Lemonade, Beyoncé
One of the more egregious snubs on this list, Beyoncé’s career-defining album Lemonade did not win best album, which is still such a strange thing to type. Even Adele, who won that year, couldn’t believe it.
To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar
Lamar’s 2015 masterpiece To Pimp a Butterfly transcended the Grammys. It provided an entire political movement its anthem with the soaring “Alright,” and it cemented Lamar as one of the generational talents in music.
How this wasn’t just a gimme in the Grammys’ top category is beyond us.
Beyoncé, Beyoncé
Another one of Beyoncé’s defining works came in 2013 with her self-titled fifth album, which featured the smash hit “Drunk in Love.” However, it lost to, go with us here, Beck’s Morning Phase. We love Beck and all, but what?
Red, Taylor Swift
Now, Swift has won plenty of Grammys, but it still feels incredibly odd that the pop megastar’s 2012 Red wasn’t even nominated for best album.
It’s literally the album that saw her make the permanent leap from country powerhouse to permanent pop fixture and is arguably her biggest, most successful gamble as a musician.
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar
We told you Lamar would show up a few times here. His stunning breakout album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City announced a major talent had arrived, but it lost to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories.
Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
Ocean’s brilliant Channel Orange is one of the major works of the 2010s, but the incredibly talented artist couldn’t bring home Album of the Year in 2013 against Mumford and Son’s Babel. We’re still very perplexed.
My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West
While West’s deeply erratic, offensive behavior amid mental health struggles sent him to the outskirts of music, his 2010 masterpiece My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy wasn’t even nominated for Album of the Year. It’s widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, album of that decade, and one of the Recording Academy’s worst snubs ever.
Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne’s era-defining masterwork Tha Carter III cemented him as one of the most talented rappers of his generation. However, it frustratingly couldn’t take home the Grammy for best album.
Graduation, Kanye West
For the longest time, Kanye West was the poster child for the Grammys snubbing rap artists in the best album category. His 2007 smash Graduation would’ve been a much, much more appropriate pick for Album of the Year in 2008 than Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters.
Back to Black, Amy Winehouse
Although, Hancock’s win knocked out an even bigger album that year.
Not awarding the late, great Winehouse’s titanic second album Back to Black in 2008 is one of the Grammys’ biggest mistakes, made even more bizarre by the Recording Academy’s recognition of the music icon in other categories.
Late Registration, Kanye West
While West was still one of the biggest rising talents in the artform, his 2005 megahit Late Registration bafflingly lost to U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. We still don’t get that one at all.
American Idiot, Green Day
One of the most consequential rock albums of the 2000s, Green Day’s blistering, deeply political American Idiot gave the Canadian band its biggest cultural moment and spawned multiple radio classics. However, it didn’t win best album.
Stankonia, OutKast
OutKast winning Album of the Year in 2004 was in part very deserved, in part a huge makeup award for 2000’s stone-cold masterpiece Stankonia, which featured some of the rap duo’s biggest songs in “Ms. Jackson,” “So Fresh So Clean” and “B.O.B.”
Kid A, Radiohead
Look, no offense to Steely Dan, but Radiohead’s monumental Kid A losing to a Steely Dan album is just embarassing.
The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem
Again, no offense to Steely Dan, but Eminem’s controversial-yet-colossal third album The Marshall Mathers LP losing to a Steely Dan album is super weird in retrospect.
OK Computer, Radiohead
Another day, another iconic Radiohead album that didn’t win at the Grammys for best album. Some feel OK Computer is the band’s defining work.
Automatic for the People, R.E.M.
It feels wrong that R.E.M. never won a best album honor at the Grammys, and Automatic for the People would’ve been the perfect one to recognize.
Nevermind, Nirvana
Want to know something absolutely stunning? The Grammys didn’t even nominate Nirvana’s Nevermind for best album after its release in 1991. Yes, the album that basically changed music forever.
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy
Public Enemy’s seminal album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back didn’t even get nominated for best album at the Grammys after its release, back when the Recording Academy barely even acknowledged rap existed.
Purple Rain, Prince & the Revolution
Prince & the Revolution’s Purple Rain is one of the best albums of the 1980s, bar none. It losing to Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down in 1985 in Album of the Year is one of the Grammys’ biggest snubs in its long history of big snubs.
Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
It is bewildering to think that Bruce Springsteen’s iconic Born to Run didn’t even get nominated at the Grammys for Album of the Year after its 1975 release.
Exile on Main St., The Rolling Stones
It took until 1979 for the Recording Academy to finally nominate The Rolling Stones in Album of the Year (which only happened once), which meant the group’s landmark Exile on Main St. got ignored completely in the category after its 1972 release.
What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
Yes, as hard as it is to believe, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, an album some regard as the greatest of all time in music, was not nominated at the Grammys for best album after its 1971 release.
Abbey Road, The Beatles
Even arguably the greatest band of all time’s most iconic album didn’t win the top album award at the Grammys in 1970. Go figure.
Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
While the Recording Academy just followed along with the general music apparatus in arriving far too late for the Beach Boys’ medium-altering pop masterpiece Pet Sounds, it still counts as a horrible snub.
Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
Even though you can’t necessarily assume the Recording Academy in the 1960s would’ve been hip enough to nominate one of Bob Dylan’s biggest albums (the one that had “Like a Rolling Stone” on it), it’s still bizarre that it didn’t get any recognition in best album.
