As the 68th Annual Grammy Awards approached, students at Southwestern Oklahoma State University put forth their vote for “SWOSU’s Album of the Year.” During the Winter Welcome on SWOSU’s campus, I conducted a poll featuring the eight Album of the Year nominees from this year’s Grammys. I asked the people at the event to vote for their favorite album from the eight choices in this year’s lineup.
The Grammy Awards are known as “music’s biggest night” around the world. The Recording Academy hosts this award show every year to celebrate people within the recording arts. They celebrate all genres, producers, and storytelling, rewarding the winners with the prestigious Grammy Award. Album of the Year is the most sought-after award by all artists, rewarding their full body of work with recognition from over 15,000 voters.
Over the course of four hours, more than 100 students participated in this poll. They stopped, thought about their choices, and shared their thoughts on the nominees. At the end of the event, the results were close, but one album proved to be SWOSU’s most streamed.
With 27 votes, Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter proved to be popular on campus, claiming the first-place spot with almost a quarter of the vote. The votes for this album came from a wide range of faces, which didn’t surprise me as Carpenter was solidifying herself as a household name over the last few years. Students seemed to be drawn to her vintage aesthetic. When viewing their choices for the poll, many people expressed that they had only heard Carpenter’s in full. This made her stand out to many, as she is the most mainstream artist in the lineup. Her music appeals to younger audiences, especially young adults, so her album coming out on top was no surprise to me.
With a narrow gap between this album and Carpenter’s, DTMF by Bad Bunny finished the poll with 23 votes. Many students claimed they didn’t speak Spanish but were still heavily drawn to Bad Bunny’s latest album. Despite not knowing the language, the students seemed very passionate about their vote for this album. Bad Bunny is a globally recognized artist who has captivated audiences all around the world, and his artistry seemed to capture the hearts of many SWOSU students as well.
Closing the poll with only one vote behind Bad Bunny, Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia emerged as a surprising favorite among SWOSU students. Many of the voters expressed their admiration for Tyler’s interesting outlook within the rap genre. His creativity and unfiltered lyrics are what draw his listeners in, and I could tell that SWOSU appreciates his experimental sound and style.
The five remaining albums all received support, but students weren’t as interested in them as the previous titles listed. GNX by Kendrick Lamar earned 15 votes, Swag by Justin Bieber earned 12, Mutt by Leon Thomas scored 10 votes, Mayhem by Lady Gaga followed with 9 votes, and Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse ended with 2 votes. While these albums didn’t come close to the top three vote count, they all managed to have a few listeners.
While SWOSU students picked Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend as their album of the year, the Recording Academy’s 15,000 voters awarded Bad Bunny’s DTMF with the title of Album of the Year. Bad Bunny made history as the first artist to win this title for a primarily Spanish album. He has made a name for himself over the past few years, working in a supermarket as a cashier only a decade ago. Now, he has won Album of the Year and will perform as the Super Bowl headliner in the span of one week.
Hosting this poll showed me how engaged SWOSU students were with modern music. The crowd seemed to enjoy letting their voices be heard, even for this small experiment I was doing. While SWOSU’s top choice did not take home the award, our voices and love for music were still heard.
