Tomorrow is the 66th Grammy Awards, and this year is quite lively.
Fans are already arguing during the registration stage alone, and the main artillery war zone comes from the KPOP circle.
This year, a large number of Korean groups that have released new works have signed up for the Grammys, and according to incomplete statistics, there are: BTS, Newjeans, aespa, STRAY KIDS, TWICE, FIFTY FIFTY, TXT, NCT, SEVENTEEN, etc.
Some groups have reported a lot of money, and some groups have been reporting for the Best Newcomer Award for several years after their debut (of course, the rules of the Grammy Award for Best Newcomer are not completely equivalent to the simple debut years), and it is no wonder that fans collectively watched the excitement, and even made a few topics:
#kpop brave Grammy##How many Korean groups have reported the Grammy#.
Another fan said: "I kind of understand the feeling of those well-known big companies looking at my resume." (Lin Xiao, you... ）
emmmm, although everyone has a lot of contention, but the final result is the same: the group is annihilated.
But don't feel sad, in fact, KPOP has still produced a lot of good works over the years, and if we continue to maintain such a good momentum, I believe that soon we will be able to see those familiar figures on the Grammys.
So what are the highlights of this year's nominations?
The first thing to mention is SZA, this time she received as many as 9 nominations for her new album "SOS", leading this year's Grammy Awards, I wonder how many awards she will win this time?
Speaking of Taylor Swift, who won 6 nominations, he had a lot of action throughout last year, not only touring successfully, but also new albums, re-recorded albums, and new films.
Especially with "Midnights" being nominated for the 2024 Grammy Album of the Year, Taylor Swift is officially tied with the legend of the century Barbra Streisand as the most nominated female singer in Grammy history for Album of the Year.
Lana Del Rey has also been nominated for as many as 5 Grammy Awards, including two heavyweight awards: Song of the Year and Album of the Year.
If she wins any of these awards this time, it will be her first Grammy trophy in the industry.
Last year's hit "Barbie" is definitely the most courageous film at the recent major awards ceremonies, and even the Grammys are no exception, and this time it was directly nominated for 8 awards, including two general awards: Song of the Year and Production of the Year.
What's even more exaggerated is that in the "Best Song in Visual Media" shortlist, "Barbie" directly occupies four positions in the five nominations.
In addition to focusing on music, there is another special award that I keep an eye out for every year, and that is the Grammy Award for Best Record Packaging Design.
Yes, the recognition of record packaging is clearly more niche than awards for various music genres.
But niche does not mean that it is not exciting, but with the high interest in album packaging in recent years, such as those Korean albums that have more than a dozen versions to choose from at a time, or those colorful limited vinyl, there are more and more possibilities for album design, so that design and music can be organically combined, bringing more sensory experiences.
In recent years, this award has often appeared in works from our treasure island of Taiwan, such as in 2022, two designers, Li Zhenghan and Yu Wei, won this award for their designs for the physical album "Eight Song Waves".
It is worth mentioning that this is also the first Grammy trophy belonging to our treasure island of Taiwan, which is of great significance.
At last year's Grammys, veteran designer Xiao Qingyang and his daughter Xiao Junyi won the grand prize again with the design of the physical album "Beginningless Beginning".
This is the 7th time that designer Xiao Qingyang has been shortlisted for this award, and finally won this year.
He has designed hundreds of physical albums in the past, including Zhou Huajian's "Jianghu" and Chen Qizhen's "Song of Time", and this award can be said to be a great affirmation of his achievements over the years.
This year, two more designers from Taiwan have been shortlisted for this award, and if they are awarded again, it will be the third consecutive year that Taiwan has won the award. (suddenly a little nervous)
Without further ado, let's take a look at how good these Grammy-nominated albums are this year!
A fusion of Eastern and Western art
《即兴贰拾壹 Cadence 21》
Let's take a look at these two works from Taiwan.
The first album is a compilation album of improvised Chinese music recorded by a number of ethnic musicians, covering 11 instruments and 2 different singing methods, and the work itself is actually very meaningful and artistic.
In order to further highlight this humanistic artistry, the form of album design is also unusual, and the paper carver Zheng Xinghui was invited to design the paper carving, so that the audience can feel its musical characteristics without hearing the paper sculpture with the same national artistic characteristics.
But paper sculptures are just a formality, and when you open this album, you'll find that it's not just beautiful paper sculptures.
As the album unfolds, you'll notice that the paper sculptures aren't like we usually flip through a picture book, but are all connected, inspired by the 18th-century paper peepshow.
Paper peepshow is generally made of multiple layers of cardboard, and these papers are cut into multiple flat silhouettes in a scene, through the difference in front and back positions and the ductility of the hand when it is pulled apart, it naturally forms a tunnel-like sense of depth, which is very three-dimensional.
The scenes of Paper Peepshow in this album are all from the instruments used in the songs, and on the other side of Paper Peepshow, the designers also introduced these instruments and the stories behind them in detail.
It has to be said that, in addition to the technical difficulties, it is a great challenge for any designer and craftsman to fit so many instruments and scenes into such a limited space.
Get a glimpse of the design with a flashlight
《迁徙 Migration》
The design of the album "Migration" is also very powerful, and the designer is the designer of the 2022 winner Yu Wei introduced to you at the beginning, and this album is also the second collaboration between singers Ye Ying and Yu Wei.
As an album that discusses "home" and "belonging", the design team and the singer himself actually wanted to convey the concept of music by designing it in the form of a family letter.
The former design concept is certainly apt enough, but now we see that the compass-like design on the cover provides a broader perspective beyond music.
The compass means to find the key words of positioning and oneself, and it also symbolizes the concept of finding belonging.
Open the inside page, and there are moving illustrations inside.
The content of the illustration comes from the fable "Fish and Bird" written by the singer himself, and this fable is supposed to tell the concept of energy and form transformation, and through such a special form, the fable can be directly displayed.
What's more, these illustrations can also be linked to music.
You can listen to music while using a flashlight to look at the details on the illustrations, and the whole process combines images and music to create a unique experience.
At the same time, the album contains Chinese, English, and Hakka characters to help friends who love music all over the world to experience the artistic conception.
Even the materials and typography used in the album have been carefully proofread by the team, and the materials are the most expensive selections, which can be said to be a very treasured work, even the singer himself said:
"This is the most perfect body of 'Migration'. ”
A cheerful commemoration
《Electrophonic Chronic》
This is a very memorable and bumpy album.
The band The Arcs debuted on their debut album Yours Dreamily in 2015 and were an instant hit, performing at the Coachella festival the following year.
Originally, they had already announced that their second album was in production during the 2015 tour, but unexpectedly, the sudden death of bandmate Richard Swift and the ensuing environmental impact caused plans for a new album to be put on hold.
It wasn't until now that we officially welcomed the band's second album "Electrophonic Chronic", and the album still includes the works created by the late member Richard Swift.
The story is heavy, but don't think it's a sad album, in fact, it's a happy one, as lead singer Dan Auerbach puts it:
“This new album is all about honoring Swift. It’s a way for us to say goodbye to Swift, by revisiting him playing and laughing, singing. It was heavy at times, but I think it was really helpful to do it.”
Who says goodbye has to be sad? Saying goodbye happily is not a kind of bravery.
To continue to convey the idea of the album, the group also invited Southern California artist Omar "El Oms" Juarez, who has been collaborating with them since their debut.
The overall visual of the second album was hand-drawn by artist Omar after attending the premiere of the new song held in East Los Angeles. It seems to be improvised, but in fact it fully conveys the first impression that this album brings to people, which is colorful and brilliant and psychedelic.
The illustration specially chose the lighter, the boys' personal object, and wrote the names of the band members, which is full of small ideas.
On the inside of the album, Omar also created a beautiful poster for Richard Swift.
The limited-edition album released by this era also follows this design concept, giving this colorful and colorful many interpretations.
In addition to the album itself, the band also launched a lot of derivative products based on this visual, including the lighter on the album cover, which was really realized.
Of course, instead of lighters, they sell lighter boxes.
To have such a close and continuous collaboration between an artist and a musician is in itself an aesthetic compathy.
The official second creation fans are ecstatic
《Gravity Falls》
This album is actually the soundtrack of the cartoon "Gravity Falls", this animation is not the kind of content for children, it is actually a fantasy adventure film, revolving around the story of two twin brothers who continue to explore in a strange town.
In fact, the soundtrack album of "Gravity Falls" was announced back in 2020, and the previous version looked like this:
And the current version is undoubtedly a complete makeover.
Compared to the previous work, which mostly looked for elements from cartoons to fill the album packaging, this time you can see that the team has made a second creation of the cartoon.
While there's nothing new on the album's packaging, the intricate illustrations of the story-telling series are impressive enough.
The illustrations come from artist GhostShrimp, who also generously shared his inspiration for the illustrations on his social media.
As a full-fledged Gravity Falls fan, he chose his favorite elements and told a unique story that led to a number of major animated characters that led to the colourful and whimsical album design.
For fans, you can hold the album and enjoy this coherent illustration, and you can definitely be pleasantly surprised by the familiar animated characters, which is definitely worth collecting.
不止是这次的格莱美提名，前不久专辑还拿下了今年 Making Vinyl Packaging Awards 的 BEST IN SHOW 奖项。
各位觉得载誉而来的《Gravity Falls》能否再度获奖呢？
Collect the daily trivialities
《Stumpwork》
Most of the previous albums were laborious and time-consuming, but sometimes they can be eye-catching with a little unique thinking, such as the packaging of "Stumpwork".
It's also quite interesting, it's obviously called stumpwork three-dimensional embroidery, but the album visual basically has nothing to do with embroidery.
If you think so, you're wrong.
In fact, this album, created at home, is meant to guide people to focus on life, whether it is embroidery or soap hair, it is a little fun born in the face of daily trivialities.
And in order to further echo the concept on the cover, open the design of the inside page of the album, and you can also find more small details of life.
For example, those neatly arranged soaps:
Or a lyric book like a printed towel:
It's all inspired by life, so ordinary and so unique.
Of course, I know that there will be many friends who find this cover a little uncomfortable, but the fact is that in the boring daily life, there will always be these constant hair loss and dust, face them, solve them, in order to continue to live gracefully.
Of course, if you really can't accept it, DRY CLEANING, which has a super attitude, also provides you with a different choice, a version with a mirror cover:
Well, since you don't want to see our hair, you might as well look in the mirror and see what you look like!
Trying to burn down the "home" in order to shoot the cover
《The Art of Forgetting》
The following album was born around the same time as the former, but the latter was clearly tormented by the heart, because in addition to the environment, Caroline Rose also fell out of love.
A hands-on Caroline Rose was not only heavily involved in the arrangement and production of the album, but also took charge of the album's design.
I think the most striking thing about the packaging of this album is precisely because of her personal involvement, so that the packaging forms an irreplaceable integrity with all the music and visuals.
As the name suggests, the album, both in terms of musical concept and artistic design, revolves entirely around memories.
On the album cover, the singer sits comfortably on a red velvet single sofa, wearing a seemingly incompatible but comfortable enough outfit with attitude, while the space behind her is blazing.
Although it was P's fire, she actually planned to burn the set at first, and the only reason that convinced her was that she couldn't control the light when it was on fire.
The space behind her is a replica of her living room.
This dangerously crazy photograph also fully confirms the background of the creation of this album, at a time when she was going through a painful breakup, and she seemed so small and fragile in this shattered state of mind.
What's even more special is that this photo was actually inspired by a Polaroid taken by Caroline Rose's friend a few years ago, when she was also sitting on a red sofa. Caroline Rose had already decided to use it as a cover long before the album was completed.
The reason why there is so much emphasis on the cover design is partly because the photo itself is very creative, and on the other hand, it is also where Caroline Rose put a lot of thought into it.
用她自己的话来说，这要归功于她作为书籍封面设计师的父母，是他们告诉了她“ 100% judge a book by its cover”。
And the inside pages still look for inspiration from her home—from the post-it notes she pasted on the wall, which are all about her thoughts on that difficult time.
I personally love the album design of the Collector's Edition, which has a biconvex lens cover that gives it a naked-eye 3D feel when viewed from different angles.
And this version will also come with a custom matchbox, in addition to being directly related to the cover theme, you can also burn the house while you are not in the mood like her. (Just kidding.)
Okay, now that you've seen the design of this year's six albums, the question is, who do you think will win this year's award?
The picture in this article is from the Internet, the copyright belongs to the owner, and the text is the original of the blogger.
Text assistant in this issue: Quinn
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