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2012 CMA's: Nominations and Thoughts

Well, it's getting to be that time again in the country music world. We are less than two months away from the Country Music Association Awards, more commonly referred to as the CMA Awards. The nominees have been announced and in the next few weeks, we'll no doubt be getting more and more information about the show itself. The CMA's will air on ABC on November 1st at 8PM Eastern and 7PM Central. Many of you have probably seen the list of nominees already, but for those of you who haven't you can find the whole list here.

Now, as some of you might remember, before the ACMs earlier this year I did a series of posts offering my predictions for the show. For the CMA's I've decided to change it up a little bit. First, instead of talking about multiple awards in a single post, each of the main awards will get a post of its own. Second, I'll still be saying who I believe will win, but this time I'm focusing more on my personal picks for each category. Which I did on a much smaller scale with the ACM's - the difference being that this time I'm going to be making much more of a case for why I feel the artist(s) in question should win. I'll be starting things off with my pick for Entertainer of the Year and then go down the list of categories as they appear on the CMA website. All but musician of the year because I'm really not familiar with a couple of the musicians. That said, my love for the steel guitar makes me hope that Paul Franklin will take it home.

Meanwhile, I don't know about the rest of you, but I was pretty surprised by a bunch of the nominees this year. On one hand, I love seeing new people get nominated because shake ups like that are good for the industry. If the same people always get nominated and if the same people always win, than the awards themselves become less and less meaningful. My opinion is that having won before does not necessarily mean you deserve to win again. The five nominees should be chosen because they were the five best at that point in time; not because they'd been nominated before. Artists should never be allowed to become complacent in their careers. The goal is not to stay the same; the goal is to evolve. The goal is to be better than you were last year and even better the next. Throwing new, deserving artists into the mix is a good way to make that happen. Nominations should never be a given or taken for granted. Artists should actively fight for those nominations.

How? By not settling. By not making the same album over and over again. By growing, but never abandoning what it was that make them stand out in the first place. By not being satisfied with how well their tour went last year and vowing to make the next tour better. By working harder tomorrow than they did yesterday. By understanding that being popular now doesn't mean they always will be. By realizing that they are countless others just waiting for an opportunity to take their place and that there is never an excuse to drop their game. Do all of that and then if the nominations come, they are well deserved. And if they don't come, at least they know that they did their best. The best artists will take the lack of nominations as more motivation to improve. So yeah, I support new people getting thrown into the running for awards.

That all said and being on one hand, there is that other hand to contend with. There were some nominations that left me quite baffled and some snubs that I just don't understand. The winner for the most baffling nomination has got to be the inclusion of Kelly Clarkson for female vocalist of the year. Now don't get me wrong: girl can sing. In fact I'd say she's a better singer than two of the other nominees in that category and about at the same level as the other two. The issue isn't her voice. Rather the fact that she's not a country artist. I'm sorry, but doing a duet with a country artist; releasing a country remix of a song previously released to pop radio; doing country covers in your live show and being BFFs with Reba McEntire doesn't make you a country artist. The fifth spot should've gone to either Sara Evans or Kellie Pickler. I'll accept Kelly Clarkson as a female vocalist nominee on a country awards show if she ever releases a fully country album with no country remixes of previously pop songs.

Biggest snub of the year is Rascal Flatts. No question. It's absurd that they didn't get a vocal group nomination. Ignore that vocally speaking they are one of the best groups in country music; they've had a very good year this year. Should've gotten the nomination over The Band Perry. Other than that I don't agree with Miranda and Lady Antebellum getting album of the year nods. At all. I do love that Dierks Bentley got a nomination in that category: that one is well deserved! Meanwhile, how did "Come Over" and "Red Solo Cup" get video of the year nominations? Ridiculous on both accounts.

This should go without saying, but all of this is of course my opinion. And this wraps up the first of many CMA related posts! Stay tuned for the first of my picks, Entertainer of the Year. I have a lot of album and reviews to get up so be on the lookout for those as well. And if you'd like to share any of your thoughts and opinions on this years CMA nominees, than please feel free to do so by leaving a comment. I'd love to know what you all think. Thanks for reading!











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