Could Kendrick Lamar Win Album of the Year at the Grammys?

Song nominees run from Lamar’s “Alright”, which touches on police brutality, to Swift’s tongue-in-cheek celebration of romantic fickleness, “Blank Space”.

And Seth MacFarlane – yes, that Seth MacFarlane, the man who created “Family Guy” and “American Dad!” – earned a slot in the best traditional pop vocal album alongside such Great American Songbook performers as Tony Bennett and Bill Charlap, Josh Groban, Barry Manilow and Bob Dylan.

What’s so good about these nominations?

Just call Kendrick Lamar the king of the Grammys.

This morning nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards were announced, with the ceremony to go down on February 15, 2016.

Nominees for Album of the Year are Alabama Shakes‘ Sound & Color; Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly; Traveller, by Chris Stapleton; Taylor Swift’s 1989;and The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness.

Lamar’s other nominations include best rap album for “Butterfly”, rap performance for “Alright”, pop duo/group performance for “Bad Blood” with Swift and dance recording “Never Catch Me” with Flying Lotus. In addition, other likely locks include Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd and new country star Chris Stapleton, who have all had huge years. Fellow triple nominee Marc Ronson’s Uptown Funk, featuring Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud round out the record nominees. Even the Ed Sheeran song the academy focused on, “Thinking Out Loud”, is definitely the best Ed Sheeran song. You can bet she’ll be all over the 2017 Grammys.

One of the most exciting categories is Best New Artist, which this year compares Melbourne newcomer Courtney Barnett, 2015 Brit “Critics” Choice award victor James Bay, Georgia-born country star Sam Hunt, YouTube hit Tori Kelly and “All About That Bass” hitmaker Meghan Trainor.

Traditionally, the nominees tend to be older, more mainstream artists, but this year showed a surprising departure from the norm.

Jamie xx, Caribou, The Chemical Brothers, Disclosure, and Skrillex and Diplo are up for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Miseducation is an undeniably great record, but it’s also an undeniably great record for people who don’t actually like hip-hop, or, more honestly and less politely, don’t like the kind of people who tend to make hip-hop.

Rapper Drake scored five nominations, including best rap album for “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”, pitting him against Lamar, Dr. Dre’s “Compton”, Nicki Minaj’s “The Pinkprint” and J. Cole’s “2014 Forest Hills Drive”.

Justin Bieber, One Direction and Demi Lovato all released albums that were past the nomination deadline, though each of those artists did have a single that could have been nominated.

Meanwhile, Rihanna was a shocking omission in this year’s Grammy nominations, after releasing two hit singles, “Bitch Better Have My Money” and “FourFiveSeconds”. Nor did Grammy love for Sufjan Stevens, but we can dream. Charlie Puth is up for Best Pop/ Duo Group Performance, and Best Song Written for Visual Media. One might think the “70s-inspired singer-songwriter brigade of Natalie Prass, Father John Misty, or Adele’s friend Tobias Jesso Jr. would have a chance at some nominations, but apparently they didn’t”.