CLOSE These are the top 4 artists that didn't get love (or not enough love) during the Grammy nominations. Jane Mo, USA TODAY 
 
 Taylor Swift (Photo: VALERIE MACON, AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Where’s Taylor? 
 
 One of the biggest surprises of Friday morning's Grammy nominations announcement was the absence of Taylor Swift from the main categories, with the singer excluded from the record, song and album of the year races. 
 
 This wasn’t what any Grammys race-watchers were expecting to happen, considering that Swift has won more albums of the year over the past decade than any other artist except Adele, taking home the ceremony’s biggest award in 2010 for her “Fearless” album and again in 2016 for “1989.” 
 
 Her November 2017 album “Reputation” missed the cutoff for the 2018 Grammys, which aired on Jan. 28, and was instead eligible for the 2019 awards, which airs next year on Feb. 10. That seemed like a blessing in disguise for Swift, as the similarly Grammys-beloved Bruno Mars went on to sweep the record, song and album of the year categories at the 2018 awards. With “Reputation” competing in the 2019 Grammys instead, Swift seemed destined for an album of the year nomination, with her single “Delicate” predicted to land among the song and record of the year contenders. 
 
 Instead, “Reputation” earned only one nomination, for best pop vocal album, becoming Swift’s first album of her pop-music era not to receive an album of the year nod -- with “Red” and “1989” getting that distinction, an award that “1989” would eventually win. 
 
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 Of course, Swift doesn’t automatically deserve a boatload of Grammy nominations just for being Taylor Swift, and “Reputation” wasn’t the best-reviewed album of her career upon its release. But -- with many of the breathless media storylines that accompanied the album’s release having faded to the background concerning Taylor, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, her new boyfriend Joe Alwyn -- revisiting “Reputation” reveals an album that’s aged well with time. At the very least, it’s a release that’s less bloated than Drake’s “Scorpion” and certainly better-realized than Post Malone’s “Beerbongs and Bentleys,” two albums that nevertheless still scored albums of the year nominations this year. 
 
 Swift’s surprising absence in the main categories is reminiscent of last year’s Grammy nominations, when Ed Sheeran, who was also thought at the time to be a shoo-in for the ceremony’s biggest awards, got totally shut out from the album, artist and record of the year categories. 
 
 Yet, Swift has historically been much more powerful of a Grammys’ force than Sheeran, which makes Friday morning’s events all the more surprising. 
 
 Perhaps it was a bad sign when Swift’s “Reputation” lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” didn’t earn any nominations at the 2018 Grammys, despite being released early enough to make the cutoff for the previous year’s awards. 
 
 Yet, “Look What You Made Me Do” was a polarizing choice for a single that even some Swift megafans couldn’t get behind, and its lack of Grammy nominations seemed to have more to do with the song than the artist. And even without an album in contention, Swift still earned two nominations for the 2018 Grammys, for best country song category with her writing on Little Big Town’s “Better Man,” and best song for visual media with her “50 Shades Darker” track “I Don't Wanna Live Forever.” 
 
 That means that Swift earned more Grammy nominations in her off-year than she did for a year with an actual album in contention. 
 
 More: Taylor Swift's political statement was a redeeming moment for the star 
 
 Either way, the Grammys’ ice-cold reception to “Look What You Made Me Do” last year and lukewarm recognition of “Reputation” in Friday’s nominations suggests that the awards' voters have cooled on Swift, at least compared to the last time we saw Swift on the Grammys stage, when she was delivering a fiery speech to accept the album of the year trophy at the 2016 ceremony. 
 
 In a broader sense, it's a good thing that the Grammys' main categories aren't just dominated by the same group of megastars who get showered with nominations just for showing up. It was a thrill to see Kacey Musgraves and Janelle Monae nominated for album of the year -- artists who, while extremely established in their own right, don't quite have the same high-profile status as Swift or Ariana Grande, another pop star who got snubbed in the main categories. 
 
 And yet, while there's certainly an argument for voters passing over Swift's new music in favor of smaller artists who have gained less recognition over the years, that's not how the Grammys work. If the entirety of the Grammys' main categories this year was made up of shining examples of representation, then sure, Swift's exclusion would make sense. But the Grammys isn't a benevolent process -- it's an inscrutable rat race that pits the actual-best albums of the year against random nominees whose names seem drawn from a hat to fill out the categories. 
 
 And if Post Malone got an album of the year nod, which says it all about the kinds of music the Recording Academy deems Grammy-worthy, Swift sure as hell deserved to be recognized too. 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2018/12/07/justice-taylor-swift-why-her-shocking-grammys-snub-unfair/2237196002/ ||||| Here lies Taylor Swift’s reputation — or at least the final nail in the coffin of her Reputation era. Since its release last November, Swift’s sixth album has kept a deserved hold on the pop narrative of the last year, but on Friday, the album and its singles were all suspiciously absent from the Grammy nominations list, save for one lone recognition in the Best Pop Vocal Album Category. 
 
 Over the past decade, Swift has become one of pop’s most decorated stars. At age 20, she became the youngest artist to ever win Album of the Year when her sophomore LP Fearless took home the night’s biggest trophy. In 2016, she became the first woman to win that achievement twice as the main credited artist with her 1989 full-pop tilt. 
 
 Since the beginning of its rollout last summer with the release of the jarring, villainous, defensive “Look What You Made Me Do,” Reputation has been Swift’s most divisive album yet. The response to the single alone stirred up intense feelings from fans and critics: some praised her bold new sound and reclamation of her quickly turning tide on her previously unimpeachable public image while others considered the electroclash-lite tune to be a sonic, point-missing mess. 
 
 Upon the album’s actual release, Reputation began to win more people back. It was praised by many for taking risks without sacrificing Swift’s inimitable knack for lyrical pop narrative-building. The darkness, bitterness and looming danger turned out to be positive spins for Swift’s career and sound. She sold 2 million copies worldwide in the first week and was the third biggest album of 2017. 
 
 Even without much 2018 push for the album and its singles, Reputation was the biggest-selling album of the year, according to Billboard, and Swift was the highest-ranked artist. The LP’s fourth single “Delicate” evolved into a sleeper hit this year, staying on the Hot 100 for nearly a year and eventually becoming a massive radio hit. 
 
 Of course, even with Swift’s previous album 1989 being more quickly adored, its Album of the Year win was mired in controversy given its juxtaposition against Kendrick Lamar’s astounding To Pimp a Butterfly. It continued conversations about the Grammys’ relationship with not only black artists but rap music as well, being sandwiched between two even more controversial upsets for Beyoncé, whose self-titled LP and Lemonade both lost Album of the Year to Beck and Adele respectively. This year’s eight-album lineup is deservedly hip-hop and R&B-heavy, with Kendrick Lamar’s Black Panther soundtrack, Drake’s Scorpion, Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy, H.E.R.’s H.E.R., Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys and Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer fighting against modern folk prophet Brandi Carlile’s By the Way, I Forgive You and Kacey Musgraves’ own Swiftian country-pop crossover Golden Hour. 
 
 While Song and Record of the Year are more pop-centric, with nominations for Shawn Mendes, Zedd and Lady Gaga in either one or both category, not even Swift’s “Delicate” could make the final cut, even being snubbed in Pop Performance as well. 
 
 Though odd, Swift’s lack of nominations could, in the most ideal sense, signal a changing of the guard when it comes to what can be considered an award-worthy album. The last few years of Album of the Year nominations have seen more rap and R&B nominees than ever before. The absence of a marquee pop LP could open the floor up to the second hip-hop album of all time to win the title, following in the footsteps of OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill won in 1999, but it’s classified as R&B.) The face of what we expect a “Grammy darling” to be could change forever.
– "Here lies Taylor Swift's reputation—or at least the final nail in the coffin of her Reputation era." So writes Brittany Spanos in a Rolling Stone piece that mulls the singer's Grammy nomination "snub": no mention of the album or its singles except one lonely listing in the Best Pop Vocal Album Category. Consider that Reputation was 2018's top-selling album and its fourth single, "Delicate," became "a sleeper hit this year" and "a massive radio hit." Plus Swift is a Grammy darling, the youngest artist ever to snag Album of the Year with Fearless at age 20 and the first woman to win twice when 1989 triumphed in 2016. So wither the love? OK, Reputation was dark and different. And it wasn't released in time for the 2018 Grammys, so it had to wait a year. There was also the controversy after 1989 beat Kendrick Lamar's "astounding" To Pimp a Butterfly—and "this year's eight-album lineup is deservedly hip-hop and R&B-heavy" with albums like Lamar's Black Panther soundtrack, Drake's Scorpion, and Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy, notes Spanos. But is the Grammys really about fairness and representation? Not to one commentator: "The Grammys isn't a benevolent process," writes Maeve McDermott at USA Today. "...And if Post Malone got an album of the year nod, which says it all about the kinds of music the Recording Academy deems Grammy-worthy, Swift sure as hell deserved to be recognized too."