Zoom-in Online

The 52nd Grammy nominees have been announced, and, like the 51 sets of nominees before them, they are perplexing, frustrating, and in some cases downright sad.

Unlike the Oscars and the Emmys, the annual music awards show is no longer viewed as the ultimate arbiter of what was most artistically or culturally successful. It has competition, in the forms of everything from the American Music Awards to the Country Music Awards to the Teen Choice Awards to the MTV Music Awards, and this year's nominations go a long way toward explaining why that has happened.

Some examples, in helpful bullet point form:

• After a very public (and, apparently, quite upsetting) ruling that Lady GaGa was ineligible for a Best New Artist Grammy, it turns out Silversun Pickups, a band that has been releasing records since 2005, is.

• In a sign that the apocalypse is closer than any of us imagined, the electro-rap shit merchants known as LMFAO have been nominated for a Best Electronic/Dance Album Grammy.

• The Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance category seems to have come from another decade: John Fogerty? Bruce Springsteen? Prince? Neil Young? BOB DYLAN?! Oh yeah, that's the whole list.

• The Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category, arguably one of the most culturally relevant categories of the last few years, includes the Lonely Island/T-Pain novelty, "I'm On a Boat."

Rolling Stone points out some other strange nominations (Michael Madsen? Johnny Depp?), and also some overdue ones (Spinal Tap, Hall & Oates).

Of course, this is not entirely the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences' fault. There were over 115,000 albums released in 2008 alone, and even though just a scant number sold well enough to be included in this kind of awards show, the Grammys have to survey a much wider field than, say, the Oscars do.

This year's nominees for Best Alternative Album, for example, illustrate just how challenging the selection process must be: Brian Eno and David Byrne (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today), Phoenix (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (It's Blitz!), Depeche Mode (Sounds of the Universe), and Death Cab For Cutie (Narrow Stairs) are an odd, but mostly worthy basket of apples and oranges, and only one will be selected as the winner.

Not that we're making excuses or anything.