Here are the 2014 Dance Grammy Nominations:
Category 9 – Best Dance Recording
Duke Dumont ft A*M*E & MNEK – “Need U (100%)” – Downtown/WIN
Calvin Harris ft Florence Welch – “Sweet Nothing” – Columbia/Ultra
Kaskade – “Atmosphere” – Ultra
Armin Van Buuren ft Trevor Guthrie – “This is What It Feels Like” – Armada
Zedd ft Foxes – “Clarity” – Interscope
Category 10 – Best Dance/Electronica Album
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories – Columbia
Disclosure – Settle – Cherrytree/Interscope
Calvin Harris – 18 Months – Columbia/Ultra
Kaskade – Atmosphere – Ultra
Pretty Lights – A Color Map of the Sun – 8 Minutes/20 Seconds
Category 79 – Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical
Delerium ft Michael Logen – “Days Turn Into Nights” (Andy Caldwell Remix)
One Republic – “If I Lose Myself” (Alesso vs One Republic)
Bruno Mars – “Locked Out of Heaven” (Sultan + Ned Shepard)
Bob Marley and The Wailers – “One Love / People Get Ready” (Photek)
Lana Del Rey – “Summertime Sadness” (Cedric Gervais Remix)
Looking over the 2014 Dance Grammy Nominations, it is refreshing to see nothing completely embarrassing (Al Wasser, Baha Men), but rather a pretty accurate summary of what DJs played, people danced to, and what we bloggers wrote about. Sure, there are some notable absences: major festival records (Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Showtek, Audien, Cazzette, Passion Pit, Martin Solveig), the pop crossover (Krewella), and the most notable – where is Avicii? On the bright side, there are nominations for independent and import releases (Duke Dumont, Armin van Buuren, Pretty Lights) which shows how the cutting edge dance music scene is changing the sometimes stodgy Grammy mentality. It’s also great to see Cedric Gervais get recognition for a remix that started in the festival scene and crossed over to become a massive pop hit globally. On the bigger scene, Daft Punk also got nominations for Album of the Year and Best Pop/Duo Group (bringing their cumulative lifetime total to 13 nominations).
My predictions – “Sweet Nothing” / Daft Punk / “Summertime Sadness”
My personal favorites – “This Is What it Feels Like” / Disclosure / “If I Lose Myself” and “Locked Out of Heaven”
