We take a look at the surprises — and outright outrages — of the Grammy nominations, in Bigger Than the Sound. By James Montgomery Lady Gaga Photo: Leon Neal/AFP Here’s about all you need to know about the nominations for the 54th Grammy Awards , which were announced Wednesday night in Los Angeles: Bon Iver got more of them (4) than Lady Gaga did (3). So did Mumford & Sons, Radiohead and Skrillex. Call it the residual effects of Arcade Fire’s Album of the Year triumph at the previous Grammys or perhaps the first creaks of a seismic shift in voter tastes, but there’s definitely something going on with this year’s field of nominees … it’s just difficult to say exactly what. Because, sure Gaga got shunted. But Kanye didn’t. In fact, he’s this year’s most-nominated artist, collecting seven of them (though his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, by all accounts a commercial and critical success, failed to pick up an Album of the Year nod) in a move by the Grammy voters that certainly poked a lot of holes in what everyone believed would be the story line of these awards: Namely, that women would dominate, since, you know, they’ve basically done that on the charts all year long. Adele, who you’ve probably heard of (and whose 21 album you probably own), ended up snagging six nods, including Album, Record and Song of the Year. But most expected her to get more, or at least be the most-nominated act. Instead, she’s tied with a bunch of dudes ( Bruno Mars and those old Grammy faves the Foo Fighters) in second. Nicki Minaj ended up with five noms, while Rihanna — who is usually the one left out at these kinds of shows — got four. And then the drop off begins. Taylor Swift, who won Album of the Year not too long ago, and whose Speak Now sold a million copies in a week, was shut out of the so-called “Big Four” categories and ended up with just three nominations total, all of which came in the country categories. Katy Perry, who has three #1 singles to her name this year, earned two noms. So did Beyonc
