Each year the Grammys are a way for the best music to be recognized, but I’ve often wondered, “What if it were up to Trinity students to decide the winners?” So I decided to find out.

Before the winners were announced earlier this year, I made a ballot of the real Grammy nominees for three categories (Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year) and gave them to 100 seniors to see just what Trinity enjoys listening to, and the answers were more interesting than I imagined.

Nominated for Record of the Year were “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, “Royals” by Lorde, “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars, and “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke.  As I began to count out the votes, I thought it was going to be a landslide victory for Daft Punk, but after a short time, their votes slowed nearly to a halt and were eventually caught and passed up by Imagine Dragons’ post-apocalyptic “Radioactive.”  With 45 votes out of 100, “Radioactive” won by a landslide to 32 votes for “Get Lucky.” “Royals” lagged behind with 13, and “Locked Out of Heaven” and “Blurred Lines,” earned five votes each………………………..The real award went to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.”

The next category was Album of the Year, and I could easily see where this was going.  The nominees for best album were “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk, “The Blessed Unrest” by Sara Bareilles, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” by Kendrick Lamar, “The Heist” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and “Red” by Taylor Swift.

Now unless you’ve been living under a (sham)rock for the past few years, you’ve heard of Kendrick Lamar.  Now I’m typically not a rap fan, but most of the rap songs that I will listen to are by him.  When I first looked at the nominees, I knew he would win, which is exactly what he did. With exactly half the votes, Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” took home Sammy’s Grammy.  Kendrick was followed by “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk with 27 votes, “The Heist” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis finished with 15 votes, “The Blessed Unrest” by Sara Bareilles had six votes, and “Red” by Taylor Swift placed as expected…………………………….Daft Punk won the real Grammy.

The third and final category was the most exciting to count out.  It was a very close race between Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ song “Same Love” featuring Mary Lambert and Lorde’s song “Royals” for Song of the Year. The votes were back and forth between the two with the eventual winner being “Royals” by Lorde with only one more vote than Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love.” The final count was 31 votes for “Royals,” followed closely by the 30 votes for “Same Love.”  In third was Katy Perry’s “Roar” with 20 votes, fourth was “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars, and bringing up the rear was Pink’s “Just Give Me A Reason” with eight votes. ………………………………………..Lorde’s “Royals” won the real Grammy.