2024 Grammy Awards: Preview and predictions for the Rock and Alternative awards

BEST ROCK PERFORMANCE

WHO WILL WIN

I think boygenius will take this one for “Not Strong Enough,” and I suppose if you squint, you could consider this an acoustic rock song. But to me, this is a pop song. It happens to be a very good pop song, but I can’t see giving it an award as the best rock song. Last year, this award also went to an acoustic song – Brandi Carlile’s “Broken Horses” – but that is a genuine blues rocker. It’s not about the electric guitars. It’s about the electricity of the song.

WHO SHOULD WIN

I feel so defeated giving this to the Foo Fighters for “Rescued.” They have basically defined American rock over the past decade and at times, I think they’ve reached a point of diminishing returns. But three of the other nominees just don’t work for me as rock songs – especially now that the Alt Performance category exists. And the one truly solid rock song that joins “Rescued” – Metallica’s “Lux Aerterna” – suffers from one or two soon-to-be-discussed problems. So ‘Rescued” gets my vote by default. But at least it is a very good song, birthed as it was out of tragedy.

WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED

Skating Polly’s “Baby on My Birthday” not only should have been nominated, but it should have won. And it should have won Best Alt Performance too. Because it is legitimately both Rock and Alt, and the performance blows away most other performances this year.