‘Twisters,’ ‘Inside Out 2’ Lead a Wide-Open Field for Grammy Visual Media Categories

As someone who has spent years immersed in the world of music and cinema, I find myself utterly captivated by the upcoming Grammy nominations for 2025. The absence of “Barbenheimer” this year means we’re venturing into uncharted territory, which, to be honest, is always a bit more thrilling.


Without an event similar to “Barbenheimer,” which ruled the Grammy’s visual-media categories the previous year, the picture for 2025 becomes significantly more intricate and, arguably, more captivating.

As a music enthusiast, I’m eagerly anticipating the announcement of Grammy nominations on November 8. Fingers crossed that “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” make it to the score and compilation soundtrack categories for this summer’s biggest movie hits! Until then, everything remains uncertain.

The soundtrack compilation category is challenging to predict, given that not many films have produced major chart-topping songs. However, “Twisters” summer’s blockbuster soundtrack has reached the 7th spot on the Billboard charts, suggesting that the movie may also achieve success in the album and song categories. The original country tunes “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” performed by Luke Combs, and Lainey Wilson’s “Out of Oklahoma” could potentially earn a place in these categories.

Among the selections, the diverse “Deadpool & Wolverine” soundtrack, boasting tracks by artists ranging from Green Day to Huey Lewis, takes the lead in the compilation category. Other contenders include the classical album “Maestro,” released as part of last year’s Leonard Bernstein biopic, and this year’s romantic offering by a boy-band titled “The Idea of You.

As a film enthusiast and music lover, I can’t help but notice that Savan Kotecha’s title track for “Idea of You” is a strong contender for the Grammy song category. This piece of artistry would certainly hold its own against other standout tunes like Maren Morris’ “Kiss the Sky” from “The Wild Robot” and Jon Batiste’s Oscar-nominated track “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony.” Each of these songs is a testament to the power of music in storytelling, and I eagerly await the awards season to see how they fare.

Possible composers in the “score” category may include Andrea Datzman, who gained prominence with her playful music for the blockbuster film “Inside Out 2”; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, known for their techno-influenced score “Challengers”; Hans Zimmer, whose “Dune: Part Two” is described as mystical; and two scores nominated for an Oscar in late 2023 – Laura Karpman’s jazz-infused “American Fiction” and Robbie Robertson’s evocative “Killers of the Flower Moon,” released shortly after the passing of the renowned songwriter for The Band and longtime collaborator with Martin Scorsese at the age of 80.

Romulus.

It’s more challenging to predict which TV shows might make it into the nominated category. Over the past 15 years, only nine out of 78 nominees for this category were written for television. This year, contenders like “Shōgun” (composed by Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba), as well as two recent Emmy winners – Carlos Rafael Rivera’s “Lessons in Chemistry” and Jeff Toyne’s “Palm Royale” – could potentially be nominated. Additionally, the composers of these shows might also consider submitting their work for the Grammy’s instrumental arrangement category, since they often enter their theme songs as arrangements as a backup plan if their scores are overshadowed by more popular titles in the score category.

It seems that two other Emmy award recipients, Siddhartha Khosla and the team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, may have encountered an unusual issue with Grammy eligibility rules. Khosla’s score for “Only Murders in the Building” Season 3 was eligible last year, but the song “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” by Pasek and Paul, which recently helped them achieve EGOT status, was not considered because it was part of a deluxe soundtrack album that was released on October 4, 2023. However, since the series started airing during an earlier eligibility period, this album did not qualify for Grammy consideration.

This year’s Grammy category for Video Game Score Soundtracks is looking particularly competitive, boasting a robust lineup of entries. Some of the notable contenders include “Star Wars Outlaws” composed by Wilbert Roget II, “Spider-Man 2” by John Paesano, “Tales of Kenzera: ZAU” by Nainita Desai, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III” by Walter Mair, “Concord” by Daniel Pemberton, “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown” by Gareth Coker and Mentrix, “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” by Pinar Toprak, and “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” by Brendan Angelides.

There’s a vast array of options for voters to consider, and they’ll need to carefully observe and listen to candidates until the preliminary voting ends on October 15.

Read More

2024-10-07 18:17