The American Music Awards Nominations: Hey, Did You Know Adele Sold A Lot Of Albums This Year?

Have you bought your copy yet? (Give it time.)

​You can have your Grammys and your Mercury Prizes and your Polaris Prizes and whatever other musical prizes honor things like "talent" and "artistry"—the most honest awards show in pop music, though, is undoubtedly the American Music Awards, the annual exercise in silliness that figures out its nominee pool via metrics like sales and "social-networking activity" and calls each category "Favorite" instead of "Best" and puts its weight behind that claim by throwing open the voting process to the unwashed texting masses. Which is why last year Justin Bieber took home a lot of hardware, and why this year he probably has the Favorite Male Pop Or Rock Artist award on lock as well. (If only the show's producers had determined the evening's performers this way—we'd have all been spared Gavin Rossdale's horrifying attempt to channel Marc Bolan while Carlos Santana noodled beside him.) This year's nominees were announced this morning, and it probably shouldn't be too surprising that Adele is dominant, what with her being the record-sales-related story of 2k11 and all. Full list of nominees after the jump. Note that the New Artist award has a couple of nice left-field nominees (Miguel, Marsha Ambrosius), although there's no way LMFAO doesn't shuffle off with the prize.

Artist of the Year
Adele
Lady Gaga
Katy Perry
Lil Wayne
Taylor Swift

Pop or Rock Music: Favorite Female Artist
Adele
Katy Perry
Lady Gaga

Pop or Rock Music: Favorite Male Artist
Justin Bieber
Bruno Mars
Pitbull

Pop or Rock Music: Favorite Band, Duo or Group
LMFAO
Maroon 5
OneRepublic

Pop or Rock Album
Adele, 21
Rihanna, Loud
Lady Gaga, Born This Way

Rap/Hip-Hop Music: Favorite Artist
Lil Wayne
Nicki Minaj
Kanye West

Rap/Hip-Hop Album
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter IV
The Throne, Watch the Throne
Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday

Soul/R&B Music: Favorite Male Artist
Chris Brown
Trey Songz
Usher

Soul/R&B Music: Favorite Female Artist
Rihanna
Beyoncé
Kelly Rowland

Soul/R&B Album
Chris Brown, F.A.M.E.
Rihanna, Loud
Beyoncé, 4

Alternative Rock Music: Favorite Artist
Foo Fighters
Black Keys
Mumford & Sons

Adult Contemporary Music: Favorite Artist
Adele
Bruno Mars
Katy Perry

Latin Music: Favorite Artist
Pitbull
Enrique Iglesias
Jennifer Lopez

Country Music: Favorite Female Artist
Sara Evans
Miranda Lambert
Taylor Swift

Country Music: Favorite Male Artist
Jason Aldean
Brad Paisley
Blake Shelton

Country Music: Favorite Band, Duo or Group
Zac Brown Band
Lady Antebellum
The Band Perry

Country Music: Favorite Album
Jason Aldean, My Kinda Party
Taylor Swift, Speak Now
The Band Perry, The Band Perry

New Artist Of The Year
Miguel
Wiz Khalifa
The Band Perry
Marsha Ambrosius
Foster the People
Hot Chelle Rae
LMFAO
Thompson Square

[SOTC homepage | Facebook | Twitter | Letters]