The Grammy awards are three short weeks away, and we're all waiting to hear the winners in such true-life categories as 'Best Traditional Tropical Latin Performance' and 'Best Boxed Recording Package.'
While we're waiting, we've decided to run our very own Lycos 50 Music Awards to answer the musical question: which artists do Web users search for most?
We've taken the top 50,000 user search terms from the week ending January 22, and scanned for the names of active music acts in five categories: Rap, Pop, Rock, Country and R&B.
We'll list the 10 most popular artists -- and just for fun, we'll also list each category's five Grammy nominees for best album. Today we'll cover rap and R&B; tomorrow pop, country and rock.
(Brief pitch: you can get fine photos and bios of all these artists at our Lycos Music site. And you can buy the music from our cheerful partner Barnes & Noble.)
And now: on with the awards!
R&B:
Web's Top 10
1. DMX
2. TLC
3. Destiny's Child
4. D'Angelo
5. Ginuwine
6. Macy Gray
7. Lauryn Hill
8. Blaque
9. Usher
10. R. Kelly |
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R&B: Grammy
Nominees
1. Mary J. Blige
2. Whitney Houston
3. R. Kelly
4. Brian McKnight
5. TLC |
TLC and R. Kelly make both lists, but otherwise there's no overlap. Frankly, we think Web users seem just a little hipper than Grammy. (Two words: Whitney Houston?) Last year's Grammy mega-winner, Lauryn Hill, scores a very respectable #7 with Web users one year later.
Now on to the hottest rap artists:
Rap:
Web's Top 10
1. Eminem
2. Dr. Dre
3. Kid Rock
4. Sisqo
5. Juvenile
6. Insane Clown Posse
7. Jay-Z
8. Li'l Kim
9. Ruff Ryders
10. Will Smith |
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Rap: Grammy
Nominees
1. Busta Rhymes
2. Missy Elliott
3. Eminem
4. Nas
5. The Roots |
Not much overlap here either. Scrawny bleach-blonde rapper Eminem is #1 with Web users, and his album The Slim Shady LP scored a Grammy nomination. Eminem's mentor, Dr. Dre, is a close second on the Web list but didn't make Grammy's album list.
Sisqo, formerly of Dru Hill, began a strong move up our search charts in early December -- he's a guy to keep an eye on.
Finally: we know, we know, some rap artists are also R&B artists, and vice versa. We took our best shot at classifying the artists -- please hold the angry letters.
Tomorrow: pop, rock, and good ol' country music.
