THE 34TH ANNUAL GRAMMY NOMINATIONS : COMMENTARY : It’s the Same Old Song From Voters

The key nominees in this year’s Grammy competition are, for the most part, thoroughly respectable, but in no way unforgettable.

The chief disappointment: Few of the nominees for best album and best single record reflect the chief currents of pop in 1991--a year in which hard-rock staged a major creative comeback, rap continued to explore inner-city tensions and country made the biggest inroads on the pop market in decades.

That means no nominations in the two categories for Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Nirvana, Public Enemy or Garth Brooks--all of whom enjoyed more critical attention during the year than most of the actual nominees.

In turning to Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Cole and Amy Grant in the best album competition, the 7,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences demonstrated once again that they are most comfortable with the pop mainstream and old favorites.

Simon, nominated this time for his zestful “The Rhythm of the Saints” album, has won 12 Grammys, including three in the coveted best album category: “Graceland” in 1986, “Still Crazy After All These Years” in 1975 and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in 1970.

Raitt, nominated for “Luck of the Draw,” won best album in 1989 for her reflective “Nick of Time,” while Cole, nominated for “Unforgettable,” has won three Grammys, including best new artist in 1975. Grant has five previous Grammys, all in the gospel field.

The only best album nominee who hasn’t won previously, ironically, is the entry that deserves to win in a close contest against Simon: R.E.M.

The Georgia-based quartet, which blends enticing, folk-flavored rock-roots music with teasingly elusive lyrics, was the class of the alternative/college rock scene in the ‘80s. It made its own mainstream move in 1988 with “Green,” a somewhat fluffy, disappointing collection. Last year’s “Out of Time,” however, was a tuneful, personal and revealing album. Its highlight was “Losing My Religion,” a masterful expression of anxiety and self-doubt.

“Losing My Religion” is also the choice here in the best record category, rivaled only by Cole’s moving duet with her late father Nat King Cole’s original recording on “Unforgettable.” In a year that provided such affecting singles as Sting’s “All This Time,” Public Enemy’s “Can’t Truss It” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the other nominees in this category were especially discouraging.

At least the academy members, who have tended over the years to make choices more in keeping with the commercial pulse of pop than with the creative, avoided this year such potential embarrassments in the best album category as Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Hammer.

Among the especially savvy nominations: Oleta Adams (female pop vocal), Seal (best new artist), Nirvana’s “Nevermind” (alternative music album), Public Enemy’s “Apocalypse 91 . . . “ (rap performance by a duo or group), Travis Tritt’s “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” (country song), John Prine’s “The Missing Years” (contemporary folk album), Sinead O’Connor’s “Year of the Horse” and Peter Gabriel’s “P.O.V.” (both long-form music video).

Major disappointments: Guns N’ Roses wasn’t nominated in the best album or best rock performance categories for either its “Use Your Illusion I” or “Use Your Illusion II” albums. . . . No nomination for Sting in the best album category for “The Soul Cages.” . . . Ice-T was nominated in the solo rap performance and not Ice Cube.

And finally: If you’re wondering why Nirvana, whose major-label debut was one of the year’s biggest-selling and most acclaimed albums, wasn’t nominated for best new artist, here’s the answer: The trio wasn’t eligible because it had earlier released an album on the independent Sub Pop label.

With the growth of independent labels in recent years, the academy should reconsider its eligibility rules in the category because a lot of exceptional rock artists are going to be declared ineligible for the same technicality in coming years. Better yet: Drop the category altogether. No one seems clear whether it is supposed to honor the new act that made the best debut record or the new act that showed the most potential.

Sadly, most of the past winners in the category--from A Taste of Honey to Christopher Cross--did neither.