About the OMAs: Rules of the Road

I decided to listen to the previous nominees for the Grammy's Album of the Year award and re-choose the winners for two important reasons:
A) This is my idea of fun and
B) There are some wrongs that I believe need to be righted.^[1]

Since I'm acting as a One Man Academy, I decided to call my awards the OMAs.

While the most essential rule of how I select winners is "they're my awards and I do what I want", there are some other guidelines I try to follow.

Rule Zero

If zero albums are up to OMA standards in a given year, none of the albums get an award that year.
[Tag: "Rule Zero"]

When It Rains, It Pours

If multiple albums are up to OMA standards in a given year, multiple albums get an award that year.
[Tag: "Rains Pours"]

The Music Speaks For Itself

I'm intentionally listening to these albums without researching them, to have as little context for them as possible.

When giving out any award in real time, it's impossible to escape the chatter surrounding the nominees: this artist got robbed last year^[1:1], that actor has been nominated 6 times with no wins, that sort of movie might get a nod but it can't actually win...

With the luxury of time and the faded memories of all that chatter, we're going to go back and find out if these albums sound any different when they're the only thing you can hear.
[No tag]

The Sinatra Rule

I will always recommend Sinatra.
[Tag: "Sinatra Rule"]

Music Accessibility (Lost and Not Found)

If I can't find an album on Spotify or You Tube, it probably won't be considered for an OMA. If nothing else, I want the music to be easily accessible for the readers out there.^[1:2]
[Tag: "Lost & Not Found"]

Deal Breaker

Sometimes there's a song that's so bad, it disqualifies its entire from OMA contention.
[Tag: "Deal Breaker"]

Album Release Date Timing

Currently, the 12 month cycle for the Grammys is October through September.

Example: The 2016 awards considered albums from October 2014 through September 2015.

When talking about albums that were not nominated for a particular year's award, I'm using the current timing. If it ever becomes apparent that the cutoff dates were different, and that info is particularly relevant, I'll note that.