Grammys 2012: Peek at 3 Ballots!

Record of the Year

Adele, ''Rolling in the Deep''
The Hit Songwriter (a go-to scribe for pop's 1 percent; half the Hot 100 has him on speed dial): ''It's the record of the year by so many standards. It's the biggest selling record, it's probably the best known worldwide. How it's produced, how it's performed, the whole nine yards — it's not easy to find a record that does all that; it's lightning in a bottle.''

Adele, ''Rolling in the Deep''
The Country Star (a Nashville crossover with several Grammys already in his trophy case): ''Adele's probably going to win it. I love that more people are going to buy Bon Iver records because they'll try to figure out how to pronounce the name, but he won't win. If anyone's going to upset Adele, it's Mumford, just because it seems like everyone in the world who didn't know about Mumford bought them off of iTunes in the last 12 months.''

Bon Iver, ''Holocene''
The Pop Star (an MTV favorite with a handful of high-charting hits and a knack for cheeky, attention-grabbing music videos): ''I just think that ''Rolling in the Deep'' was played to death everywhere. It was an inescapable album, and I think I would feel better about it if I didn't hear it so much. I do think that's what's gonna win, but I think that the production, especially the vocal stuff, on the Bon Iver record would be my personal pick.''

Album of the Year

Adele, 21
The Hit Songwriter: ''This is a hard one. I voted for Adele again, but I tell you what I think: I think Kanye West was robbed. If he was on there, I would have voted for him without even looking at the other nominees. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the album of the year. It's a creative masterpiece. I would easily knock off Lady Gaga's album, or even Rihanna.''

Bruno Mars, Doo-Wops & Hooligans
The Pop Star: ''I think the people want Adele. And they should. She's a great antihero — rough-and-tumble overweight girl who got dumped and wrote a great record about it. It's inspiring. I'm just sick of it. Bruno's record is incredible, and he did a lot of it himself.''

Lady Gaga, Born This Way
The Country Star: ''The Rihanna album has enough producers on it so that if they all voted, Loud would probably win. [Laughs] I voted for Lady Gaga. It's really, really hard to be on your third record, like she is, and to be getting better. Within the arc of her career, it's really quite impressive.''

Song of the Year

''Grenade,'' Bruno Mars
The Hit Songwriter: ''I voted for 'Grenade.' I think it's the best written song of the year. I think 'Rolling in the Deep,' which is probably its biggest competition, is a big 'record.' That's why I voted for it for record of the year. Her momentum as an artist and her breakthrough as an artist make it record of the year. But word for word, melody for melody, clever thing for clever thing, I think 'Grenade' is the better song.''

''The Cave,'' Mumford and Sons
The Country Star: ''I voted 'The Cave,' but I think it will go to Bruno Mars' 'Grenade.' It's an awesome song, and I can imagine if they gave best record to Adele, they'd give this to him.''

''All of the Lights,'' Kanye West
The Pop Star: ''I would go Kanye West 'All of the Lights.' I think 'Rolling in the Deep' will win, although there is that pickup truck Midwest Mumford & Sons contingent. That is a moving song, and it's different. It's like Arcade Fire for adults. But 'All of the Lights,' the fanfare, all the vocal arrangements, the orchestration. I love that song.''

Best New Artist

Skrillex
The Pop Star: ''This is truly Skrillex's genesis. He got nominated for five Grammys with a genre he pretty much made popular. My friend said he's like the Tim Tebow of music, because he's winning and doing it his own way. I also dislike Nicki Minaj. What she's doing is very derivative of what a lot of other female pop stars are doing. Skrillex is doing it with his own strategy and his own way. When I look at Nicki Minaj, all I can hear are the conversations that her management and her label people are having beforehand. It's so calculated. I don't blame her. If I'm Nicki Minaj and trying to have a career and Lady Gaga comes out with this crazy gothic thing, and you're thinking, 'Oh no, I'm just me.' So then you feel like you have to show up at red carpet events with a wedge of cheese on your head looking like a cross between Rainbow Brite and somebody from Jesus Christ Superstar. You don't need to try so hard, and I see a lot of trying when I see her.''

Bon Iver
The Country Star: ''I'd really love to see Bon Iver win it. I'm thinking he will win it — the rest of the artists here aren't nominated for every single big category, like Bon Iver is.''

Band Perry
The Hit Songwriter: ''I'm going to be honest with you: I kind of don't get Bon Iver. I'm not on the bandwagon, and he's not my cup of tea. I voted for the Band Perry. I think that song ('If I Die Young') could have easily been nominated for song of the year or record of the year. It's incredible. And the lead singer wrote the whole thing himself. They're going to be around for a long time.''

Best Pop Solo Performance

''Grenade,'' Bruno Mars
The Hit Songwriter: ''I voted for 'Grenade' because this award is solely about the vocal performance. Bruno Mars sings that song better than any of the other people in this category sang their songs. Bruno has so many different musical inspirations that he draws from. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Billy Joel — who is my favorite artist of all time, by the way. Him and Michael Jackson. Because he had his hand in so many different kind of styles. It was rock, it was pop, it was jazz, it was blues. Bruno can do all that. He's the real deal.''

Adele, ''Someone Like You''
The Country Star: ''It'll be Adele, for sure.''

Adele, ''Someone Like You''
The Pop Star: ''This one I will go with Adele. While I think both 'Grenade' and [Katy Perry's] 'Firework' are incredible tracks, 'Someone Like You' is swimming upstream from what everybody else is doing, and it's an incredible performance. She got dumped, turned it into an album, and didn't have to talk about popping bottles or staying out all night. She did it at a time when bottle-popping music hit peak saturation. Her performance at the VMAs was so great. It was so different than everything else that happened that night.''

Best Pop Duo/Group

Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse
The Pop Star: ''I'm gonna go with Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse as my pick. That's probably going to take it. I don't mean to sound irreverent, but typically when a death lines up with these things, it tends to shine a little light on an artist. Amy Winehouse was really talented, but people are extra reflective about it right now. The only thing that will be tough for it is Foster the People's 'Pumped Up Kicks,' but that one got played just a little bit too much. And who doesn't love Tony Bennett?''

Foster the People
The Hit Songwriter: ''It's going to go to Tony Bennett because he's old and he's classic, and I get it — people are nostalgic. But 'Pumped Up Kicks' was innovative, it was different, it was cool. There was no other song that sounded like it this year, and they deserve it. That's my opinion. I voted for them.''

Foster the People
The Country Star: ''Foster the People will probably take it. That's such a cool song, and not since 'I Don't Like Mondays' have I heard a song about the tragedy of school shootings that's so well-crafted and popishly delivered. And honestly, I'm not sure everyone has heard that [Winehouse] song anyway.''

Best Rap Song

''All of the Lights,'' Kanye
The Hit Songwriter: ''No question. There's not even a debate. I've been in love with that song since before it came out. I walked back into my studio and told myself that I suck and need to get better, because that song was amazing.''

The Pop Star: ''I love this but on Kanye and Jay-Z's 'Otis.': It's messed up they said 'featuring Otis Redding,' unless they had a medium to ask his permission. But 'All of the Lights' is so great. It could be a Broadway number. I could see 'All of the Lights' as told by Cirque du Soleil. That hugeness is what I'm after, so that gets my vote.''

Best Rap Album

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West
The Pop Star: ''I'm gonna go back to Kanye on this one. He had a really tough job of having to follow up 808s & Heartbreak. And that first track, 'Can we get much higher?' There's a universal appeal to it. He has the best producers, obviously, and it's a very emotive record while still being very hard. He gloats, but at the same time Kanye is able to sound arrogant but also give you these little flashes of a very tormented, emotional, vulnerable person. As an artist, I think he really stepped it up.''

The Hit Songwriter: ''It's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Best album of the year. Here's the thing: A lot of albums, pop albums, big crossover albums, they've become patchworks. You get a song from here, a song from there, a song from this person and that person, and you get an album with three or four singles if you're lucky, and it does the job. Very few artists are working at creating masterpieces with the 50 minutes they have on an album. Kanye West is old school in that sense, because he's really intent on making a body of work. For that alone, he deserves to get nominated for album of the year, and he absolutely should win rap album of the year.''

Best Rock Song

''The Cave,'' Mumford and Sons
The Hit Songwriter: ''Coldplay might get it just because they're Coldplay, but as far as I'm concerned this was not a great album for them. Their last one was much, much better. Mumford and Sons deserve it for being creative and different and doing something against the grain. It's not typical rock. It's a rock song without having the typical big guitars. It's a different kind of song, but it's still a rock song.''

''Down by the Water,'' The Decemberists
The Country Star: ''The Decemberists have a case. But the people who decide that they should vote in this category, I don't know if they own Decemberists records.''

''Lotus Flower,'' Radiohead
The Pop Star: ''This is one of the categories I'm least versed in. I thought that Radiohead's 'Lotus Flower,' that whole record...I was an OK Computer/Kid A guy, and I kind of liked Amnesiac, but then I fell off the timeline with them. But I thought 'Lotus Flower' was a nice return for them. I grew up a huge Foo Fighters fan, but their sound has gone a little bit butt rock. That track 'Walk' is a little bit butt rocky to me. So I'm going to defer to Radiohead on this one.''

Best Alternative Album

Torches, Foster the People
The Hit Songwriter: ''They're up against a bunch of titans in there, so it's going to be hard. But I think if creativity wins, they'll get it. But if popularity wins, it'll be Radiohead or Bon Iver. I think the melodies on the Foster the People album are classic. They pretty it up with some cool effects and production, especially on 'pumped up kicks,' but at the core you have really strong songs. And the most clever thing is that it's so fun and so catchy that you don't realize how dark it is. It's about a killer with a gun. I can't remember the last time I heard a song that was that popular that talked about such a dark, serious topic. It's like when you listen to 'Billie Jean' and even now kids don't realize what ''Billie Jean'' is really about. It's so wrapped up in coolness that you don't realize how serious the topic is, and then you get to pick it apart.''

Codes & Keys, Death Cab for Cutie
The Pop Star: ''I'm going with Death Cab For Cutie's Codes & Keys. It's totally underrated. They're just not doing what anyone else is doing. I love Ben Gibbard's voice, and all the production in there is incredible. To call it alternative music is almost limiting, because the synthesis and the arrangements are excellent. I definitely think that they did something really special with this one. However, I think people will go with Bon Iver, just because that one was at f---ing Starbucks in line, and that's a really broad demographic that that hits.''

Best Rock Album

Wasting Light, Foo Fighters
The Country Star: ''Everybody in the Grammys loves the Chili Peppers. But I voted for Foo Fighters. It's interesting that there are so few rock bands these days that have a shot at winning this category. It makes me want to start a rock band. Not that I could do better, but because we need more screams and shouts.''

Best Country Album

Speak Now, Taylor Swift
The Hit Songwriter: ''I love her album. I think that's actually her best album. She's had big songs before, but this is a really mature piece of work. A close second would be Eric Church. I saw him live and he blew me away. I like that guy a lot. But Speak Now is undeniable.''

Own the Night, Lady Antebellum
The Country Star: ''I voted for Lady A, but Taylor will probably win, just because she's in here. Let's give her an award for filling up stadiums. I know Jason [Aldean] wants to win this, but he likely won't. He picks great songs, but it's getting old — you can't tell them apart anymore. So as an album, it's not worth it. Eric [Church] is too hot-headed. But Lady A has done a great job of being right down the middle. They're like the Black Eyed Peas of country music.''

Speak Now, Taylor Swift
The Pop Star: ''I would go with Taylor Swift. I just like her. I don't have anything more to say about it. I kind of want to watch her win and go crazy.''

Best Country Song

''Mean,'' Taylor Swift
The Country Star: ''You'll want to keep this as quiet as possible, but I voted for Taylor, even though I've always been suspicious of her. But props to her for writing a great song, man. It's no easy feat to write a great country song.''

Best Long Music Video

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
The Pop Star: ''I thought the Kings of Leon documentary was really cool because of how it pulled the curtain back. It was really unexpected and cool to be willing to show that side of their lives. However, [Michael] Rappaport directed the A Tribe Called Quest movie is way too cool, so I have to go with that one. I'm a big Q-Tip fan, and I think that the movie was a long time coming, and I love that Rappaport did it. He's a huge hip-hop fan, and he's kind of like the fourth Beastie Boy in a weird way. That's really cool that he took the time in his career to make a movie about something he's so passionate about. And it's so well informed and very cool.''

Foo Fighters: Back And Forth
The Country Star: ''The Foo Fighters one is just better, but the Kings of Leon one is the reason you should be looking at this section. But I think the Foo Fighters will win. As for the Beyoncé thing, it's nothing I haven't seen.''