Grammy Awards preview

The music industry has changed drastically over the past decade with declining album sales and downloads forever altering the way music is distributed. With the business changing that much in 10 years, one constant has been there the whole decade. Female performers are the big winners at Grammy time - almost every year.

In the last 10 years, female performers have routinely won the most awards in a single night - and this year can continue that trend. At the Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday, January 31st, Beyonce (with 10 nominations) and Taylor Swift (with eight) both have a chance to break or tie the record for the most number of wins by a female solo artist in one year and Lady GaGa (five nods) can tie it.

After Steely Dan won three awards in 2001, female singers have won five Grammys in one night five times since - each one tying the record that Lauryn Hill set in 1999 - and one all-woman group also has won five. Alicia Keys was the first to win five in 2002, followed by Norah Jones in 2003, Beyonce in 2004, The Dixie Chicks in 2007, Amy Winehouse in 2008 and Alison Krauss (with Robert Plant) last year. Along the way, other women have won major or multiple awards including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Mariah Carey while Jones won more after her five-award night and Krauss continues to add to her record number of Grammys (26).

Beyonce leads the group this year with 10 overall nominations, including for Record of the Year (the song 'Halo'), Album of the Year ("I Am....Sasha Fierce") and multiple nominations for the song 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)', the catchy dance number with "one of the best videos of all time," according to Kanye West at the Video Music Awards Beyonce's 10 nominations punctuate a very successful year for her, which started with the release of her album in late 2008. After it's release, she sang at President Obama's inauguration; starred in the successful movie 'Obsessed' and won several VMA's for the Single Ladies video, during which she pulled Swift onstage and backed away so the young country singer could have her moment back, after West interrupted it the previous time. Shortly after the VMA's, a video surfaced on youtube of her personally singing the song 'Halo' in a concert to a cancer-stricken girl in Australia whom she had pulled up on stage. She then followed those events with the second-highest number of Grammy nominations in one year and has the chance break or tie several Grammy records.

Swift has been on a roll this year also and has had crossover success with her album 'Fearless.' The 19-year-old country singer has reached a zenith after winning multiple VMA's late last year and then dominating the recent American Music Awards, taking home five awards including Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Artist of the Year, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Country Album and Favorite Country Female Artist. At the AMA's, Swift even topped Michael Jackson for Artist of the Year.

Even with one Grammy this year, Swift would tie several other singers for the second-youngest woman to win an award. She is nominated in a wide array of categories, including for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, (the single "You Belong to Me"), Best Female Country Performance ("White Horse) and Album of the Year ("Fearless"), to name a few.

The other female multiple-nominee is another rising star - Lady GaGa, who is known as much for her outlandish and eccentric costumes as she is for her music. GaGa - who took her stage name from a Queen hit song - mixes piano playing with dance beats and soaring vocals, but it's her image gets peoples' attention the most. Her costumes are frequently eccentric and sometimes have props attached to them, while she accessorizes with large sunglasses and platinum blond hair. Her dance song 'Poker Face' is nominated several times this year, including for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Dance Recording and her album 'The Fame' is nominated for Album of the Year. Her videos are equally as outlandish and visually stunning as she is. The phenomenal video for the song 'Bad Romance' - which was released too late for a nomination this year - is on youtube and will most certainly start collecting awards as soon as the next cycle starts for 2011.

Two male performers have a chance to steal the show from the women, because Kanye West and Maxwell earned six nods apiece and could win more times than any of the three ladies. R&B/dance group The Black Eyed Peas ("I Gotta Feeling") and rock band Kings of Leon ("Use Somebody") fill out Record of the Year category and Dave Mathews Band is nominated for Album of the Year.

Other nominees include rapper Jay-Z, who got five nods, as well as Keith Urban, Bruce Springsteen and T-Pain who all earned four in several categories. Willie Nelson, Johnny Depp, former President Jimmy Carter and 80's duo Daryl Hall and John Oates also got nominations.

Two of the more interesting categories to watch will be Best New Artist - with country band Zac Brown Band, pop group MGMT, alternative band Silversun Pickups and The Ting Tings battling it out as well as the category of Best Solo Rock Performance, where the nominees are Springsteen, Neil Young, John Fogerty, Bob Dylan and Prince

The Grammy Awards will be on CBS on Sunday the 31st at 8pm.