Grammy award nominations came out Dec. 6 and the list of nominees is less than impressive.

Over the years the Grammys have lost sparkle. The once sought-after award has become a shadow of its former self.

It used to be that it was an honor to be the recipient of a Grammy award — even just be nominated. It was high praise and recognition from the Recording Academy. Now, something has been lost.

The official Grammy website describes its members as “professionals with creative or technical credits on at least six commercially released tracks.” “Creative” and “technical” are apparently subjective.

These “professionals,” year after year, gravitate to the catchiest songs on the radio. They continually ignore the real quality music that is there. Maybe it doesn’t move enough units.

There were some expected nominations this year. Beyoncé is nominated in nine categories for her visual album “Lemonade.” No surprise there.

What is surprising is how she managed to be nominated in three different genres, alongside the late David Bowie, who was nominated for his last album, “Blackstar,” which one could argue deserves a Best Album nomination instead of just a Best Alternative Music Album.

Omitted from the award ceremony was the late singer Juan Gabriel, whose album scored three awards in the past Latin Grammys but received no nomination in the Latin Pop Album category this time.

The new thing is to nominate songs made popular by YouTube Vines like Desiigner’s Panda, which scored Best Rap Performance! It is almost embarrassing but I won’t be surprised when they nominate the Mannequin Challenge song next year.

In the end, award shows are all about attracting an audience. So what does the current state of the Grammys say about what’s become of our collective taste?

I will be interested to watch what Kanye’s reaction will be this year if he doesn’t win one of his eight nominations.