The Grammys' Boys' Club

Hip-hop and R&B dominate the Album of the Year and Record of the Year categories, with recordings by Childish Gambino, Jay-Z,

Kendrick Lamar

and

Bruno Mars

up for the award in both. (Lorde’s pop “Melodrama” is the fifth nominee in the album grouping, while

Luis Fonsi

and Daddy Yankee’s reggaeton-influenced “Despacito” is the remaining nominee in the record class.) There are no rock records or artists up for Song of the Year, which celebrates composers, or Best New Artist either.

As for the other trend: Women are underrepresented throughout the list of potential Grammy winners. Along with

Khalid

and

Lil Uzi Vert,

the Best New Artist nominees are

Alessia Cara,

Julia Michaels

and

SZA,

thus making it the only majority-female grouping in the so-called big four categories. The featured nominees in Best Americana Album and Best Traditional Blues Album classes are all male. In the Dance/Electronic grouping, no women are nominated either, which may not be a surprise given the relative paucity of female DJs and producers among the genre’s most highly touted creative spinners. No groups led by women are among the nominees in the Best Contemporary Instrumental, Best Jazz Instrumental, Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Contemporary Christian Music album categories. There is no Grammy category comprised entirely of women.

Perhaps one reason rock appears to be lagging in its commercial appeal is how poorly it’s presented by the Recording Academy. The four rock categories are a logic-defying mess. For example, the exquisite composer

Leonard Cohen,

who died in November 2016, is nominated for Best Rock Performance for his song “You Want It Darker,” the overwrought title track of his fine final album. However, no Cohen composition is up for Best Rock Song, unlike raging mediocrities performed by Avenged Sevenfold, Foo Fighters, K.Flay, Metallica and Nothing More. Best Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance are separate categories, but the Best Rock Album nominees include metal’s Mastodon and Metallica, metal-influenced Nothing More and Queens of the Stone Age, and a straight-ahead rock disc by the War on Drugs. (Not one of those bands currently counts a woman as a member.) Though absent groups led by women, the nominees for Best Alternative Music Album provide a better representation of what’s happening on the rock side of pop: “Everything Now” by Arcade Fire, “Humanz” by Gorillaz, “American Dream” by LCD Soundsystem, “Pure Comedy” by

Father John Misty

and “Sleep Well Beast” by the National.

This year, as in many past, some of the most notable recordings are nominated in some of the least celebrated categories. Way down the list in Category 51 is the Best Folk Album grouping, which features the superior recordings “Mental Illness” by

Aimee Mann

; “Semper Femina” by

Laura Marling

; “The Queen of Hearts” by Offa Rex, an often-rousing collaboration between

Olivia Chaney

and the Decemberists; “You Don’t Own Me Anymore” by the Secret Sisters; and “The Laughing Apple” by

Yusuf

aka Cat Stevens.

Despite its gender bias, the Best Dance/Electronic Album grouping comprises recordings that mostly avoid EDM’s fervor for formula; the nominees are “Migration” by Bonobo, the self-titled full-length debut by Mura Masa, “A Moment Apart” by Odesza, “What Now” by Sylvan Esso and the outlier, “3-D The Catalogue” by Kraftwerk, which is a collection of 69 live tracks culled from concerts performed between 2012 and 2016.

The Grammys give scant attention to indigenous musicians who reflect their culture. The five nominees for Best Regional Roots Music Album—a crazy quilt of a category—include one disc each of Cajun, Hawaiian, Native American and zydeco music along with

Josh Tatofi’s

stirring “Pua Kiele,” which might be called Polynesian soul. Similarly, the Best World Music Album category omits artists from most of the globe: This year, the nominated artists include two from Spain, one each from South Africa and Mali, and the collaboration between

Anat Cohen,

a New York-based clarinet and saxophone player, and the Brazilian group Trio Brasileiro.

It’s long past the time when the Grammy nominees could be considered a compendium of the best in contemporary music, even if the Academy acknowledges some exemplary records. Nevertheless, for its annual and much-ballyhooed celebration that’s build in large part on mirroring industry trends, the Academy has to do more to recognize the impact and artistry of women in rock and pop.

Mr. Fusilli is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com and follow him on Twitter @wsjrock.