2012 Grammy nominations: Adele, Kanye West, Bruno Mars, Foo Fighters lead the musical pack

Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Bon Iver also up for nominations at music awards show

Kanye West and Rihanna both scored Grammy nominations.

In hard numbers, Kanye West earned the most nominations for this year’s Grammys (a whopping 7).

But in the categories that count — Album, Song and Record of the Year — it’s two other stars who have a chance to sweep.

To the surprise of no one, the year’s biggest selling artist, Adele, bagged nods in all the top slots: Song and Record for her smash “Rolling In The Deep,” and Album for her second CD, “21.”

The British singer earned six nods in all.

PHOTOS: SEE WHO WAS NOMINATED FOR THE MAJOR AWARDS

She’ll go head to head with a less obvious, or favored, candidate: Bruno Mars, who tied her tally with six bids, including the Record and Song slots for “Grenade,” and Album for his debut, “Doo-Wops and Hooligans.”

Both stars represent a resurgence of pure singing chops in an age of theatrics and gimmickry.

The Foo Fighters — seen by many as the last popular gasp for respected rock — also got six nods (though just one in a top category: Album of the Year).

Rapper Lil Wayne and the dance music producer Skrillex, each got five, all in lesser genre slots. Similarly, West’s large tally includes just one in a major category: Song of the Year for “All Of The Lights,” from his album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”

Lady Gaga, a star expected to have as high a profile as Adele, only has one chance to compete in a pivotal slot: Album for “Born This Way.”

Adele bagged six Grammy nominations total.

Other artists vying for the most prized awards include the neo-folk act Mumford & Songs, whose “The Cave” is up for Record and Song of the year, Katy Perry, with a bid in the Record slot for “Firework,” Rihanna, who’s in Album contention for “Loud,” and this year’s left-field choice, Bon Iver, nominated for both Record and Song with “Holocene.”

Bon Iver, this year’s token hipster group, also has a shot as Best New Artist (though it’s for their second CD). In that lusted-after category, they’ll square off against country’s The Band Perry, dance king Skrillex, rapper-singer J. Cole and the odds-on favorite to win — sight gag and New Yorker Nicki Minaj. The most glaring oversight in this category was breakout alterna-band Foster The People.

This year’s Grammys has earned considerable controversy for hacking down its list of over 100 categories to feature just 78, at the expense of many Latin artists.

An on-going protest about that will surely continue when the awards are handed out, Feb. 12, 2012 on CBS.

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