Last night’s Grammy Awards were as boring as ever and proved one thing: the music industry’s premier awards show will always get something wrong. Just look at the four major categories, which you probably could have pegged before the show if only because the winners were among the most commercially popular. Best Album went to Mumford & Sons’ “Babel,” Song of the Year to fun. for “We Are Young,” Record of the Year to Gotye and Kimbra for “Somebody I Used to Know,” and Best New Artist to, again, fun. Yeah, you’ve probably heard of these songs and artists, unless you’ve spent the last year avoiding the radio and television. Watch video wrap-up: 

But for people who pay attention to music, it’s hard to argue that any of these winners really represent the top of their category. Maybe we’re being snooty here, but here are four examples from recent memory where the Grammys completely missed the mark.

Album of the Year

Year: 2013

Winner: Mumford & Sons, “Babel”

Who Should Have Won: It could’ve gone to either Frank Ocean’s “Channel Orange” or The Black Keys’ “El Camino,” but instead it went to a pleasant sounding album that seems to lack anything resembling genuine feeling. Yeah, M&S have become mega-successful, but how many college students will be revisiting them in their freshman dorm room 25 years from now?

Song of the Year

Year: 1989

Winner: Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry Be Happy”

Who Should Have Won: Anita Baker’s “Giving You the Best That I Got,” maybe? This is a historically dismal category – most of the songs that have won this award are forgettable, as are the majority of the nominees. How was Prince never nominated? How did a hip-hop song not get nominated until 2004? Of all the awards, this one has the longest run of getting it wrong.

Record of the Year

Year: 2009

Winner: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, “Please Read the Letter”

Who Should Have Won: “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. Of course, it was a miracle that an artist as forward-thinking and provocative as M.I.A was nominated in the first place, but the fact that it was beat by such middle-brow, Starbucks-soundtrack garbage makes the loss a little more painful. M.I.A totally stole the show, though, getting up on stage at nine months pregnant to perform a medley featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Lil’ Wayne.

Best New Artist

Year: 1990

Winner: Milli Vanilli

Who Should Have Won: Well, this is a special occurrence, because it’s hard to say that anyone really deserved it that year (though it would’ve been cool if Tone Lōc had won a Grammy). In the end, Milli Vanilli’s award was infamously revoked when it was discovered that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were not actually singing on the album. There’s probably no better example of the pointlessness of the awards event than this depressing bit of Grammy history.