DESC: Though music critics and aficionados love to pooh-pooh mass-marketed records, endlessly complaining about the lack of variety offered by major labels and commercial radio conglomerates, one listen to GRAMMY NOMINEES 2003 reveals a greater breadth and depth in the big time than most observers would care to admit. This fact is made strikingly clear by the first three tracks here; the album opens with songs by two piano-playing chanteuses (Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" and Norah Jones jazzy surprise hit "Don't Know Why") before jarring the listener with the neo-grunge of "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback. Other tracks range from the straight dance pop of Britney Spears and jam-band rock of Dave Matthews to the Dixie Chicks' bluegrass take on Fleetwood Mac and the smooth-as-single-malt plaint of sensitive urban folkie John Mayer. In the end, GRAMMY NOMINEES 2003 is far from a pointless exercise in marketing, but rather an excellent collection of 2002's best hit songs.