Well, folks, we’re in the thick of music award show season. The MTV Video Music awards kicked things off at the beginning of September, and the season concludes at the end of January with the Grammy Award ceremony. Smack dab in the middle, we have Dick Clark’s American Music Awards: an almost 40-year old institution that prides itself on being the people’s choice. Unlike the Grammy nominees, which are chosen by a “blue-ribbon” panel of music industry professionals, AMA nominees are chosen using hard sales and airplay data, and the winners are chosen by polling a sample of music fans across the nation. This explains why some artists who would never be considered Grammy favorites (Garth Brooks, New Kids on the Block, ‘Nsync) have amassed several of these shiny trophies while some Grammy favorites (U2, for example), have been a bit underrepresented at the AMAs. Quiet as kept, it’s also (allegedly) one of those shows where some, if not all, of the winners are notified of their fates prior to the telecast, completely taking away the element of surprise that makes many of these shows watchable.

This year, though, something tells me that the two ceremonies just might wind up with quite a bit in common. The leading nominees for the 2010 ceremony (scheduled to air in November) are Eminem and Lady Antebellum, who have five nods each. Of course, those two artists have the year’s biggest selling albums, with “Recovery” and “Need You Now”, respectively. Justin Bieber (who I’m assuming won’t be a Grammy favorite come December, when the nominations are announced) scored four nods, while Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Usher and B.O.B. all scored three nominations. A quick look through the nominations doesn’t reveal anything all that groundbreaking. Basically, the most popular artists in each field were nominated. There’s a minor surprise or two (like why Lady Antebellum is nominated in the “Breakthrough Artist” category when their first album was a platinum success), but everything here is pretty status quo..which does not bode well for the ceremony itself.

Ke$ha, Perry, Usher and Bon Jovi are among the artists who have already agreed to perform on the show, which means that I’ll be gritting my teeth while sitting through it when I live blog it! Let’s hope some performers who might add a little spice to the proceedings are added, otherwise we are gonna be sitting through one boring-ass show. Hell, last year’s show was bad enough, seeing as we had to sit through Adam Lambert’s desperate attempts at being controversial and Greasy Jermaine accepting awards on behalf of his late brother.

Full list of nominees after the jump…

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Justin Bieber
Eminem
Ke$ha
Lady Gaga
Katy Perry

BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST

B.o.B
Justin Bieber
Taio Cruz
Jason Derülo
Ke$ha
Lady Antebellum
Travie McCoy
Mike Posner

POP/ROCK

Favorite Male Artist

Justin Bieber
Eminem
Usher

Favorite Female Artist

Ke$ha
Lady Gaga
Katy Perry

Favorite Band, Duo or Group

The Black Eyed Peas
Lady Antebellum
Train

Favorite Album

Justin Bieber, “My World 2.0”
Eminem, “Recovery”
Katy Perry, “Teenage Dream”

COUNTRY

Favorite Male Artist

Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Brad Paisley

Favorite Female Artist

Miranda Lambert
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood

Favorite Band, Duo or Group

Zac Brown Band
Lady Antebellum
Rascal Flatts

Favorite Album

Jason Aldean, “Wide Open”
Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”
Carrie Underwood, “Play On”

RAP/HIP-HOP

Favorite Male Artist

B.o.B.
Drake
Eminem

Favorite Album

B.o.B., “B.o.B. Presents”
Drake, “Thank Me Later”
Eminem, “Recovery”

SOUL/R&B

Favorite Male Artist

Chris Brown
Trey Songz
Usher

Favorite Female Artist

Alicia Keys
Rihanna
Sade

Favorite Album

Alicia Keys, “The Element of Freedom”
Sade, “Soldier of Love”
Usher, “Raymond v. Raymond”

ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Favorite Artist

Muse
Phoenix
Vampire Weekend
SOUNDTRACK

Favorite Album

AC/DC, “Iron Man 2”
“Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers”
“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”

ADULT CONTEMPORARY

Favorite Artist

Michael Bublé
Lady Antebellum
Train

LATIN

Favorite Artist

Daddy Yankee
Enrique Iglesias
Shakira

CONTEMPORARY INSPIRATIONAL

Favorite Artist

Casting Crowns

MercyMe

TobyMac