The live nominations show, which set the stage for the Jan. 31 awards night, generously recognized her and two other young women who had stellar years in the pop world: country-pop singer and songwriter Taylor Swift and New York pop provocateur Lady Gaga. The three combined for 23 nominations. All three showed up in the top Grammy categories of album, record and song.

Swift, whose “Fearless” is the top-selling album of 2009 to date, was recognized for her single “You Belong With Me” as record of the year, which awards vocal performance and production. Also nominated in that category are “Halo,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” and Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.”

In yet another year of sales decline for the record industry, voters relied more than ever on artists who still managed to score gold and platinum record sales. Top categories were largely focused on a few artists and albums, with the Black Eyed Peas, R&B singer Maxwell and rapper Kanye West collecting six each.

“Poker Face,” “You Belong With Me,” Beyoncé’s hit “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” and Maxwell’s single “Pretty Wings” got nominations for each of those songs’ writers.

In the album of the year competition, “Fearless” and “I Am . . . Sasha Fierce” are vying with the Peas’ “The E.N.D.,” Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” and, in perhaps the biggest surprise at the top, Dave Matthews Band’s “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.” U2, traditionally a favorite in the album field, had to settle for a rock album nomination for the Irish quartet’s latest, “No Line on the Horizon.”

And after several years in which British acts have figured prominently in top categories, Recording Academy voters went virtually all-American with this year’s key nominees.

Acts vying for the title of best new artist Southern rock group Zac Brown Band, Georgia R&B singer Keri Hilson, New York duo MGMT, L.A. indie rock group Silversun Pickups and British alt-pop duo the Ting Tings.

West, however, appeared in none of the most prestigious categories, collecting most of his nods for rap collaborations.

Still, he fared better than Eminem, whose “Relapse” brought him back into the pop world with an uneven but occasionally brilliant look at the wild swings of his life in the five years since his previous studio collection. He took three nominations, for rap solo, duo or group collaboration and rap album.

The night’s multiple nominations were especially sweet for Maxwell, whose last album came out in 2001.

“I’m just beyond,” he said backstage. “I’ve been gone for eight years. I’ve been throwing out my trash and buying my milk. . . . To come back and make a record based on my own living experience . . . and to have this kind of reception, I feel like I’ve already won.”

He also gave a shout-out to the album format, which many have predicted is on its way out in the iTunes-iPod age of downloaded singles.

“I wanted to bring back the idea that there was this thing that was a record, a body of work as opposed to three minutes of you shaking your butt on the dance floor somewhere,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell

Black Eyed Peas

Nominations were announced from Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. Awards will be announced Jan. 31 at Staples Center in a ceremony to be telecast on CBS. Awards are determined by more than 12,000 voting members of the Recording Academy from eligible recordings released between Oct. 1, 2008 and Aug. 31, 2009.