The past year gave us both ends of the spectrum as a legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band and an artist brand new to pop-punk ruled the rock charts. That represented as AC/DC and Machine Gun Kelly both received multiple nominations for the the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.

The chart-based magazine revealed the nominees across the board in all genres, but AC/DC and Machine Gun Kelly are leading the rock pack based off their 2020 works.

AC/DC, who released their Power Up album last November, received nominations in the Top Duo/Group category, while also earning recognition for Top Rock Artist and Top Rock Album. Machine Gun Kelly, who worked closely with Blink-182's Travis Barker on September 2020's Tickets to My Downfall record, is up for Top Rock Artist, Top Rock Album and Top Rock Song with the latter coming for his collaboration with Blackbear on "My Ex's Best Friend."

AC/DC are the primary rock representation in the Top Duo/Group category where they'll face competition from alt-rockers AJR, pop boy band BTS, country superstars Dan + Shay and pop rockers Maroon 5.

AC/DC, Kelly and AJR are back again for Top Rock Artist with Five Finger Death Punch and Twenty One Pilots completing the category. AC/DC and MGK face competition from Miley Cyrus' Plastic Hearts, Glass Animals' Dreamland and Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You for Top Rock Album.

Machine Gun Kelly is up against AJR ("Bang!") and Glass Animals ("Heat Waves") as well as All Time Low featuring Blackbear ("Monsters") and Twenty One Pilots ("Level of Concern") for Top Rock Song. All the rock related nominees can be viewed below.

The Weeknd leads all artists with nominations in 16 categories followed by Da Baby with 11 nods. The full list of nominees can be found here.

The 2021 Billboard Music Awards will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles May 23 at 8PM ET/ 5PM PT on NBC. This year’s awards are based on the chart period of March 21, 2020 through April 3, 2021.

Top Duo/Group
AC/DC
AJR
BTS
Dan + Shay
Maroon 5

Top Rock Artist
AC/DC
AJR
Five Finger Death Punch
Machine Gun Kelly
twenty one pilots

Top Rock Album
AC/DC, Power Up
Miley Cyrus, Plastic Hearts
Glass Animals, Dreamland
Machine Gun Kelly, Tickets to My Downfall
Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You

Top Rock Song
AJR, “Bang!”
All Time Low ft. blackbear, “Monsters”
Glass Animals, “Heat Waves”
Machine Gun Kelly ft. blackbear, “my ex’s best friend”
twenty one pilots, “Level of Concern”

70 Best Rock + Metal Albums of 2020

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