After 53 years of existence, the Grammy Awards are going through a major and radical makeover for the first time ever. The Recording Academy announced Wednesday, April 6th, that it is cutting off more than 30 categories for next year’s show. This means less golden men for less artists in a more competitive show. From 109 categories only 78 are kept. From those 31 categories eliminated, five categories got the bump in the American Roots Music field, among which the Zydeco and Cajun Music category. From now on, the artists from this category, who want to grab their own Grammy Award, will be included in the Grammy’s Best Regional Roots Album category.
“I’m broken-hearted,” said Chubby Carrier, the most recent local musician who took home a Grammy figurine. “I just got the news. It’s very sad, with all this time and effort that they put into making this happen, to be voted out.”

But they’re not the only ones to be included in this catch-all category. After seven years as an official, the Best Hawaiian Music Album award and best Native American Music Album award are going away. The same thing happened to the country, jazz, gospel, Latin, world and classical genres categories.

Furthermore, this housecleaning will make male and female artists no longer compete separately. To be more specific, both male and female pop, country and R&B artists will enter into rivalry in their genres for the first time in recent memory instead of racing for their own trophies. There will be a single Best Pop Solo Performance category; and the Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals will be turned into Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
And, in order to compensate this change, the Recording Academy raised the minimum required number of eligible recordings in a category from 25 to 40. Thus, if only 25 to 39 entries are considered for a certain award, only three recordings will be nominated and if there are fewer than 25 entries, that category will be omitted for a year.

“Every year, we diligently examine our awards structure to develop an overall guiding vision and ensure that it remains a balanced and viable process,” said Recording Academy President/CEO Bill Portnow in a press release. “After careful and extensive review and analysis of all categories and fields, it was objectively determined that our Grammy categories be restructured to the continued competition and prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music. Our Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its dedication to keeping The Recording Academy a pertinent and responsive organization in our dynamic music community.”

But are these changes wise? There will be no more Best Rock Instrumental Performance and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, no more Best Urban/Alternative Performance and Best Contemporary R&B Album. However, Record, Album and Song of the Year and Best New Artist remain the same.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 11th, 2011 at 12:20 am and is filed under News.