The Recording Academy is continuing what they call the “continuing evolution” of the Grammy Awards with changes in three categories.
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Two years ago, the organization made major waves in the industry with a long list of changes to existing categories that saw many areas condensed and elicited protests from multiple genres. Those changes have stuck while three new changes are being implemented “to ensure the Awards process remains representative of the current musical landscape.”
The Americana and Roots music surge is being recognized with the addition of the Best American Roots Song. “A songwriter’s award, it will encompass all of the subgenres of the Field (Americana, bluegrass, blues, folk, regional roots music), and puts the Field in line with the Rock, Rap, R&B, Country, and Gospel/CCM Fields, all of which have songwriters’ awards.”
The Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category, often the brunt of jokes with winners being named that didn’t fit the name, is being reconfigured as the Best Metal Performance. The hard rock nominees will now be considered with the others in rock. “It was determined that metal has a very distinctive sound, and hard rock more closely aligns with rock and can exist comfortably as one end of the rock spectrum. Additionally, based on the number of metal entries, the category would be able to sustain a healthy competition among true metal acts.”
The entire video field has been renamed to Music Video/Film with Best Short Form Music Video becoming Best Music Video and Best Long Form Music Video to Best Music Film. Best Music Video is for the official videos for a specific song or track that has been released to television or online. The Music Film is for concert or documentary movies that contain at least 51% music based material.
