The 2024 Grammy Awards will feature three new categories recognizing Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording, the Recording Academy announced. Two pre-existing categories, Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical, will also be moved to the general field so that all Grammy voters will be able to vote on these non-genre-specific categories.
“The Recording Academy is proud to announce these latest Category changes to our Awards process,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said. “These changes reflect our commitment to actively listen and respond to the feedback from our music community, accurately represent a diverse range of relevant musical genres, and stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape.
“By introducing these three new categories, we are able to acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists—and relocating the Producer Of the Year and Songwriter Of The Year categories to the General Field ensures that all our voters can participate in recognizing excellence in these fields,” Mason continued. “We are excited to honor and celebrate the creators and recordings in these categories, while also exposing a wider range of music to fans worldwide.”
The Recording Academy provided specific criteria defining each new category, including geographical and stylistic features as follows.
Best African Music Performance is “a track and singles category that recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent.” The category is defined more by place than by style, but the Academy noted that contenders should highlight “regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical traditions.” Such traditions include but are not limited to Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afro-Pop, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip-Hop, and Ethio Jazz genres.
Related: How The Grammys Encourage Musical Innovation (But Only For The Winners)
The Best Pop Dance Recording category, unlike Best African Music Performance, is defined by the stylistic features of the song. Contenders should “feature up-tempo, danceable music that follows a pop arrangement … strong rhythmic beats and significant electronic-based instruments with an emphasis on the vocal performance, melody, and hooks.” The description also notes that “dance remixes are eligible in the Best Remixed Recording Category only and may not be entered in Best Pop Dance Recording.”
Finally, Best Alternative Jazz Album “recognizes artistic excellence in Alternative Jazz albums by individuals, duos and groups/ensembles, with or without vocals.” What is alternative jazz, one wonders. According to the Recording Academy’s definition, it may be defined as “a genre-blending, envelope-pushing hybrid that mixes jazz (improvisation, interaction, harmony, rhythm, arrangements, composition, and style) with other genres, including R&B, Hip-Hop, Classical, Contemporary Improvisation, Experimental, Pop, Rap, Electronic/Dance music, and/or Spoken Word. It may also include the contemporary production techniques/instrumentation associated with other genres.”
Notably absent from the list of associated genres are rock and funk (though the Academy includes most funk in the R&B or jazz category). It seems unlikely then that improvisational rock and funk acts will be accepted as alternative jazz; they’ll just have to wait for the jam band category.
For more on the changes to the 2024 Grammy Awards, head here.
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