The Recording Academy, Grammys’ umbrella organisation has announced new rules and guidelines for the Grammy Awards; amid protests over racial injustice.
Over the past few days, talks about racism have dominated the media space prompting the music industry to come under renewed scrutiny, including from within.
The new changes include the often-debated best new artiste title, and having nomination review committee members sign disclosure forms; to prevent conflicts of interest.
The new rules as announced on Wednesday by The Recording Academy will affect the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, which will air live on Jan. 31, 2021.
The best new artiste award has been criticised for decades, and the academy has tried to evolve with the ever-changing music industry by continually updating the category’s rules. In recent years, the award has been scrutinized because the academy placed a song and album limit, disqualifying certain performers.
But the new rules say, “there is no longer a specified maximum number of releases prohibiting artists from entering” the category.
The change will benefit younger artists, specifically rappers, who tend to release many singles; and therefore did not qualify in recent years because they surpassed the 30-song limit.
Whitney Houston and Lady Gaga, had missed out on being the best new artist nominees; because of the category’s rules in the years they marked their breakthroughs.
Grammys address conflict of interest
The academy also said musicians invited to participate in a nomination review committee — in place to safeguard a specific genre’s integrity and to serve as additional checks and balances — will have to agree to the terms of a conflict of interest disclosure form.
Committee participants will have to reveal if they would benefit from an artist’s nomination for that category, whether the ties are financial, familial, or creative.
If a conflict is discovered, that person would not be allowed to sit on that committee that year. Some of the new changes could be a response to Deborah Dugan, former Recording Academy CEO.
Dugan was fired only months into her job and days before the 2020 Grammys, held in January. She had said the awards show was rigged and muddled with conflicts of interest.
Questions have loomed for years around the nominations process for the Grammys; but the doubts reached a new level following Dugan’s comments.
Henceforth, the Best Urban Contemporary Album category will be called Best Progressive R&B album. The use of the word urban has been criticized for being inappropriate and a synonym for black music.
The term urban will remain in the Grammys, however, with the Latin Pop album category being changed to Latin Pop; or Urban Album.
The Latin, Rock Urban or Alternative category has been renamed to Latin Rock or Alternative. Similarly the Best Rap/Sung Performance category has been renamed to Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Additionally the Best New Artiste will no longer prevent musicians from entering the category due to having released more than 30 singles or tracks.
