Changes are coming to the 63rd Grammy Awards, The Recording Academy announced on Wednesday.
The changes, which will take effect immediately, and includes most noticeably the absence of the word “urban” in two of the award show’s categories.
Best Urban Contemporary Album has been renamed Best Progressive R&B Album, “to appropriately categorize and describe this subgenre” and be more inclusive of R&B works that contain “more progressive sounds such as samples, elements of hip hop, rap, dance, and electronic music.”
The Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album has been renamed to Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album with the changes intended to “migrate the genres of Latin urban and represent the current state and prominent representation in the Latin urban genres.”
In the statement put out by the Recording Academy, the changes are an “ongoing commitment to evolve with the musical landscape and to ensure that the Grammy Awards nominating process and rules are more transparent and fair.”
It seems like the changes have come amid a time when there is a renewed focus on race in America. The country is in a state of upheaval over the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer; however, these specific changes have been in the works for a while and were voted on last month.
Interim President and CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told Variety, “the time frame of our process is that proposals are turned in by March, they’re discussed in May, and now we’re talking about them publicly, so these are things that have been in the works for six months.”
“A lot of creators and people in that genre didn’t like that description and felt it pigeonholed certain styles of music, so when our constituents brought that to us in the form of a proposal, we listened and voted to approve,” Mason said.
The term “urban,” an exclusionary term, is seen as a way to group black artists in the music industry, has been a hot button topic as of late. On Friday, Republic Records announced that it will no longer use the term “urban” anywhere in the company. Warner Music Group and iHeart Media also have plans to stop using the term.
