Grammy Awards Drop 'Urban' From Three Award Categories

The Grammy Awards have decided to drop the word “Urban” from three of its award categories.

The change was implemented just after racial injustice protests erupted all over the world.

According to Variety, the changes include “updates to the Best New Artist category, Latin, R&B and Rap Fields.”

Interim president and CEO Harvey Mason Jr. shared in a statement that the move is part of an effort that will be a “new chapter in our history. We’re listening to and learning from our partners and constituents and stakeholders; we’re trying to make sure we’re able to pivot and change and adapt; and we want to be really inclusive.”

Here are the official changes to the categories:

• Best Urban Contemporary Album Category to Best Progressive R&B Album
• Best Rap/Sung Performance Category to Best Melodic Rap Performance
• Latin Pop Album to Latin Pop Or Urban Album and Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative to Latin Rock Or Alternative

“It’s something we’ve been discussing for a couple of years, and the term has been a hot button for a while,” Mason adds. “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, as asked by the people in that community.”

Click inside for the official definitions of the newly renamed categories…

Best Urban Contemporary Album Category — Renamed and Redefined
Best Urban Contemporary Album has been renamed Best Progressive R&B Album to appropriately categorize and describe this subgenre. This change includes a more accurate definition to describe the merit or characteristics of music compositions or performances themselves within the genre of R&B.

Best Progressive R&B Album
This category is intended to highlight albums that include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music. It may also incorporate production elements found in pop, euro-pop, country, rock, folk, and alternative.

Best Rap/Sung Performance Category — Renamed and Redefined
Best Rap/Sung Performance has been renamed Best Melodic Rap Performance to represent the inclusivity of the growing hybrid performance trends within the rap genre. The expanded category is defined as follows:

Best Melodic Rap Performance
This category is intended to recognize solo and collaborative performances containing elements of rap and melody over modern production. This performance requires a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence, and is inclusive of dialects, lyrics or performance elements from non-rap genres including R&B, rock, country, electronic or more. The production may include traditional elements of rap or elements characteristic of the aforementioned non-rap genres.

Latin Field: Placement of Latin Urban Recordings — Reclassify
Latin Pop Album has been renamed Latin Pop Or Urban Album and Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative has been renamed Latin Rock Or Alternative to migrate the genres of Latin urban and represent the current state and prominent representation in the Latin urban genres.

Latin Pop Or Urban Album
This category is intended to recognize excellence in Latin pop or urban music recordings that utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of Latin pop music style and culture. The category includes recordings from balladeers and commercial Latin music and is not limited to any one region.

Latin Rock Or Alterative Album
This category is intended to highlight Latin rock or alternative music recordings that utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of the Latin music style and culture.

Best New Artist — Eligibility
There is no longer a specified maximum number of releases prohibiting artists from entering the Best New Artist category. As such, the screening committees will be charged with determining whether the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence prior to the eligibility year. Such a determination would result in disqualification.

*Nominations Review Committees — Addressing Potential Conflicts of Interest
At the time of invitation to participate on a Nominations Review Committee, a conflict of interest disclosure form will be provided. Each person invited to be a member of such a committee must disclose to the best of their knowledge whether, in connection with any recording that may be entered in the current year’s GRAMMY Awards process, (a) the person would be in line to receive a GRAMMY nomination or win for any recordings being considered in a particular category, (b) the person would have any direct or indirect financial ties to the recordings or creators under consideration, (c) the person has immediate familial ties to any of the artists in the top voter selections, and/or (d) any other conflict of interest, actual or perceived. If a recording listed by the invitee presents a conflict of interest, the Academy will notify the committee member that they cannot participate on the committee that year. If, in the unlikely event that, despite these pro-active efforts a conflict is discovered during the committee meeting, that person will be notified and recused from the meeting. Failure to voluntarily disclose any conflict of interest will result in the person being barred from future Nominations Review Committee participation.