'Category fraud' is a perennial Oscar problem. Why the Grammys could be next

Leave it to Beyoncé to signifier the Grammy Awards successful a twelvemonth erstwhile she’s not adjacent connected the ballot.

With 35 trophies to her name, the popular superstar is the winningest creator successful the astir seven-decade past of music’s astir prestigious awards show; with 99 nods, she’s the most-nominated enactment of each clip too.

Yet contempt her dependable beingness implicit the past quarter-century astatine pop’s originative vanguard, it took the vocalist until this past February to yet triumph the Recording Academy’s apical prize, medium of the year, with “Cowboy Carter” — a long-overdue triumph that prompted countless deliberation pieces astir the academy’s fraught narration with race, sex and genre.

In summation to taking the medium award, “Cowboy Carter” — Beyoncé’s thorny and audacious exploration of the Black roots of state euphony — besides won for state medium astatine the 67th Grammys, which made her the archetypal Black pistillate ever to triumph successful that category.

The archetypal — and present the last.

In June, the academy announced that, starting with the 68th Grammys, it would divided the state medium grant into two: 1 prize for modern state medium and different for accepted state album.

Some observers wondered whether the enactment was bowing to complaints from Nashville insiders — complaints I’ve heard firsthand — that Beyoncé’s openly experimental enactment had nary concern beating LPs by manufacture standard-bearers specified arsenic Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson. (Beyoncé’s instantly memed surprise-face erstwhile her sanction was called suggested she could envision the griping to come.)

The much generous work of the academy’s determination is that the enlargement allows it to admit much large music, peculiarly by making country for state traditionalists who mightiness different beryllium crowded retired by higher-profile, much pop-leaning acts. Indeed, the Grammys ballot has agelong featured abstracted categories for accepted blues and modern blues and for R&B of the accepted and progressive persuasions.

“The assemblage of radical that are making state euphony successful each antithetic subgenres came to america with a connection and said … we request much abstraction for our euphony to beryllium celebrated and honored,” Recording Academy Chief Executive Harvey Mason Jr. told Billboard successful June.

Yet the caller state awards — which bring the ballot to a full of 95 categories — travel astatine a clip erstwhile the Grammys look progressively game-able by artists looking for a competitory borderline successful each the stylistic slicing and dicing.

Take the Baltimore set Turnstile, a arrogant merchandise of that city’s hardcore punk country with 5 nominations for February’s ceremonial including stone performance, metallic show and alternate euphony performance. Or instrumentality SZA, whose 5 nods enactment her successful the pop, accepted R&B and melodic rap categories.

Each of those nominations recognizes a antithetic song, and there’s nary doubting that Turnstile and SZA some marque euphony that spans a assortment of genres, adjacent connected a azygous LP similar the former’s sprawling “Never Enough,” which by the mode is up for stone album. But by flooding the portion with submissions — astatine the Grammys, a fixed enactment decides however to categorize its music, albeit with immoderate oversight from the academy — they intelligibly boosted their chances of being nominated.

You tin accidental the aforesaid for Tyler, the Creator, who steered his “Don’t Tap the Glass” toward a motion for alternate euphony medium — 1 mode to debar splitting votes with himself for the rap medium award, for which he’s nominated with his different eligible LP, “Chromakopia.”

Some instances of what we mightiness telephone class creep look motivated by a strategical appraisal of the competition. Would Elton John and Brandi Carlile person scored a information with their associated “Who Believes successful Angels?” for a popular vocal medium prize besides sought by Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga? Maybe, possibly not.

But traditional popular vocal album? Well, determination they are connected the ballot. (Curiously, Justin Bieber opted to taxable the R&B-steeped “Swag” successful popular vocal medium aft publically complaining that his 2020 “Changes” was nominated for that prize alternatively of R&B album.)

Then determination are the caller state awards. Given the genre’s analyzable taste past — not to notation the speech successful governmental circles astir alleged practice Americans — it’s casual to beryllium suspicious of the radical coding of words similar “traditional” and “contemporary,” particularly arsenic deployed successful the aftermath of the occurrence of “Cowboy Carter,” which Beyoncé has said grew retired of her consciousness that she wasn’t invited astatine Nashville’s Country Music Assn. Awards successful 2016.

Then again, the lone creator of colour nominated for either prize is Charley Crockett, the Texas-born troubadour whose “Dollar a Day” is up for accepted state album.

In its rules, the academy states that accepted state recordings, among different things, employment “traditional state instrumentation specified arsenic acoustic guitar, alloy guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electrical guitar and unrecorded drums.” Yet those instruments decidedly amusement up connected the LPs by Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and Tyler Childers that are nominated successful the modern state category.

Folks I’ve spoken with successful the manufacture accidental that the academy could supply much guidance regarding the Grammys’ ever-more-specific awards. More broadly, though, it seems worthy contemplating the pros and cons of this niche-ification.

After all, specified creep — oregon fraud, if you privation to get superior with it — has been portion of the speech astir different large awards shows for years. At the Oscars, it’s astir often taken the signifier of hand-wringing implicit an histrion oregon histrion campaigning successful a supporting class erstwhile they really beryllium successful lead; astatine the Emmys, it’s precocious shaped the sermon astir what constitutes a drama (and whether “The Bear” truly is one). What seems antithetic astir the occupation arsenic it relates to the Grammys is the trouble of policing already blurry genre distinctions, defined by the artists themselves, successful a proliferating fig of categories.

So far, the inclination has astir surely brought much-deserved attraction to the likes of Flo, a sly and crafty British miss radical nominated astatine February’s ceremonial for progressive R&B album, and Immanuel Wilkins, a daring young saxophonist up for alternate jazz album. If the committedness of the streaming epoch was the elevation of the mass-cult artist, you tin presumption with optimism a satellite successful which these breathtaking caller talents tin get successful the premix with the aged academy faves. (Don’t worry: The large Mavis Staples is nominated for American roots show and Americana performance.)

But you tin besides envision a aboriginal of category-creep Whac-A-Mole, with each rhythm creating new, ever-smaller niches until adjacent the astir ardent Grammy-watcher’s caput spins. To accidental thing of the artists: What is an grant worthy if the tract of one’s “peers” is defined truthful narrowly?