2024 Grammys Honor African Music With 3 new Genres Categories
The Grammys have announced that they will give special recognition to the works of African artists in an effort to fairly represent a variety of important musical genres and remain in step with the rapidly changing musical landscape.
Harvey Mason, the CEO of the Recording Academy, said on the organization’s official website that three new categories, including Best African Music Performance, Best Pop Dance Recording, and Best Alternative Jazz Album, would be added to the 2024 edition.
At the academy’s most recent semi-annual Board of Trustees meeting, which was held in May 2023, these additions were voted on and approved.
The Recording Academy is pleased to announce these most recent Category modifications to our Awards process, Mason stated. These adjustments show our dedication to authentically representing a wide variety of pertinent musical genres, staying in step with the constantly changing musical scene, and actively listening to and acting upon comments from our music community.
They claim that the African category will feature a track and singles that honor recordings that showcase regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical traditions and make use of distinctive local expressions from all over the African continent.
Afrobeat, Afrofusion, Afro Pop, Afrobeats, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip-Hop, and Ethio Jazz are among the musical genres that will be covered in this lesson, among others.
Our goal at the #RecordingAcademy is to recognize and honor the very best in music from across the globe.
Today, we're proud to announce a new category for the 66th GRAMMY Awards – Best African Music Performance.
Learn more: https://t.co/neBAQWE7cc #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/qJoQoF8PqA
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) June 13, 2023
Participants will look for tracks and singles that have up-tempo, danceable melody that follows a pop orchestration in order to determine the best pop dance recording.
With an emphasis on the vocal delivery, melody, and hooks, eligible Pop Dance recordings also have considerable electronic-based instruments along with potent rhythmic beats. Dance remixes can only be entered in the Best Remixed Recording category and not in the Best Pop Dance Recording category.
The Best Alternative Jazz Album category, meanwhile, will recognize outstanding artistic achievement in recordings of Alternative Jazz by soloists, duos, groups/ensembles, with or without vocals.
It will incorporate blending, which it described as a “envelope-pushing hybrid that mixes jazz with other genres, including R&B, Hip-Hop, Classical, Contemporary Improvisation, Experimental, Pop, Rap, Electronic/Dance music, and/or Spoken Word.” It might also use the modern instruments and production methods used in other genres.
