The Grammys Rework An Age-Old Category Title

With award season in full swing, a number of prestigious ceremonies have included new categories. In line with the challenges posed by the global pandemic, events have had to adjust to all the new norms. This includes a slew of new umbrellas for videos made from home, music made for a humanitarian cause, the best quarantine performance and more. And now, the Grammys have also been tasked with renaming one of their age-old categories. 

The Recording Academy recently announced that the category for the Best World Music Album has been renamed. It will now fall under the title of the ‘Best Global Music Album’. This category has been witness to a number of prolific artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Tinariwen, Gipsy Kings, Ravi Shankar and more.

The Recording Academy even put out a statement explaining their decision, “As we continue to embrace a truly global mindset. We update our language to reflect a more appropriate categorization that seeks to engage and celebrate the current scope of music from around the world.” 

The Academy went on to point out the issues with the former title, “Over the summer we held discussions with artists, ethnomusicologists, and linguists from around the world who determined that there was an opportunity to update the best world music album category toward a more relevant, modern, and inclusive term. The change symbolizes a departure from the connotations of colonialism, folk, and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied. While adapting to current listening trends and cultural evolution among the diverse communities it may represent.”

This change arrives a few months after the Grammys renamed the Best Urban Contemporary Album category to the Best Progressive R&B Album. 

By: Nina Karun