by Kandiss Edwards
June 13, 2025
The Recording Academy is making adjustments to its Greatest Nation Album class after Beyoncé gained the award in 2025.
The Recording Academy is altering its Greatest Nation Album class following Beyoncé’s win in 2025.
Many followers and a few nation artists believed Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album was not nation sufficient. Thus, her 2025 Nation Album of the 12 months Award ruffled feathers. Consequently, the Greatest Nation Album Award class will not exist. On the 68th Grammy Awards, two classes will characterize the style’s most important awards, Greatest Conventional Nation and Greatest Modern Nation. The Recording Academy’s rulebook gives perception into the weather that decide conventional and up to date album eligibility.
Conventional Nation Album:
Conventional nation contains nation recordings that adhere to the extra typical sound constructions of the nation style, together with rhythm and singing model, lyrical content material, in addition to conventional nation instrumentation reminiscent of acoustic guitar, metal guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electrical guitar, and reside drums. It additionally contains sub-genres reminiscent of Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw Nation.
Modern Nation Album:
Modern nation music recordings, each vocal and instrumental, make the most of a stylistic intention, track construction, lyrical content material, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that displays the broad spectrum of latest nation model and tradition. The intent is to acknowledge nation music that is still reminiscent and related to the legacy of nation music’s tradition, whereas additionally participating in additional up to date music kinds.
The Recording Academy pronounces that beginning on the 2026 #GRAMMYsGreatest Nation Album shall be cut up into 2 new classes: Greatest Modern Nation Album and Greatest Conventional Nation Album.
This comes following Beyoncé’s ‘COWBOY CARTER’ profitable Greatest Nation Album on the 2025… pic.twitter.com/w38dRfAZro
– The Grammy Guru (Commentary) (@TheGrammyguru) June 12, 2025
The brand new terminology is meant to obviously distinguish between experimental and conventional nation, and what some name “actual” nation. Some even imagine the cut up in classes ensures that artists, who usually are not primarily nation singers, reminiscent of Beyoncé, are firmly stored out of the class. The irony is that since Cowboy Carter’s launch, there have been a number of examinations of the album. Music consultants have dissected the a number of conventional parts within the album.
Beyoncé didn’t search to move off a pop album as nation. Many songs on the album embody essentially conventional parts. The singer enlisted Rhiannon Giddens, a Pulitzer Prize-winning banjo participant and historian, to hitch her on Texas Maintain ‘Em. She additionally lined a extremely in style nation track, Dolly Parton’s Jolene. The artist went as far as to collaborate with conventional nation artists: Linda Martel, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson.
But, whereas the album embraced custom, it additionally veered to showcase the evolution of Blues and Nation music, with genre-bending songs like “Spaghettii” that showcased her spectacular rap abilities and “Daughter” that included an Italian Opera portion.
Classes may be modified on the Grammys. Whether or not that change is because of the versatile singer, we are going to by no means know. Nevertheless, time has proven that Beyoncé won’t again down from exploring new sounds and genres. The Recording Academy could be making up new classes for 2027 as a result of Act iii is on the best way. Rumor has it Queen Bey is coming for the rock style subsequent.
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