{"id":97839,"date":"2025-10-01T22:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T22:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97839\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T22:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T22:29:13","slug":"how-the-grammys-new-beyonce-rule-is-polarizing-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/97839\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Grammys’ New \u2018Beyonce Rule\u2019 Is Polarizing Country Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA funny thing happened a few months after Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>\u2018s big night at the Grammys<\/a> in February, when the pop icon was finally able to shake off her album of the year bridesmaid curse with a win for Cowboy Carter<\/a> and strutted into Nashville\u2019s backyard to claim best country album for her multiplatinum genre flex.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a history-making moment: the first Black woman to ever take home that prize. But in classic Recording Academy fashion, the celebration barely lasted four months before the rule book was rewritten. By spring, the Grammys announced that starting in 2026, best country album would be split into two categories: best contemporary country album and best traditional country album.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Academy says the change will award modern country while still giving a chance to recognize subgenres like Americana. Arguably, the separation also puts an asterisk among albums that dare go outside the lines and questions if these records are \u201ccountry enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Academy has flubbed categorizing music from Black artists so often that one could practically put them on a calendar reminder. Back in 2020, Tyler, the Creator spoke out in the press room after his first Grammy win, questioning why his melodic sixth album, Igor, was considered rap instead of pop by the Recording Academy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHalf of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment,\u201d Tyler said at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn June, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. insisted the proposal to bifurcate country into two categories had been submitted well before Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s win, and that country stakeholders had brought this proposal forward several times in the past.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe community of people making country music in all different subgenres came to us with a proposal and said they wanted more variety in how their music is honored,\u201d Mason said. \u201cIt makes country parallel with what\u2019s happening in other genres. But it\u2019s also creating space for where this genre is going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRegardless of when the idea materialized, it\u2019s not the first time Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s victories have been followed by the Grammys doing some genre soul-searching. After \u201cBreak My Soul\u201d took home best dance\/electronic recording in 2023, the Academy quietly carved out a new best pop dance recording category the very next year \u2014 a tidy way to keep big-name pop acts from crowding out niche electro pioneers like Aphex Twin and Four Tet.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether or not the change had anything to do with Beyonc\u00e9, it matches a consistent Grammy pattern: Instead of admitting that genres bleed together, they double down on splitting hairs. The truth is, genres themselves have already splintered beyond recognition. Country exists in two realities at once \u2014 the fiddles-and-steel-guitar traditionalists on one side and glossy crossovers on the other. See: Lady Gaga\u2019s Joanne, or Post Malone\u2019s yeehaw experiment F-1 Trillion.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf country is fractured, pop is positively shattered, less a sound than a survival tactic. Reinvention used to mean a new hairstyle; now, it means a genre takeover. Beyonc\u00e9 went from disco-diva futurism on Renaissance to cowboy boots on Cowboy Carter without blinking.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her acceptance speech, she all but dared the industry to keep up: \u201cI think sometimes \u2018genre\u2019 is a code word to keep us in our place as artists. And I just want to encourage people to do what they\u2019re passionate about and stay persistent,\u201d Queen Bey said. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s the future: genre lines as fences waiting to be kicked down. The Grammys can redraw categories as often as they like, but artists like Beyonc\u00e9 are already three steps ahead \u2014 and the rest of us are just trying to keep up with the beat.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tRead more from\u00a0THR\u2019<\/a>s\u00a0Music Issue<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A funny thing happened a few months after Beyonc\u00e9\u2018s big night at the Grammys in February, when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[62583,62584,18,117,11555,19,17,337,62585],"class_list":{"0":"post-97839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-beyoncu00e9","9":"tag-cowboy-carter","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-grammys","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-music-issue"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}