Newsaratti Looks At The Grammys Dance Categories, A Change Is Happening

LOS ANGELES - Jan. 25, 2016 - PRLog -- Meghan Trainor for Best New Artist, James Bay up for Best Rock Album (http://newsaratti.com/best-rock-performance-category-grammy-history), baffling snubs to Carly Rae Jepsen, Nick Jonas and Lana Del Rey – this year’s nominations prove once again that although the Grammys remain the most prestigious music awards show on the planet, it can still get it hopelessly wrong.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the area of dance music – a genre which despite revolutionizing pop since the fall of disco, was only acknowledged by the academy in its own right in 1998, and one which has been woefully misrepresented ever since.

Indeed, the history of the Best Dance Recording and Best Dance Album categories is littered with the kind of novelty tracks, trashy Europop anthems and MOR pop hits that are unlikely to have graced dance floors anywhere outside of a workplace Christmas party.

In 2001, a period in which two-step garage exploded, Daft Punk brought French Touch (https://medium.com/cuepoint/deeper-than-daft-punk-a-love-...) to the masses and Sonique reached number one on both sides of the Atlantic, Grammy voters judged Baha Men’s annoyingly infectious Rugrats theme “Who Let the Dogs Out” as the best dance song of the previous twelve months.

Just a year later, adult contemporary veterans Gloria Estefan and Lionel Richie somehow found themselves rubbing shoulders with Depeche Mode and Romanthony, while Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” and “Lovestoned/I Think She Knows,” (winners in ’05, ’07 and ’08 respectively), should surely have been celebrated in the pop/R&B categories instead.

Other WTF moments that have made the Grammys a laughing stock among dance music purists include the 2008 nod for new wave rockers Shiny Toy Guns, the 2010 nomination for wild-haired goons LMFAO’s debut album, and the bizarre appearance of virtual unknown Al Walser in 2013.

However, the Grammy voters appeared to get their act together last year, largely eschewing the generic EDM that had plagued the charts since the decade began, and instead honoring relevant and forward-thinking artists such as classical-electro quartet Clean Bandit, IDM maverick Aphex Twin and the Scandinavian dream team of Royksopp and Robyn.

It’s a transition which has impressively continued with the nominations for the impending 58^th Grammy Awards, to be held on February 15, 2016. Yes, hipster-haired Skrillex is there again, but this time it’s for the inventive organized chaos of his Jack Ü project with Diplo, rather than the brainless brostep that has inexplicably seen him pick up not just one, but six Grammys since 2011.

Joining the pair in the Best Dance Album category is Caracal, the ‘difficult second album’ from Disclosure which saw the Lawrence brothers invite an A-list line-up of guest vocalists (Lorde, The Weeknd, Sam Smith) to help bridge the gap between the dinner party and the deep house scene; In Colour, an inspired journey through the annals of club culture from The xx’s beatmaker Jamie xx; Born in the Echoes, a return-to-form from one of the few survivors of the first EDM boom, The Chemical Brothers; and Caribou’s Our Love, an exquisitely produced shapeshifting affair which engaged the heart as much as the feet.

The Best Dance Recording shortlist is almost as impressive. Alongside “Where Are Ü Now,” the Jack Ü collaboration with Justin Bieber which undoubtedly spearheaded the Canadian’s astonishing career renaissance, there’s also producers-turned-hitmakers in their own right Galantis and their giddy progressive house anthem “Runaway (You & I),” The Chemical Brothers and their second pulsating hook-up with Q-Tip, “Go,” and the leftfield trap of Los Angeles experimentalist Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar’s “Never Catch Me,” the latter of whom is expected to clean up at the ceremony with a staggering 11 nominations.

In fact, the generic trance of Above and Beyond’s “We’re All We Need” is the only real misstep – although even that’s a marked improvement on the awards’ previous faux pas – which suggests that dance music at the Grammys is at long last now being judged by those who actually understand what dance music is about.