Grammys change country categories to separate traditional and contemporary albums

USA Today

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Grammys change country categories to separate traditional and contemporary albums
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The 2026 Grammy Awards will introduce a significant change: Best country album category has been renamed best contemporary country album, and a new category, best traditional country album, has been added.
This change underscores the importance of recognizing the diverse styles within country music and honoring both its modern and traditional roots. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said the recent comeback of traditional country music deserves its own recognition.
'Country music has evolved in a major way over the past decade, with traditional country experiencing a massive resurgence, growing in popularity and volume," Mason Jr. said. "Traditional country has a timeless, distinct sound that's inspired generations of musicians throughout the years. It's an important part of the country music story and deserves to be celebrated and recognized with intention."
The award was initially presented as best country & western album in 1965 and 1966, with Roger Miller as the recipient. It was discontinued in 1967 but revived in 1995 under its current name, best country album.
Beyoncé made history at the 2025 Grammys as the first Black woman in the awards' history to take home the award. Mason Jr. said the additional Grammy category for country music allows for more inclusion in the genre.
"When it comes to creativity, we don't want to exclude, we want to include," Mason Jr. said. "The Recording Academy wants to celebrate as much beautiful, passionate art as possible. All music is amazing and the uniqueness of its creative process deserves to be honored. As an organization, I want us to be an organization that is able to open our eyes and ears to getting it right as far as offering a spotlight to as many different sounds as we can."
Country music's expanding, star-making scope
The Nashville country music industry's star-making machine has churned out a steady stream of chart-toppers in the past five years.
One-fifth of gold and platinum-selling albums and singles released last year claimed Music City roots, according to 2024 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) data.
Among those hitmakers, Beyoncé, Post Malone, and Shaboozey represent an expanse of sounds and styles, from mainstream genre-bending, soulful ambient pop and hip-hop-influenced mega-hitmaking, that has arguably stretched country's traditional underpinnings in an unprecedented manner.
Include established country chart-toppers like Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, Kacey Musgraves, and Morgan Wallen, along with performers with strong Nashville roots such as Maren Morris, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift. This adds up to roughly a dozen artists, alongside 48 others from various genres, who have achieved year-end Billboard all-genre top-10 success in the past five years.
"This action by our members now opens the door for us to celebrate more artists and a wider range of music," Mason Jr. said. "By adding this new category and renaming the Country Album Category, we're creating more space for all the diverse artists who are shaping the future of country music."
He added that the proposal was received from those involved in the nomination and voting processes to split the Best Country Album category into contemporary and traditional segments. This change aims to better reflect and celebrate the diverse and expanding landscape of country music.
"In general, categorizing music and performance for evaluation and celebration is difficult," he said. "Now, consider how genres and sounds are evolving and changing rapidly (in the modern era). The music industry being more fluid and subjective than ever makes it more challenging to ensure that music can be judged similarly against each other."
What separates contemporary from traditional country music?
The Recording Academy outlines the new standards and expectations, delineating the difference between the categories as such.
Best Traditional Country Album — for albums vocal or instrumental:
"Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums," the Academy states.
The category includes "sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country."
Contemporary Country Album — for albums vocal or instrumental:
"The Recording Academy and our voters have had many lengthy debates about how production choices impact musical styles," Mason Jr. said. "However, we want to find as many ways as possible to accurately and honestly honor amazing art. If that requires us to make more space, then we do so. Primarily because we recognize that we do not always have the lines that people use to separate genres perfectly defined, we continually need to refine those standards by listening to the individuals who work within those musical communities to serve them best."
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. on 'Cowboy Carter' and the future of country
Upon the March 2024 announcement of her eventual Grammy-winning "Cowboy Carter" album, Beyoncé wrote on social media: "This ain't a Country album. This is a 'Beyoncé' album. This is act ii Cowboy Carter, and I am proud to share it with y'all!"
Eleven months later, when she was awarded a golden gramophone for her work, she appeared as stunned as anyone about the achievement.
"Being inspired by something doesn't always mean that you're singularly focused on copying or emulating it. (On "Cowboy Carter"), country music was one of many outputs that fed into (Beyoncé's) human database, which was regurgitated into a new form that was personal to her life experiences," Mason Jr. said.
"Obviously, beyond her intentions, ("Cowboy Carter") was a new, exciting, impactful, meaningful and resonant album for people."
Mason Jr. said that he believes that more music pushing boundaries of culture and genre will exist in the "country" space.
"Judging and celebrating that music accurately and in a way that authentically represents those musical communities feeling best heard and seen is essential," he said.
Recent Country Album of the Year Grammy Award winners
In recent years, the need for a clear division in the genre's album categories has become increasingly apparent.
Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" defeated albums by Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson for the Best Country Album trophy. Wilson triumphed a year prior for "Bell Bottom Country," with Willie Nelson, Stapleton, Miranda Lambert and Tanya Tucker claiming victories in the category in the 2020s as well.
While accepting the award from Taylor Swift in 2025, Queen Bey said, "Wow, I really was not expecting this. I think sometimes 'genre' is a code word to keep us in our place as artists and I just want to encourage people to do what they're passionate about, and to stay persistent."
Who could receive traditional country Grammy nominations?
Regarding the next steps for the category, consider how the dozen country-to-crossover stars can blend with breakout contemporary acts like Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, Jelly Roll, Tucker Wetmore, and Bailey Zimmerman.
Additionally, think about recent Americana Artist of the Year nominees who favor traditional styles, such as Sierra Ferrell, Billy Strings, Charley Crockett, Joy Oladokun, Waxahatchee, Tyler Childers, Noah Kahan, Allison Russell, Margo Price, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, and Yola.
Whereas the former more distinctly fit in the contemporary lane, the potential for what can happen with contemporary industry artists who are more classic stylists, plus rootsy "Americana" performers in the "traditional" space, is far more intriguing.
In 2015, the Recording Academy created the Best American Roots Performance category to address various disparities. This category encompasses all subgenres within the American Roots field, including Americana, bluegrass, blues, folk, and other regional roots music. A sister category, Best Americana Performance, was introduced in 2023.
"Those genres are all taking on so much life in respect to the breadth of the diverse cross-section of artists coming into those spaces. It's important to reflect how, over the years, the areas of the world and the stories being told that are represented in those musical spaces has evolved," Mason Jr. said.
Of note, Carlile, Russell and Ferrell have won Grammys in the Best American Roots Performance category, while Beyoncé, Childers, Isbell and Kacey Musgraves have received nominations in Americana Performance. Jon Batiste The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sarah Jarosz, Dolly Parton, plus Gillian Welch & David Rawlings are significant names associated with both categories.
Roots artists with more defined country leanings could join "traditional" country artists with connections to the Western, Western Swing and Outlaw country scenes to create an impressively diverse and vibrant "Best Traditional Country Album" category offering.