Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording

[Nycboy 968]

What happened to Gaga’s performance in this category?

Gaga was nominated in it for Just Dance, Poker Face, and Dance in the Dark. 

Clearly Gaga has released a number of songs since then that are just as much dance/electronic. I feel like she doesn’t even submit to this category anymore, even though it could be an easy nomination or win. Scheisse? Applause? Stupid Love? Alice? 911?

Can someone explain this?

[MaryJaneHolland 77,348]

I think they changed the rule and only DJs can get nominated.

Kinda sucks, cuz it was great when it was filled with the pop girls.

[Nycboy 968]

10 minutes ago, MaryJaneHolland said:

I think they changed the rule and only DJs can get nominated.

Kinda sucks, cuz it was great when it was filled with the pop girls.

It seems like an annoying rule because Dua won for Electricity and Bieber won for Where Are U Now. I wonder if Gaga could have submitted a track with Bloodpop as a credited artist. It seems like the rule has nothing to do with how the song sounds, but just about crediting a DJ/producer. 

[Night Vision 3,050]

19 minutes ago, Nycboy said:

It seems like an annoying rule because Dua won for Electricity and Bieber won for Where Are U Now. I wonder if Gaga could have submitted a track with Bloodpop as a credited artist. It seems like the rule has nothing to do with how the song sounds, but just about crediting a DJ/producer. 

Dua and Bieber won because they are featured artists on those tracks. Silk City and Jack Ü are the main artists.

They changed the rules of this category because it was disproportionately weighted towards mainstream pop artists who are already recognised and represented in the pop category, and for years totally ignored the artists who make actual dance music, who don't have the chance in the main categories. For a long time the category was mainly awarded to pop songs with a dance-pop or electro-pop influence, rather than songs that are actual dance/electronic songs or come from a house or techno origin.

[Dennis 8,391]

She was allowed to compete with "Alice" but her and Dua Lipa (Hallucinating) were not nominated by the committee. 911 was not submitted this year.

But now that the Grammy's got rid of the committee, she could be nominated again.

[Bradley 57,641]

20 minutes ago, Dennis said:

She was allowed to compete with "Alice" but her and Dua Lipa (Hallucinating) were not nominated by the committee. 911 was not submitted this year.

But now that the Grammy's got rid of the committee, she could be nominated again.

I still think that there is a heavy distinction they recognise between Pop and Dance that they won't easily allow pop acts to enter. Even if they technically were allowed to compete, it's hard for them to get enough votes since the DJs will be prioritised.

[Nycboy 968]

3 hours ago, Night Vision said:

Dua and Bieber won because they are featured artists on those tracks. Silk City and Jack Ü are the main artists.

They changed the rules of this category because it was disproportionately weighted towards mainstream pop artists who are already recognised and represented in the pop category, and for years totally ignored the artists who make actual dance music, who don't have the chance in the main categories. For a long time the category was mainly awarded to pop songs with a dance-pop or electro-pop influence, rather than songs that are actual dance/electronic songs or come from a house or techno origin.

Very interesting. And the irony is that the awards are still going to mainstream pop artists (just as a feature and not as the main artist) lol 

[Night Vision 3,050]

37 minutes ago, Nycboy said:

Very interesting. And the irony is that the awards are still going to mainstream pop artists (just as a feature and not as the main artist) lol 

It doesn't go to mainstream pop artists very often, there has been a significant shift since the rule change. It's mainly gone to electronic artists in the last decade. Rüfüs Du Sol, Kaytranada, Skrillex, and The Chemical Brothers for example. The last time a pop artist won for their own track was Rihanna for Only Girl In The World in 2011.

[Nycboy 968]

2 minutes ago, Night Vision said:

It doesn't go to mainstream pop artists very often, there has been a significant shift since the rule change. It's mainly gone to electronic artists in the last decade. Rüfüs Du Sol, Kaytranada, Skrillex, and The Chemical Brothers for example. The last time a pop artist won for their own track was Rihanna for Only Girl In The World in 2011.

I get that, but at the same time, the Grammys do seem conflicted if on the one hand they want to use this category to award non-mainstream dance artists, but on the other hand they literally gave the award to the songs that feature Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa.

The category is still pretty confusing to me though bc there is soooo much overlap between dance and pop. It sounds like the dance category tries to award the producer of a song while the pop category tries to award the singer of the song, both within a very similarly genre. Kind of weird right? 

i feel like they need an overhaul to have a dance/pop vocal performance category and a dance/pop production category. 

[Night Vision 3,050]

19 minutes ago, Nycboy said:

I get that, but at the same time, the Grammys do seem conflicted if on the one hand they want to use this category to award non-mainstream dance artists, but on the other hand they literally gave the award to the songs that feature Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa.

The category is still pretty confusing to me though bc there is soooo much overlap between dance and pop. It sounds like the dance category tries to award the producer of a song while the pop category tries to award the singer of the song, both within a very similarly genre. Kind of weird right? 

i feel like they need an overhaul to have a dance/pop vocal performance category and a dance/pop production category. 

I get that pop and dance can overlap but that's kind of the result of the dance/EDM trend of the early-mid 2010's. Outside of your artists like David Guetta, Zedd, The Chainsmokers, there's a very large section of the dance genre that exists separately to pop. Like I mentioned before, it's pretty rare that songs which feature big pop artists win and it's also because there is more crossover in the dance and pop industries now compared to the past due to the EDM boom from a few years ago, and also because artists often use dance music to build their profile in Asia, Europe/UK, where it's very popular. A lot of dance music itself is pretty mainstream, especially outside of the US.

I personally think that the category overhaul has helped avoid an overlap in the categories rather than making it confusing. And I don't think the genres themselves are that similar, especially for an American award ceremony where dance music is still quite a niche genre besides a select few acts. They are awarding the producer (and the artist) in the Dance Recording category, and in dance music the artist usually is the producer, but also goes to any featured vocalist. The pop category is covered by Pop Solo Performance, Duo/Group Performance, which goes to the artist. There's no "Dance/Pop Production" or "Best Pop Recording" category because the main categories of Song of the Year and Record of the Year are always prioritised to pop, with occasional noms for country, R&B or rap, but it's incredibly rare that a real dance track is recognised in the main categories, in fact I'm not sure that it has ever happened.

[Anderson123 36,058]

That's fine but nothing like that rule where she wasn't allowed to be nominated for New Artist because she was nominated the past year for Just Dance.  And they changed it because of that by the way.

Now 8 times Grammy winner Finneas has finally gotten a Best New Artist nomination this year when he won Producer and Album of the  Year 2 years ago.