Grammy Awards Make Drastic Cuts—Which Categories Are Gone?

Recording Academy revamps the music industry's highest honors in attempt at meaner, leaner show

The Grammy Awards is about to get an extreme makeover.

In an effort to remain relevant, the folks at the Recording Academy today announced plans to cut more than 30 categories from the bloated show.

And we say it's about time.

Over the course of the Grammys' 53-year existence, the number of awards handed out has climbed to 109. Next year there were only (only!) be 78.

"After careful and extensive review and analysis of all categories and fields, it was objectively determined that our Grammy categories be restructured to the continued competition and prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music," Recording Academy boss Neil Portnow said.

No genre is escaping the massive overhaul—the cuts are across the board with several similar-sounding genres getting bunched together, and less distinction between male and female categories.

For example, gone is Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, and the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance are getting morphed into the gender-neutral Best Pop Solo Performance. The same changes apply to the rock, R&B and country categories. Rap lost just one field by combining solo and group performance fields into a Best Rap Performance.

In a bit of a rebranding effort, the Dance Field was renamed the Dance/Electronica Field and Best Electronic/Dance Album is now called Dance/Electronica Album.

We can also bid adieu to Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Rock Instrumental Performance and Best Contemporary R&B Album, while individual categories for Hawaiian, Native American and Zydeco or Cajun Music were also dropped and replaced with Best Regional Roots Music Album.

The four top races—Record, Album and Song of the Year and Best New Artist—remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Academy also tweaked some its voting and submission requirements to streamline the nominations process. For instance, if there are 25 to 39 entries in a category, there will only be three nominees on the ballot instead of the usual five. But if there are fewer than 25 entries, the category would go on hiatus for that year and no award would be given.

The 54th edition of the Grammys is slated for next February but no exact date has been announced.