Grammys moving away from outdated term ‘urban’

Mere days after Republic Records announced that it would cease using the word “urban” as a music genre descriptor, the Grammy Awards has taken a page out the same book and renamed many award categories. In a statement released on June 10, The Recording Academy revealed it's changed “Best Urban Contemporary Album” to “Best Progressive R&B Album,” and “Best Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative Album” has been renamed “Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album.”The move comes six months after Tyler, The Creator, who won his first Grammy in January for Best Rap Album, told media backstage at the time that it felt like a “backhanded compliment,” because, “It sucks that whenever we — and I mean guys that look like me — do anything that's genre-bending or that's anything, they always put it in a rap or urban category. I don't like that ‘urban’ word — it's just a politically correct way to say the n-word to me.”

Tyler, The Creator calls out the #Grammys on their racism when it comes to music genres pic.twitter.com/rzWe2lR3xO

— Odd Future Fans (@itsOddFuture) January 27, 2020

Republic Records, when announcing the change, said in a statement, in part, “‘Urban’ is rooted in the historical evolution of terms that sought to define Black music […] over time the meaning and connotations of ‘urban’ have shifted and it developed into a generalization of Black people in many sectors of the music industry, including employees and music by Black artists,” and encouraged the “rest of the music industry to consider following suit as it is important to shape the future of what we want it to look like.”[video_embed id='1973982']RELATED: Drake and Taylor Swift’s music label drops the term ‘urban’[/video_embed]The Grammys has also changed several other category names and refashioned the eligibility for some of them, including, “Best Rap/Sung Performance” which has been renamed “Best Melodic Rap Performance.” There are no longer a specified maximum number of releases prohibiting artists from entering the Best New Artist category and any conflict of interest raised by a Nominations Review Committee member will mean they cannot vote, rather than just acknowledging the conflict.However, despite all these changes, "Best Latin Pop Album" has curiously been renamed, "Best Latin Pop Or Urban Album,” using the very term being removed from other categories. At press time, no explanation for this word-choice inclusion had been provided.In 2018, Grammy president Neil Portnow, who told female musicians to “step up” amid concerns from fans that nominations and winners were male-dominated resigned his position. A few months later, the Grammys invited 900 women and people of colour, all under 40 years old, to become voting members in an effort to increase diversity.[video_embed id='1974198']RELATED: 40 seasons. 18 years. 1 Black lead. Bachelor nation is calling for drastic change[/video_embed]