Nation music is getting a brand new Grammy class: greatest conventional nation album. It’s the solely new music class being added for the 68th annual Grammy Awards in 2026.
To replicate the change, the present greatest nation album class has been renamed greatest modern nation album. The brand new class will be a part of the 13 different classes in Area 5, 4 of that are particularly devoted to nation, whereas the others cowl American roots, Americana, bluegrass, blues, folks and regional roots music.
New classes are thought-about from proposals submitted to the Recording Academy’s Awards & Nominations committee, that are then voted on by the Academy’s board of trustees. “The group of individuals which can be making nation music in all totally different subgenres got here to us with a proposal and mentioned we wish to have extra selection in how our music is honored,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. tells Billboard. “They mentioned, we expect we want more room for our music to be celebrated and honored.” Mason mentioned the proposal had been submitted quite a few occasions beforehand earlier than passing this 12 months.
The transfer helps carry the nation classes extra in keeping with different genres which separate modern and conventional albums or performances, together with R&B, pop and blues.
“It makes nation parallel with what’s occurring in different genres,” Mason says, “However it is usually creating area for the place this style goes.”
The definition for the brand new class reads, partly, “This class acknowledges excellence in albums of conventional nation music, each vocal and instrumental. Conventional nation contains nation recordings that adhere to the extra conventional sound constructions of the nation style, together with rhythm and singing model, lyrical content material, in addition to conventional nation instrumentation resembling acoustic guitar, metal guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electrical guitar, and reside drums. It additionally contains sub-genres resembling Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw nation.”
The hope is that the brand new class advantages artists who fall outdoors of mainstream, industrial nation music, resembling Charley Crockett, Sierra Ferrell, Colter Wall and Noeline Hoffman, who’ve beforehand been nominated into the Americana and American roots classes. (Each Crockett and Ferrell had been nominated for greatest Americana album for the 2025 Grammy Awards, with Ferrell’s Path of Flowers taking dwelling the Grammy.)
“The problems have been, historically, lots of people that weren’t positive whether or not [an album] was Americana or roots or folks or nation had been simply jamming all the things into one class,” Mason says. “There are clearly nuances between the totally different genres. These consultants in these genres perceive these nuances, and I’m fairly sure now you’re going to see the suitable folks going into Americana versus folks versus conventional nation. [The change] offers us a possibility to place issues in additional particular classes.”
As all subgenres of nation develop in reputation, Mason says the addition of a brand new class offers extra probabilities to share the wealth. “Individuals from that group are making extra music, it’s extra diverse, there’s totally different kinds of writing and performing,” he says. “I’m hopeful that that group understands that the academy is doing what it at all times does, which is keep in tune with what’s occurring of their style.”