did a search, couldn't find anything on this topic, so i thought i'd post it
[quote]PUTTING THE 'E' IN GRAMMY by Dennis Romero
At last, the biggest music awards adds a Best Electronic/Dance Album category
It?s about time the Grammy Awards recognized the electronic dance music revolution. DJ-driven music has been rocking dance floors since at least the ?70s, not to mention the digitally derived psychedelia unleashed by rave culture in the late ?80s. In 1997, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) finally gave us Best Dance Recording and Best Remix singles categories. It was the year dance music broke. Still, long-playing albums have been overlooked or misdirected into odd categories. There is really no place for them. The rave and post-rave era produced epic long-players, many masterful and conceptual, by such innovators as the Orb, Aphex Twin, Orbital, the Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, Underworld, Lil? Louis, BT, and Masters at Work, but these acts didn?t even get the chance to reap the rewards of mainstream recognition and sales boosts a Grammy often brings.
This is about to change. Recently, the academy?s Board of Trustees approved a Best Electronic/Dance Album category for inclusion in the 2005 Grammy Awards. The thumbs-up gives momentous thrust to a scene once relegated to an insular world of underground parties, late-night clubbing, and smaller record labels.
?This is acknowledgment that electronic music is a viable form,? says e-music star BT (Brian Transeau). ?This is what we need as a community to move forward ? to get real, proper recognition.?
Transeau was nominated for the Los Angeles chapter?s Board of Governors about two years ago and immediately went to work lobbying for a Best Electronic/Dance Album. There had been rumblings in the past about adding such a category, particularly from academy member and dance music producer Carmen Rizzo. Now that BT was in an influential place, the two teamed up with other dance-crazed academy members such as Jason Bentley (KROQ-FM, KCRW-FM), SuzAnn Brantner (3 Artist Management), and Ken Jordan (the Crystal Method), came up with a proposal, and lobbied hard.
?Sometimes there will be a proposal presented three, four, or five times before the Awards and Nominations Committee feels we are ready for that,? explains Diane Theriot, senior vice president of awards for the academy.
?There was extraordinary resistance,? Transeau says. ?I think that there is a lack of seriousness by the people who have been involved in NARAS for years when it comes to dance music and electronic music.?
What he and the team did was make an undeniable case for dance music?s global cultural impact and huge industry receipts, including its omnipresence on television (NBC?s Las Vegas), in commercials (Hummer), and even on the silver screen (The Matrix series). In their proposal, he says, ?We had lots of facts and figures to back us up,? and the idea was adopted.
The next move for the loose group of dance advocates within the academy has been recruiting e-music producers, remixers, and label folks to join NARAS so the category can have a knowledgeable constituency. The singles categories (remix, dance recording) are a mixed bag in which winners are chosen more for their pop-chart familiarity than for their cutting-edge dance sounds. ?Beyonc? wasn?t the most compelling remix of the year, but it?s just that the voting body goes for what they know,? says Bentley of the ?03 remix beneficiary.
To avoid this, people like BT, Bentley, and Brantner began recruiting dance-industry heads at the annual insider retreat in Miami in March.
?The panel we did was to educate DJs and producers and artists about NARAS and to get people involved in this issue,? says Brantner. ?People in electronic music don?t even know what NARAS is. Our job now is to get people who make dance and electronic music to get involved. To get those people to vote.?
Another boost came two years ago when the academy put the dance music categories under their own ?field.? Voting members (about 14,000) usually are limited to nine fields, forcing them to look at areas where they have more expertise instead of migrating to sections like Best Remix, where they might not know who Masters at Work is.
?Everyone had to acknowledge,? says Bentley, ?that this movement has its own language and right to be seen, right up against everything from country to rock.?[/quote]
found that on the spundae message board, here's my response: personally, i think it's bullshit that the grammy's are having a new edm catagory. it's going to be another catagory for shit like j-lo, cher, gloria estefan, cindi lauper, janet jackson, lionel richie to try and get into. they never represent what is actually happening at the moment in any genre so how can we expect them to properly represent ours? i mean, come on, just look at the past winners (highlighted):
1998 - Dance Recording
[b]"Carry On," Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder[/b] "Da Funk," Daft Punk "Ooh Aah...Just a Little Bit," Gina G. "To Step Aside," Pet Shop Boys "Space Jam," Quad City's DJ's
1999 - Dance Recording
"When Will You Learn," Boy George "Around the World," Daft Punk "Heaven's What I Feel," Gloria Estefan "Disco Inferno," Cyndi Lauper [b]"Ray of Light," Madonna[/b]
2000 - Dance Recording
[b]"Believe" Cher[/b] "Don't Let This Moment End" Gloria Estefan "Praise You" Fatboy Slim "Waiting for Tonight" Jennifer Lopez "I Will Go with You (Con Te Partir?)" Donna Summer
2001
[b]"Who Let The Dogs Out," Baha Men[/b] (yes, they actually won) "Blue (Da Ba Dee)," Eiffel 65 "Be With You," Enrique Iglesias "Let's Get Loud," Jennifer Lopez "Natural Blues," Moby
2002 - Dance Recording
"One More Time," Daft Punk & Romanthony "I Feel Loved," Depeche Mode "Out of Nowhere," Gloria Estefan [b]"All for You," Janet Jackson[/b] "Angel," Lionel Richie
2003
Dance Recording
"Gotta Get Thru This," Daniel Bedingfield [b]"Days Go By," Dirty Vegas[/b] "Superstylin'," Groove Armada "Love at First Sight," Kylie Minogue "Hella Good," No Doubt
2004 - Dance Recording
"Love One Another," Cher "Easy," Groove Armada "Die Another Day," Madonna [b]"Come Into My World," Kylie Minogue[/b] "Breathe," T?l?popmusik featuring Angela McCluskey
and these are the people that are representing "dance" music. oh yeah, and the chemical brothers won the "best rock instrumental" in 1998. WTF?
simply, we don't need them.