Grammy Award
The Grammy Award is presented by the Recording Academy, an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry, for outstanding achievements in musical recordings. It is the approximate equivalent, in the music world, to the Oscarss.
Like the Oscars, the Grammys, currently with a total of 101 categories within 28 fields of music (such as pop, gospel, rap), are voted by peers - in this case voting members of the Recording Academy.
The awards ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the more prominent Grammys are presented in a widely-viewed televised ceremony.
The Grammy voters tend to be elderly, musically conservative, and are heavily marketed to by record companies, who place great stock in some types of artists winning Grammys (accurately but cynically put as those which sell to "teenage girls and housewives"). Therefore, the main Grammys tend to go to either well-established acts or those which fall into the above categories. Hence, the Grammys are not taken particularly seriously by many musicians or music fans.
Awards include:
Alternative
Blues
Children's
Classical
Comedy
Composing and arranging
Country
Film/TV/Media
Folk
- Best Traditional Folk Album incl. Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording/Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording
- Best Contemporary Folk Album incl. Best Ethnic or Contemporary Folk Recording
- Best Native American Music Album
Gospel
- Best Gospel Performance
- Best Soul Gospel Performance
- Best Gospel Other: Incl. Sacred, Religious or Inspirational Recording, Musical or Non-Musical
- Best Rock Gospel Album incl. Best Rock/Contemporary Gospel Album
- Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album
- Best Southern Gospel, Country Gospel or Bluegrass Gospel Album
- Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album
- Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album
- Best Gospel Album By Choir or Chorus
Historical
Jazz
- Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, Instrumental - Also cont. Jazz Performance Vocal or Instrumental
- Best Jazz Vocal
- Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist
- Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Individual or Group
- Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance
- Best Latin Jazz Performance
Latin
- Best Latin Pop Performance
- Best Tropical Latin Performance
- Best Mexican-American/Tejano Music Performance
- Best Latin Rock/Alternative Performance
- Best Tejano Music Performance
- Best Salsa Performance
- Best Merengue Performance
Musical Show
Music Video
- Best Music Video, Short Form
- Best Music Video, Long Form
New Age
Packaging and Notes
- Best Album Package - Incl. Album Cover, Graphic Arts, Photography
- Best Recording Package - Boxed
- Best Album Notes
Polka
Pop
Production and engineering
- Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical
- Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical
- Best Classical Engineered Recording
- Classical Producer Of The Year
- Remixer Of The Year
R&B
Rap
Reggae
Rock
Spoken
Trad Pop
- Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance
World
Awards by year
Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for music released in the previous year.