Grammy Award For Best Dance Recording - History

History

Though she was not the first to suggest that the genre be recognized officially, Ellyn Harris and her Committee for the Advancement of Dance Music lobbied for more than two years to encourage the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to acknowledge dance music. Some Academy members debated whether dance music, with its heavy use of layering, remixing, "lack of melody or verse", and numerous varieties, was truly considered music. Others were concerned that dance music was not a long-lasting genre, fearing the category would face retirement much like the award for Best Disco Recording, which was presented for one year only at the 22nd Grammy Awards in 1980.

In 1998, Harris' efforts paid off when the Academy first presented the award to Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder at the 40th Grammy Awards for the song "Carry On". While the Academy had once been quoted as saying that "they considered dance music as something pop artists had created in their most frivolous moments", Ivan Bernstein, executive director of the organization's Florida branch, insisted that an award for excellence in dance music would not exist "if there were concerns about excellence".

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