Inside the Grammy category changes: How Best Country Album has been split and what it means

Five months ahead of nominations for the 2026 Grammys, the Recording Academy has retuned the rulebook.

While some of the shifts come down to little more than tweaks to the minutiae regulating existing categories and nomination rules (librettists and composers are now eligible in Classical categories!), a handful of the changes have already caused a stir online.

Or more accurately, a buzz.

In addition to the reintroduction of the Best Album Cover — which came out of a combining of Best Recording Package and Best Boxed or Special Limited edition package into Best Recording Package — a change to Best Country Album has raised eyebrows among the fan community of its most recent winner, Beyoncé.

For the 2026 awards, Best Country Album will be renamed Best Contemporary Country Album, and a new category, Best Traditional Country Album, is being introduced.

What's the difference? Here's how the official Grammys descriptions explain the categories:

Best Traditional Country Album

For albums – vocal or instrumental. This category recognizes excellence in albums of traditional country music, both vocal and instrumental. Traditional country includes country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums. It also includes sub-genres such as Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw country.

Best Contemporary Country Album

For albums – vocal or instrumental. This category recognizes contemporary country music recordings, both vocal and instrumental, which utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of contemporary country style and culture. The intent is to recognize country music that remains reminiscent and relevant to the legacy of country music’s culture, while also engaging in more contemporary music forms.

The distinction appears to be designed to cordon off examples of the genre that incorporate more modern soundscapes, but the chief example of that kind of cultural mashup is country music that adds the instrumentation and production of hip-hop.

According to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., the division is meant to make the awards more inclusive. "This action by our members now opens the door for us to celebrate more artists and a wider range of music," he said in an interview posted to Grammy.com. "By adding this new Category and renaming the Country Album Category, we're creating more space for all the diverse artists who are shaping the future of country music."

The introduction of a new category comes at a particularly fraught time for the country music world. The Country Music Association Awards stirred controversy last year by snubbing Beyoncé, in addition to featuring a possible on-stage dig at Shaboozey, who failed to win any awards despite having an enormous country hit with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)."

Nominations for the 68th Grammy Awards will be revealed on Nov. 7, and the ceremony will take place Feb. 1, 2026.