The music industry evolves at a dizzying pace. And I’m here to help you make sense of the “Key Changes” in these roundups of music new analysis.

Lately, I’ve had reason to ponder how the evolution and blending of musical styles pushes scenes, award shows and institutions to adapt.

One of the speakers at Americana Fest was Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, which presides over the Grammy Awards. And I also got to talk with him one-on-one. The subject? How the Academy determined that it was time to split the country album category into contemporary and traditional. And he’s not the only source I’ve spoken with about the insufficiency of one Grammy category for a country landscape that stretches from current pop to classic honky-tonk extremes.

Among the hundreds of artists who

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