Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance | |
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Awarded for | quality vocal or instrumental rock recordings |
Country | United States |
Presented by | National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences |
Currently held by | David Bowie, "Blackstar" (2017) |
Official website | grammy.com |
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for solo, duo/groups or collaborative (vocal or instrumental) rock recordings and is limited to singles or tracks only.
This award combines the previous categories for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The restructuring of these categories was a result of the Recording Academy's wish to decrease the list of categories and awards and to eliminate the distinctions between solo and duo/groups performances. The Academy argued that any distinction between these performances is difficult to make, as "four-fifths of rock acts are groups, and even solo rock acts tend to be backed by a band".
From 2014, this category has also included hard rock performances that were previously screened in the Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance categories, which are now defunct.