2016 will be known hence forth as the year that genres officially meant nothing to the puppet masters behind music award nights. It happened at this year’s ARIA Awards, and now it’s happened in the US again, just in time for the 2017.
For proof, you needn’t look further than the ceremony’s Best Rock Performance nominations. This year, the inimitable queen of pop culture Beyoncé has been selected for the category which, even considering it was for a performance of Don’t Hurt Yourself with Jack White, still has some people scratching their heads.
This puts Beyoncé head-to-head with now an act you’d never expect to see in the same sentence — Disturbed. BUT, the Sick Ones were selected for their cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s folk classic The Sound Of Silence which, ugh, why won’t it just go away? Fortunately, Twenty One Pilots and David Bowie are also nominated, which levels it all out a bit.
Surely no one wants this award to go to a ’90s revival act performing an acoustic folk hit. And, considering Beyoncé’s been nominated for awards across four different genres — urban, rap, rock and pop — it makes sense for rock to be on the right side of history with this one, and tip it’s hat to rock icon Beyoncé.
Despite the international trend at the moment, this is actually a first for the Grammys, says Vice President of Awards Bill Freimuth to Complex, saying, “You’ve had other artists in the past, say Michael Jackson maybe, who have been nominated in that many different fields, but not in the same year and on the same album. This is a first timer for us and personally I think it’s appropriate and pretty cool.”
Bey’s also up for Album, Record, and Song of the year, and Best Pop Solo Performance for her insane medley with Kendrick Lamar. You can see all the nominations here, and watch Disturbed’s repeat offender and possible Grammy-winning cover, below.
UPDATE 8/12/16: Disturbed frontman David Draiman has commented on the clashing styles of the nominess for the Best Rock Performance catagory, stating “something has gone wrong.” You can read his full statement here.
Watch: Disturbed – ‘The Sound Of Silence’ (Conan)
