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. Starting from the
66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024, a sister category
Best Dance Pop Recording, was established in order to prevent well-established pop artists who incorporate dance music into their work from dominating the category over dedicated dance acts.
Criticism Neil Tennant of the
Pet Shop Boys has criticised the award, saying "there's always been a sense that people just think you've pressed a few buttons rather than do real music, the Grammys [...] kind of diss two huge massive genres at the same time by putting them together". Writing for
Mixmag, Annabel Ross noted a lack of gender and racial diversity associated with the award, claiming that one "might assume, judging by the winners and nominees [in the category] that the best dance music is made by white people (mostly men), and that commercial success is a marker of quality". ==Recipients==