A history of electronic music at The Grammys

The Grammy Awards and electronic dance music have always had a somewhat tumultuous relationship. For many diehard fans of the not-easily-defined genre, the award show’s focus on mainstream, red carpet trotting pop-idols and testy hip-hop artists fails to reflect the interests of those invested in the worldwide phenomenon that is “electronic/dance” music (ie. house, techno, EDM, garage, electro, drum ‘n’ bass and everything in between).

The past two decades have seen some major steps forward in successfully nominating lauded, cutting-edge artists - who have a stake in the scene - for the electronic/dance music category. Despite this, there is much work to be done in order to solidify the category as a separate, comprehensive and appreciated entity during the famous award ceremony.

Here are nine iconic moments for electronic music at The Grammys.

When the category of Best Dance Recording was first introduced in 1998, the inaugural recipient of the award was handed to Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder for the track ‘Carry On’.

While ‘Carry On’ fails to hold a candle to seminal tracks such as ‘I Feel Love' - a track which created the template for dance music as we know it - the introduction of the category and its initial recipient marked the started effort to separate dance music from the arena of pop and rock that it had always existed in.

Along with the added Grammy category Best Dance Recording, 1998 also saw the introduction of another category: Best Remixer of the Year. The induction of this award was deservingly handed to none other than the godfather of house music himself, Frankie Knuckles.

Originally created as Remixer of the Year (a category which had no particular track attached to it, but rather an overall appreciation for the artist’s remix efforts), the guidelines for the award were changed in 2002, requiring any subsequent nominations to be attached to a particular remix effort. Regardless, the establishment of the grouping and the resulting nod to Frankie Knuckles gave electronic music producers a new found motivation for mainstream success.

2005? Well it’s about damn time! Up against artists such as The Prodigy and Paul Oakenfold, the opening award in the category was handed down to Basement Jaxx for their LP ‘Kish Kash’. The name of the category was later changed to Best Dance/Electronica Album between 2012 and 2014 before being altered once again to Best Dance/Electronic Album, further solidifying the confusing relationship the Grammys holds with the genre.

A signature of the Grammys has always been to allow stage time for performers to share their songs of the year with the live and television audience. The award show's late adoption of electronic music into its categories was followed with an invitation to the elusive Daft Punk in 2008, two years after their game-changing Pyramid performance at Coachella.

The robots performed alongside Kanye West for 'Stronger' (Kanye glasses and all), which of course samples their own hit 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger'. The performance was more reminiscent of an EDM rave than a regular Grammy performance, with CO2 canons firing off and Kanye decked out in glowing neon, but gave a spotlight to electronic heroes with a solo breakdown for Daft Punk as they perched in their neon Pyramid. Definitely a memorable moment for the Grammys.

In 2012, Skrillex won three Grammys for Best Dance Recording, Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Remixed Recording in 2012, causing quite a stir - both on supportive and opposing sides - with his award show sweep. But regardless of personal opinions on his music, Skrillex's wins demonstrated a growing interest and respect for electronic music, resulting in a newfound, widespread understanding of electronic dance music.

Of course, in the years that followed, Skrillex has gone on to become a pop icon of sorts, working with the likes of Justin Bieber, Incubus and winning a record-breaking eight Grammys total, retaining the title as the electronic artist with the most Grammys to date.

2013 was a huge year for EDM anthems: Avicii's 'Levels', Skrillex's 'Bangarang', Swedish House Mafia's 'Don't You Worry Child' and Calvin Harris' 'Let's Go' were all nominated for the Best Dance Record of the year. But the world gawked at one name nominated in the category that appeared alongside these EDM gargantuans and everyone asked, "Who is Al Walser?"

Nominated for a song called 'I Can't Live Without You', the Los Angeles DJ immediately became the subject of scrutiny from the electronic genre, who (mostly) had never heard of the guy before his nomination. At the time of the nom, his Facebook page had less than 2,000 likes and the official video (a cringe-worthy experience entirely separate from the actual track itself) for the nominated track had under 7,000 views, confirming that the masses had no idea who Al Walser was.

As it turns out, Walser was essentially an unknown name who had played the system right. It was later uncovered that to score his nomination on the Grammy ballot, he had extensively poked and prodded members of the Grammy voting committee, sending over 7,000 promo emails on Grammy 365, a private social networking site for voting members. "The bottom line is he got the votes," says Recording Academy Vice President of Awards Bill Freimuth. "He was able to convince enough of our voting members that his recording was of a quality that deserved a Grammy nomination."

In the end, the Walser debacle served as definitive proof that the Grammys are still struggling to figure out what the hell dance music is all about.

Despite having been nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981 and Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2005, the celestial and paramount foursome that is Kraftwerk have yet to win a Grammy.

In an effort to correct this atrocity, The Grammy Academy handed their “Lifetime Achievement Award” to Kraftwerk in 2014, honoring the flagship group that is responsible for the nativity of electronic music. Period.

Fortunately, Kraftwerk has a chance to take home the gold this year after receiving a nomination in the category “Best Electronic/Dance Album” for their latest LP ‘3-D The Catalogue’. Fingers crossed for Kraftwerk! Mixmag is rooting for a win.

After taking home their first Grammys in 2009 for 'Alive 2007' and 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger', Daft Punk made a triumphant return with their 'Random Access Memories' album, which enlisted icons of the scene like Pharrell, Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers.

Despite the album's mixed reception, with such strong talent on board, it's no surprise that the album ended up winning the Best Dance/Electronica Album, but shocked many when it ended up also sweeping one of the awards show's biggest categories: Album of the Year. The album dominated over other pop heavyweights like Taylor Swift's 'Red', Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' 'The Heist' and Kendrick Lamar's 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City'.

The album's hit single 'Get Lucky' also swept across the board for Best Pop/Duo Group Performance, and again surprised many when it brought another big category win for Daft Punk with Record of the Year, beating out Lorde, Bruno Mars, Imagine Dragons and Robin Thicke and T.I.

While there have been many leaps forward in establishing electronic music as an essential fixture at the Grammys, this video perfectly summarizes the long road that still lies ahead.

When Aphex Twin won Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2015 for his album 'Syro', the announcer confused both Richard D. James' famous moniker and the album title while simultaneously mispronouncing both.

Despite this, James got his sweet revenge when the bizarre and warped vocal noise track '10 SHIT SMOTHERED' starting playing over the auditorium's loudspeaker - creating an beautifully uncomfortable and confusing moment for everyone in attendance.