Grammys grapple with ‘new’ artist label

Often in Grammy Awards competition the most-controversial and least-defined major category has been best new artist -- and not just because disco one-hitters A Taste of Honey beat out fellow nominee Elvis Costello in 1978.

In recent years, the definition of “new artist” has been broadened to include not just acts literally making their first albums, but also those getting their first real shot at major recognition. In 2000, Shelby Lynne won for her critically praised “I Am Shelby Lynne,” despite having put out five previous major-label albums. Dozens of other artists have been declared eligible for the category despite extensive credits, including a few years ago Donal Lunny, a leader of the Irish folk music scene for 30 years.

So it’s not unreasonable that fellow music journalist Roy Trakin, columnist for Hits magazine, wondered aloud about potential new-artist consideration for two prominent artists who made their solo debuts this year: Beyonce Knowles and Justin Timberlake, branching out from Destiny’s Child and ‘N Sync, respectively.

That’s an easy one, says Diane Theriot, senior vice president of awards for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the organization that awards the Grammys: Those names won’t be among the potential nominees when ballots are sent out Oct. 22. Nominations will be announced in early December.

“If an artist has been nominated in the past, even as a member of a group, they are not eligible as a new artist,” Theriot says. “And they gained national recognition long before this year.” The rules were changed after Lauryn Hill won as best new artist of 1998, despite having been in the Fugees, who had been nominated for album of the year and other awards for 1996’s “The Score.”

Theriot acknowledges that criteria for defining new artist still leave some wiggle room.

“Some times we err, but we try to err on the side of the artists,” Theriot says. “So if maybe they had an album out that was locally recognized and didn’t get a nomination, they can probably go through again and try.”

The problem may be use of the term “new” in cases that might better be called “breakthrough.” So why not create a new award for breakthrough artist of the year?

“We’ve had a couple of proposals go through our committees,” she says. “But maybe they haven’t been proposed just right. All that it may take is someone to submit the right proposal.”

Roc-A-Fella branches out

A lot of pop- and rock-oriented record labels have profited from moving into hip-hop. But there’s been little success for rap-grounded labels moving into rock, unless you count the 1996 merger of Island and Def Jam -- though that’s a different kind of beast. Priority, for example, tried to parlay its success with such gangsta icons as N.W.A into a related alternative-rock label in the mid-’90s, with little to show for it.

Now Damon Dash, co-founder (with Jay-Z) and president of hip-hop powerhouse Roc-A-Fella Records, is starting a label, Roc Music, with plans to apply the success formulas of the rap world in pop and rock markets.

To Dash, that means starting street buzz campaigns well before an artist is “officially” launched and looking for early sponsorship tie-ins and artist placements. He’s commencing such a plan with Samantha Ronson, a New York club DJ who is moving into rock. A single has just gone out to radio stations in top markets, and the singer is rehearsing with a band in L.A. now, though Dash isn’t certain when Ronson’s debut album will be released.

Dash -- who has entered the world of movies as director of the hip-hop spoof “Death of a Dynasty” and executive producer of “The Woodsman” starring Kevin Bacon, Benjamin Bratt, Mos Def and Eve -- doesn’t claim to know any secrets for rock success.

“I’m not going in thinking I know more about it than I do,” says Dash, who is also executive producer of the coming solo album by Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham. “I’m surrounding myself with people who do know a lot about it. Coming to marketing I know it’s a whole other game. But everything I’ve ever done has been traditionally against my favor.”

Tori Amos’ ‘autobiography’

Anyone who’s followed Tori Amos’ career wouldn’t expect her to release a conventional “best of” album. And indeed, her coming “Tales of a Librarian: A Tori Amos Collection” is distinctive.

“It’s the closest thing to an autobiography of this woman’s life,” Amos says, explaining that the anthology traces her own story and evolution. “It’s about how she grew up in a religious household and then started playing the Washington circuit in the hotel piano bars for congressmen, lobbyists, their rent boys and their call girls.”

The album, due Nov. 18, will also feature two new songs, “Angel” (“my take on this time,” she says) and “Snow Cherries From France” (a song she’d been working on for years), and two omitted from her 1990 solo debut, “Little Earthquakes.” She’s gone back to the original master tapes on all the tracks and in some cases done some rather significant revisions, to her thinking correcting some decisions that were made at the time.

“Someone said, ‘Bury the strings in “Winter” because it won’t be commercial.’ ” “And now I’m trying to preserve what was on tape, not necessarily what got released because of a decision that was made in 20 seconds at the time.”

Small faces

* Ben Harper’s recent Hollywood Bowl concert was filmed for a home DVD release, set for a Nov. 18 release. The set included a version of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” plus bonuses of a sound-check performance of “Ground On Down” and a backstage acoustic version of “Glory & Consequence.”

* Kathleen York plays the “West Wing” congresswoman who at the end of last season gave birth to twins. Under her singer-songwriter name Bird York, she has given birth to “The Velvet Hour,” produced in part by longtime Joni Mitchell collaborator Larry Klein, with other production and co-writing by veteran L.A. musician Michael Becker. York is releasing the album on her own Blissed Out Records, though several indie labels are interested in picking it up.

* Danii Minogue (yes, Kylie’s little sister) will make her U.S. debut with the album “Neon Nights,” due Oct. 7 from Ultra Records. The dance-oriented set has already spawned four hit singles in the U.K. and Minogue’s native Australia, where, like her sister, she’s a veteran TV presence.