A coalition of musicians including Paul Simon and Carlos Santana are voicing their opposition to the Recording Academy's elimination of more than 30 categories from the Grammy Awards. The artists claim that the Recording Academy unfairly targeted ethnic music in selecting categories for elimination and are demanding that the organization reinstate them.

"I believe the Grammys have done a disservice to many talented musicians by combining previously distinct and separate types of music into a catch-all of blurry larger categories," Simon wrote in a letter to Grammy president and CEO Neil Portnow. "They deserve the separate Grammy acknowledgements that they've been afforded until this change eliminated them."

Choose Rolling Stone's Cover: The Sheepdogs vs. Lelia Broussard. Vote Now!

Portnow insists that the cuts in the number of categories is not limited to non-mainstream and ethnic music. "In this year's awards there were 34 mainstream categories. Next year there will be 20 mainstream categories. In non-mainstream categories there were 71. In the upcoming 54th awards, there will be 54," he told the Associated Press. The Academy has consolidated several categories, most notably by doing away with gender-based categories in pop, R&B, country and rock.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories