The Grammy Nominees For Best New Artist Point To A Sea Change In Pop

The Grammy Awards' category for new artists has always been the Hufflepuff house of the event, a mishmash of eccentrics, high achievers and hard-working young music industry favorites. (Notorious category winners Milli Vanilli did work hard, just not at singing.) Rarely has the field clearly pointed toward an exciting new musical era. But this year, that's exactly what it suggests.

Three breakthrough pop stars, each of whom embodies creativity and influence in the streaming age – and who, together, garnered this year's most Grammy nominations across the board – compete with three women exploding the boundaries of genres that might have previously held them back, alongside two groups with major grassroots followings and a powerful way of defying categorization. These musicians are fluent in the style-defying language of 21st-century sounds; their