Of course, the Academy is based in Los Angeles, hardly a polka haven. If NARAS was headquartered in, say Milwaukee or Chicago, it might be dancing to a different tune – one with tubas and accordions.

One person sure to lose out big time on the Academy’s flush polka decision is Jimmy Sturr – America’s Polka King and winner of the best polka album Grammy 18 of the last 24 years.

“Sure I feel a little bad, but I’m grateful, man,” said 58-year-old Sturr, adding that all those Grammy awards not only helped him gain recognition but also helped polka move more into the mainstream by fusing with pop, country, rock and folk.

Sturr isn’t all too sure the folks behind the Academy dropping polka from the Grammy awards actually know what the musical genre is about. He said if there’s 20 people on the committee that recommended eliminating the category, “19 of them have never been to a polka concert.”

The Academy eliminating the best polka album category is the latest insult against the genre polka fans have had to endure.  Carl Finch of the Tex-MexTejano-Conjunto-Polka fusion band Brave Combo, which won the best polka album category in 1999 and 2004, says polka fans are fed up with polka not getting enough recognition as well as being the butt of too many jokes about lederhosen and accordions.

“It’s not the polka world’s not used to it,” Finch said. “The polka world expects it. It’s like, ‘Yeah, the man did it to us again.’”

What do you think? Is polka music no longer “pertinent” and was the Academy justified in removing the best polka album category from the Grammys? Check off your answer in the poll below and leave a comment or two … anna three anna four.