Grammy countdown: The best new artist front-runners (Part 2)

Always one of the more controversial categories, best new artist remains, perhaps, the most difficult Grammy field to get just right. The vaguely defined category is open to interpretation.

Read the Grammy rules: "A new artist is defined as any performing artist who releases, during the eligibility year, the recording that first establishes the public identity of that artist as a performer." The "recording" in question doesn't have to be a full album, either. Witness alterna-rockers MGMT, which are on the ballot for the upcoming Grammy Awards, but released their "Oracular Spectacular" during last year's eligibility period.

Looking at the ballots for the 2010 Grammys, nominations for which will be announced next Wednesday, here's our second look at the front-runners for best new artist. On Tuesday, Pop & Hiss highlighted Diane Birch, the Zac Brown Band, MGMT, Laura Izibor and Wale. Pop & Hiss would love to see a Bat for Lashes or a Grizzly Bear sneak in, but they're not among the best bets to get nominated.

Who is? Read on.

Live: Ultra Music Festival in Miami

Ultra Music Festival brings out raucous revelers as well as electronica’s elite as DJs share the limelight.

"The DJ is the most important thing in music right now," will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas said in Miami on Saturday as the throb of the Ultra Music Festival vibrated the press tent around him. "In Europe, Australia, Brazil, Los Angeles and New York, electronic dance music really has this new inspirational energy. It reminds me of what hip-hop was in the 1980s."

The Peas chose Ultra, the massive, two-day flagship finale of the annual Winter Music Conference, to play "Boom Boom Pow," their new beat-driven single, being released digitally today.

In terms of A-list talent in Miami, they weren't alone: Although DJs and dance-music mavens have been flocking to the WMC for decades now, this year hip-hop was in the house.