What the hell is the difference between Alternative Album of the Year and Adult Alternative Album of the Year?

Originally Posted by imposs1ble

An american equivalent would be something like Brand New being alternative and Elvis Costello being adult alternative.

I can understand that now, but they had the categories reversed when I first looked at it. The likes of Metric, Japandroids, and Stars were all in the "Adult" section, which essentially made no sense. But all is forgiven now.