If you watched the Grammy’s this past weekend, you no doubt saw that Beyoncé became the most decorated performer ever in Grammy history. I like Beyoncé though admit I haven’t heard more than a couple of songs from “Renaissance”. I’m sure it was very deserving of recognition and that’s why the Grammy voters bestowed several awards upon her for the album – and why she is now the all-time Grammy winner.
But the topic du jour, of course, is that Beyoncé has never won the so-called “big” award, Album of the Year. Some people have said the Grammy voters are out-of-touch or worse, misogynistic and racist. It’s true that out of all the Album of the Year winners, only 11 have been Black (one of them – Jon Batiste – took home last year’s award while Stevie Wonder was the first Black artist in 1974 and has won the award three times). It’s also true that only three Black women have won the award previously (for the record: Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, and Lauryn Hill).
So maybe Beyoncé lost to Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” because the Grammy voters lean conservative or worse, because they are biased against women of color. Maybe, as this LA Times Opinion piece stated, it’s because of pure politics:
Less perniciously, simple politics is at play too. The academy rewards artists it knows, whether through business relationships or through a willingness to perform at its charity galas and appear on its TV shows. Carlile has done just about every one of those you can think of; Styles’ manager, who sat next to him during Sunday’s ceremony, is Jeffrey Azoff, whose father Irving is one of the most well-connected people in the music industry. Beyoncé, in contrast, doesn’t play much ball.
While I have a hard time believing that Beyoncé is less “well-connected” than Brandi Carlile or Harry Styles, it’s certainly possible that politics factor into these awards. I mean, people get hired for jobs every day because they know someone at the company where they’re interviewing.
To be clear, I’m not here to debate WHY Beyoncé lost or even whether or not her loss was a mistake. One of the problems with – or beauties of, if the glass is half full – music, as with all art, is that it’s highly subjective. What sounds like, literally, music to my ears, may sound like unwelcome noise to you, and vice versa.
Should Beyoncé have won? I don’t know. Are the Grammy voters racist, or just conservative and clueless? No idea. But I’m here to make the case that regardless of the answers to those questions, the artist who did win the Album of the Year award does not deserve the kind of hatred, vitriol, and straight-up booing and bullying he received during and after the Awards.
First, full disclosure: My younger daughter recently brought me to a Harry Styles concert. I was already a casual fan but the concert confirmed for me that he is not only talented and charismatic, he puts on a great show, seems to genuinely enjoy performing for his fans, and “Harry’s House” is (subjectively, in my opinion) a great album.
So when he won the Album of the Year award, I certainly wasn’t upset. I knew Beyoncé was the expected winner and that there would be some outrage. But I was shocked that the blowback I witnessed was directed towards Harry, himself. You could hear a number of people in the Grammy audience booing and yelling at him during his acceptance speech, and both during and after the show, the online social media comments were full of disdain and disrespect towards him as people began the now-familiar “Beyoncé was robbed” refrain. To her credit and demonstrating that she’s a class act, Bey stood with many other artists including Lizzo and Adele, and applauded Harry’s win.
But again, I’m not going to weigh in on whether or not Beyoncé should have won the award or what is really to blame for the Grammy voters seemingly dissing her in the Album of the Year category so many times.
The problem I want to address is the hate and utter disrespect showered upon the artist who was given the award. Any artist – male, female, transgender, straight, queer, black or white – who is crapped upon because they dared accept an award that Grammy voters bestowed upon them deserves better.
Whether you believe Harry Styles was the rightful recipient of this award or not, hate and disrespect should never be sent his way or towards any other artist in his situation. Take it up with the Grammy voters but don’t punish the artist who likely worked just as hard as Bey to create something his fans would appreciate and is, in turn, appreciative for the recognition. In this particular case, the hate is even more distressing given Harry is known for preaching love and kindness, acceptance and individuality, and he literally celebrates these values during each and every one of his performances.
I saw comments that called out the part of Harry’s speech where he seemed to very sincerely say, “This doesn’t happen very often to people like me” – comments like: “Imagine a white man saying this when a Black woman was up for this award.” Again, I’m not saying Grammy voters haven’t slighted women of color – it’s very possible they have – but that doesn’t mean Harry’s comment was unaware or racist in nature. When he talked about “people like me”, he could have been referring to any number of things: his humble background, his boy-band beginnings, or the fact that many people have dismissed his music in the past because his fan base includes a lot of screaming teenage girls. And in a Rolling Stone article published last August, he told the author of the story about his attempts to become more educated, thoughtful and outspoken about issues that were important to him, saying, “Pretending as a white person you don’t get a head start just isn’t true.”
I guess the bottom line is that every misstep or perceived wrong in the world – from major issues to minor ones like a Grammy award – can now be condemned in real-time and that’s the world we have to live in. But maybe those who are so vehemently condemning need to take just a few moments to think not only about what they’re saying but to whom they’re directing their wrath.
As Harry says in the song…
Maybe we can
Find a place to feel good
And we can treat people with kindness
Find a place to feel good.
Sounds like good advice to me.
suburbandirt 