Ah the Grammys, the award show we pretend has no meaning yet
its outcomes never fail to make us irrationally mad. This year the main controversy or travesty of
the century came when Beck beat Beyoncé for album of the year causing many to
cry out “Who is Beck” and others to become self-conscious about their age when
shaking their head at such ignorance. It’s
been a rough month for the recent past on Twitter as Missy Elliott and Paul
McCartney have also joined Beck on the “Who is” parade. You can chalk this up to kids being kids, but
it always confuses me as to why people ask these question rather than taking
the natural step of googling said artistic question marks and listening to a
few of their hits. We live in an age
where information is at an excess and could not be easier to obtain. Instead of projecting your ignorance all over social
media, why can’t people take a few minutes to educate themselves on the unknown? Americans have a zeal for wantonly forgetting
their past and believing that if they don’t immediately recognize what’s
happening in front of them, it can’t be worthy of any attention. Not knowing Beck is easily on the lower side
of this cultural scale (but still unforgivable, the man wrote “Loser” and Sea Change) but it still exists on the
scale. It points to a lack of interest
in the unknown and how people choose not to expand their own horizons. It takes the same amount of time to tweet out
who is Beck as it does to actually look up the artist in question and start
learning about a great musician. Those sorts
of clueless tweets annoy me because it makes having a lack of knowledge seem cool
or the right way to go about things. Why
would somebody brag to the world through social media about not knowing who an
acclaimed artist is? Why would somebody
feel proud about projecting that around the world? Again not know Beck is very low on the scale
of cultural and historical ignorance but it still connects to how we shun
knowledge and refuse to grow as intellects.
Americans not knowing their history has become a tired meme and unfortunately
we keep reinforcing the old stereotype.
I just wish that people would take the time to educate themselves before
proudly blasting their ignorance across the internet.
As for Kanye West, I agree with his larger point about the
Grammys not recognizing talent (just look at their picks for best songs and
albums for the 60’s and 70’s), but I didn’t like the way he attacked Beck for a
lack of “artistry”. Such a statement is
baffling as it is well known that Beck writes all his own songs and plays a myriad
of instruments. The man can play all
styles of music and can shift personas from goofy prankster to funk god to hurt
singer-songwriter in the blink of an eye.
In regards to Beyoncé, can you really compare the two? Beyoncé isn’t Beck and Beck isn’t Beyoncé
(one can dance and sing really well and the other can write and perform a
killer song); they do different things (shocking I know). At this point it looks like Kanye West keeps
defending Beyoncé because he has a massive crush on her or the only thing he
fears in life is reprisal from the Beyhive/Illuminati if he insults the Queen
of the modern pop scene. In my humble opinion
I thought Beck’s album was better than Beyoncé’s and currently have “Blue Moon”
and “Heart is a Drum” on repeat. Beyoncé
has won over 20 Grammys so I’d say she’s doing a okay, Kanye. If anything this Grammy was making up for the
times Beck was snubbed in the past and that’s alright. Beyoncé will get her album of the year in
5-10 years and then Twitter will blow up with blasphemy like “Who is Beyonce”
and “Justice for ____”. The cycle will
never be unbroken.
The best part of the Grammys was not even televised and
happened two days before the awards ceremony and it didn’t involve any
music. It was Bob Dylan’s speech when he
accepted the Musicares award. Look up
the speech and read it because it is fascinating. Dylan spent a half hour discussing everything
from his critics to his heroes to his origins to his hatred of over
singing. Bob Dylan never ceases to amaze
and the speech is being hailed as another great Dylan moment. Long live the king. Read the transcript it will knock you out
loaded.
They need to have a 50:50 ratio of ballads to upbeat songs
at these shows because last night sounded more like a funeral than a
celebration of corporate music that nobody really likes (other than Beck who is
great). I want to see excitement at my
awards shows that don’t involve an idiot attempting to crash the stage. Prince can’t save every award show! Take a page from the VMA’s and just go
crazy. There’s a reason why everybody
enjoys that show and we all criticize the Grammys to high heaven.
Overall the Grammys don’t matter unless your favorite musician
gets snubbed or wins. If it’s option one
then the show is fucking travesty and an outdated joke or a lame popularity
contest amongst corporatist pigs. If
your favorite wins, well it’s about time those outdated assholes got one right. It’s about fricking time.
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