Current:Home > ScamsEthermac|Another year, another Grammys where Black excellence is sidelined. Why do we still engage? -Wealth Evolution Experts
Ethermac|Another year, another Grammys where Black excellence is sidelined. Why do we still engage?
Fastexy View
Date:2025-04-08 19:47:18
I’ve tuned into the Grammy Awards every year for as long as I can Ethermacremember. As a fan of music and popular culture, I loved seeing all my favorite artists in one place. But as I became more cognizant of the politics behind these awards, I became increasingly disillusioned by them.
What happened Sunday night is a pattern the Grammys continuously uphold. Artists of color are notoriously shut out of the top categories: album of the year, song of the year and record of the year.
Taylor Swift took home album of the year for her 10th studio album, “Midnights.” She was nominated alongside SZA’s “SOS,” Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “GUTS” and more.
It’s argued that Swift’s record was one of the weakest in the category and one of the weaker albums in her own category (it’s me, I’m the one arguing).
Nevertheless, Swift’s win makes sense for the types of artists and music canon awarded in these main categories. A Black woman has not won album of the year since Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999.
MAGA says Taylor Swift is a Biden plant.But attacking her could cost Trump the election.
If they refuse to break barriers and award excellence in the mainstream, what hope does that give to the rest of the industry, the smaller artists who are often the true innovators? The ones who do win seem antithetical to what the Recording Academy postures itself to be.
From Beyoncé to Aretha Franklin, Black icons are sidelined
At last year's Grammy Awards show, Beyoncé's groundbreaking album “Renaissance,” a love letter to Black, queer culture, lost album of the year to “Harry’s House” by Harry Styles, an inoffensive, corporate pop album.
In fact, despite being the most-awarded artist in Grammy history, Beyoncé has never won album of the year. This reality is a common one for many Black artists who are pigeonholed to genre-specific categories and left out the main categories their white peers so freely exist in.
Aretha Franklin, who has 18 Grammys, was never even nominated in any main categories.
Tracy Chapman's Grammy's performance:Tracy Chapman, Luke Combs drove me to tears with 'Fast Car' Grammys duet. It's a good thing.
Jay-Z shed light on this issue, specifically in regards to his wife, Beyoncé, in his acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. “She has more Grammys than anyone and never won album of the year, so even by your own metrics that doesn’t work,” he said.
So why do we still care?
Every year we seem stuck in this fruitless tango. Nominations come out, there are some snubs but most take it for what it is and make wide-eyed predictions about who will win (mainly whom they want to win), the ceremony commences and it’s long and boring and full of upsets head-scratching wins.
The Recording Academy does what it always does, the think pieces roll out and then we profess the Grammys’ irrelevance just to rinse and repeat the following year.
If we know the Grammys have a history of fraudulence, why do we still engage every year? It’s not like the ceremony is particularly enjoyable. Most of the interesting awards and many of the historically Black genre awards are given out during the pre-show.
I think Jay-Z summed it up quite well: “We love y'all. We want y'all to get it right. At least get it close to right.”
We love the idea of the Grammys. Music is such a permeating force in our culture. It finds its way into the crevices of our being, creating memories and eliciting emotions otherwise unearthed.
It’s completely reasonable that we’d love to see those responsible awarded for their creative prowess. It’s a shame the entity tasked with doing so swears allegiance to conformity and refuses to honor those most deserving.
Kofi Mframa is a music and culture writer and opinion intern at the Louisville Courier-Journal.
veryGood! (94)
Related
- Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie return for an 'Encore,' reminisce about 'The Simple Life'
- 2024 MTV VMAs: See How Megan Thee Stallion Recreated Britney Spears' Iconic Snake Routine
- 'Fine Taylor...you win': Elon Musk reacts to Taylor Swift's endorsement for Harris-Walz
- Jon Bon Jovi helps talk woman down from ledge on Nashville bridge
- The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
- Severed pig head left on California home's doorstep in possible hate crime: 'Abnormal'
- 2024 MTV VMAs: Chappell Roan Brings Her Own Rug for Revealing Red Carpet Outfit Change
- Tyreek Hill: I could have 'been better' during police interaction before detainment
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Teen Mom’s Catelynn Lowell Claps Back at Critics Over Feud With Daughter’s Adoptive Parents
Ranking
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- North Carolina lawmakers approve more voucher funds and order sheriffs to aid federal agents
- Fed official broke ethics rules but didn’t violate insider trading laws, probe finds
- Olympian Jordan Chiles Returns to Spotlight at 2024 VMAs Red Carpet After Bronze Medal Debacle
- San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo
- Apple Watch Series 10: a larger and brighter screen, here is what we know
- Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on Instagram. Caitlin Clark, Oprah and more approved.
- Boeing factory workers are voting whether to strike and shut down aircraft production
Recommendation
Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
Experts to review 7 murder cases handled by Minnesota medical examiner accused of false testimony
WNBA players criticize commissioner for downplaying social media vitriol
2024 MTV VMAs: Flavor Flav Crowns Jordan Chiles With This Honor After Medal Controversy
Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
Orlando Bloom Adorably Introduces Katy Perry by Her Birth Name Before Love-Filled MTV VMAs Speech
The Dave Grohl new baby drama is especially disappointing. Here's why.
Share of foreign-born in the U.S. at highest rate in more than a century, says survey