Producers hyped Sunday’s telecast of the Grammys as a smorgasbord of music performances. What they presented smacked of a hip-hop binge. Even the few pop artists who performed featured rappers as condiments – like ketchup on hotdog.
Granted, according to a Nielsen report on January 3, last year saw hip-hop finally surpass rock and roll as the most popular music genre. No doubt producers based their catering on that report.
But they had three and a half hours. Therefore, they could easily have included more “diverse” performances, especially from genres like alternative rock (grunge), blues, and jazz.
As the telecast played out, viewers not into hip-hop must have felt like producers were jamming it down their throats. Which probably explains this:
Ratings for the 2018 Grammys slipped over 20 percent from last year’s event, putting Music’s Biggest Night in danger of securing its lowest ratings in modern history.
(RollingStone, January 29, 2018)
That said, this was supposed to be the Jay-Z show. It was enough that he led all nominations with eight for 4:44. But his A-list peers hailed him like royalty at the annual Clive Davis and Recording Academy’s pre-Grammy gala on Saturday night, at which they crowned him with a special Industry Icon award.
But talk about anticlimactic:
He didn’t win a single award. Jay-Z has had a complicated relationship with the show for a long time (he boycotted for years until Beyoncé was nominated) and also declined to perform on Sunday’s telecast.
(Washington Post, January 29, 2018)
Jay-Z reportedly declined to perform simply because he didn’t feel like it – as if other superstars like U2 performed because they needed the exposure.
Mind you, this is the icon who boycotted the Grammys for years for dissing hip-hop. Yet he made a mockery of that purportedly principled stand by giving this lame explanation (at that pre-Grammy gala) for finally getting over … himself:
I realized, man, all this is super subjective, and everyone’s doing their best, and the Academy — they’re human, like we are, and they’re voting on things that they like; it’s subjective.
(People, January 28, 2018)
Duh.
But I fear this humiliating snub might cause him to have a boycott relapse – much as trauma might cause an addict to have a drug relapse.
In any event, it speaks volumes that it was Bruno Mars who upstaged Jay-Z on what was produced as hip-hop’s biggest night at the Grammys – ever. After all, Mars is a classic R&B artist, who actually looks and performs like the musical progeny of a hookup between Prince and Michael Jackson.
Again, Jay-Z’s 4:44 was nominated for eight. He won none. Mars’s 24K Magic was nominated for six. He won all six, including the top three awards for Album, Song, and Record of the Year.
This bring me to the conspicuous absence of women as winners in any of the major categories. This, on a night when women were making quite a show of their newly realized empowerment with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
SZA, the woman with the most nominated, won zero; Lorde, the only woman nominated for album of the year, lost to Bruno Mars; and in the pop-solo-performance category, in which four women were nominated along with Ed Sheeran, it was the lone (absent) man who won.
(Vanity Fair, January 29, 2018)
The telecast featured many women as performers. But Alessia Cara, who won Best New Artist, was the only woman featured as a Grammy winner.
I fully support the reckoning for sexual harassers, which these movements portend. But I’m not so bothered by this practical shut out because I fully appreciate the irony.
Frankly, it seems perversely fitting that women would be so disrespected on a night orchestrated to celebrate the dominance of hip-hop. After all, no other music genre has misogyny so rooted in its DNA.
For the record, though, hashtag protests like #OscarsSoWhite and #GrammysSoMale are becoming trite. Not least because results will continue to be thus, so long as members of the respective voting academies remain mostly white males. More diversity will preclude such sour-grapes protests.
Incidentally, I do not recall anyone protesting #GrammysSoFemale after Adele dominated in 2016. Not to mention that I had cause just last year to write “#OscarsSoDiverse…,” January 27, 2017. Just sayin’.
Meanwhile, there were a few memorable performances. My best three:
- SZA – “Broken Clocks”
- Kendrick Lamar – medley, including “XXX” and “DNA”
- Patti LuPone – “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”
Alas, there were many forgettable ones. My worst three:
- Sam Smith – “Pray”
- Sting and Shaggy – “Englishman in New York”
- John Legend – for upstaging 91-year-old Tony Bennett. Evidently, this upstart couldn’t resist hitting a higher note and holding it longer during their bit performance of Bennett’s signature song “New York, New York.”
With that, I shall end on a confessional note in homage to Jay-Z’s confessional album.
I reveled more with each of his eight humiliating snubs. Mind you, I like 4:44. What’s more, I think it was worthy of at least one Grammy. Yet I reveled because I realized instantly that karma was being meted out.
It stems from what I wrote about his marriage in “For LGBTs in North Carolina, Beyoncé Is a Sellout,” May 6, 2016.
____________________
Lemonade is all about Beyoncé playing her fans for suckers; you know, the way Donald Trump plays his supporters.
In fact, the women who believe her I-am-woman-hear-me-roar-against-my-cheating-husband shtick are no smarter than the rednecks who believe his ‘Make-America-Great-Again’ shtick.
Frankly, even the Kardashians can’t keep up with the way Bey and Jay exploit the intimacies of family life, including infidelities. Which is why it’s hardly surprising that he’s planning to mix his ‘Iced Tea’ with her Lemonade.
____________________
Okay, so his mix with Beyoncé’s Lemonade turned out to be not “Iced Tea” but 4:44. Evidently, it signifies that they were both born on the fourth day and married on fourth day of the fourth month. In any case, I’m sure royalties will help them get over his Grammy humiliation.
Interestingly enough, Beyoncé led all nominations last year with nine for Lemonade. She won two. Except that, if she were properly snubbed for that album, the way Jay-Z was for this one, she would have 20 career Grammys to his, still, 21.
Related commentaries:
Beyoncé and Jay-Z stupid fans…
Adele vs Beyoncé…
#MeToo…
#OscarsSoDiverse…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.