So Kanye West has gone up on stage again and tried to squash a winning musician’s moment to bring us an important message (that Beyoncé is a genius). The internet went crazy, there were fish stick jokes floundering around and the world was enraged. This time, it was at this year’s Grammy awards ceremony, where Beck took home the top prize for his album Morning Phase. West went on stage, laughed, and went off the stage. The media took it as a joke, until West went on to complain about Beyoncé not winning again in an interview later.
We know the story because many outlets have hopped on this event like West did an awards stage that didn’t announce Beyoncé as a Goddess. Many lists came out stating how Beck won for his album and that West was in the wrong. If you didn’t watch the awards, you didn’t need to with the millions of updates. The big question that arouse around this fiasco is what true artistry meant. Beck apparently had all the reason in the world to be called an artist, and Beyoncé didn’t.
I am going to make a stupid mistake and be vocal, as if I had not learned by Kanye West‘s past behavior. I am going to play devil’s advocate. I won’t say that Kanye West is right, as he is not even close. What he did was selfish, childish and sadly typical of Kanye West. What I will do, instead, is comment on the millions of people who quickly lost their cool over a single event that they did not agree with. The comments went from a fair bashing of West’s behavior to an unjust bashing of Beyoncé, who had nothing to do with this event. It turns out that millions of people were making fun of a man they were basically being themselves.
Of course, millions of people didn’t jump onto a stage on live television, but they do interact with another live medium: The internet. Every single day, you will find more negative comments on artists’ social media pages than you will find positive. These comments are not just cynical, but they can be downright disgusting and offensive to boot. Remember the comments FKA Twigs got simply for dating someone who starred in a teen film franchise? This is not to say that everyone who insulted Kanye West for his actions will unjustly attack any artist (even with hatred), but there is a good chance that a large percentage of these kinds of people are. That’s because that is what you often find on any website nowadays. You will indeed find good research on the information superhighway, especially tips on how to be a vile degenerate if you disapprove of something.
Case in point: Kanye West is exhibiting the same behavior you do behind your screen anonymously (or clad by a username and a flattering picture you chose out of hundreds). He’s just doing it with such nerve and proud to tell everyone that it is he who said it. We wouldn’t want to be like Kanye West, right?
More proof of this is how people have tossed Beyoncé into the crossfire. Beyoncé has been a subject of humiliation ever since West made his comments, as even her reaction to his one man parade has made the news. When even the news anchors comment on how she tells Kanye West to not do what he is about to do, you would think people would know that she had nothing to do with this outburst. Apparently not, as more people have used her album’s stats to compare to Beck’s album as evidence to like Beck’s album than not. Why not just like the Beck album on its own merits?
So Beck made his album mostly by himself and is a multi instrumentalist. So Beyoncé has a large team that helped put together her album and she is merely a singer. Suddenly, that becomes an important factor when it comes to winning a Grammy. What about the team that helped Adele or the countless amounts of collaborators that helped Daft Punk? If we look outside of music, that would mean that Andy Warhol is not an artist either. Perhaps it is about the vision one has and not solely how much of that vision was accomplished alone. It isn’t as if Beyoncé claimed to have done the entire album alone, right?
As well, many musicians and/or singers have used large teams since the dawn of contemporary music (where it was even rare to not have a big team of helpers). Would you call Aretha Franklin anything but an artist? She’s as much of one as Beyoncé is. The final product should be the final say. Maybe you feel that Beck’s album was genuinely better, and that is the right way to analyze music. To try and compare two artists who have different trains of thought, methods and approaches is a bit silly. In the end, it comes down to who is the bigger artist, as many have tried to point out.
Maybe Beyoncé is an artist in another way. Herself titled album was acclaimed for its heavy handed voice on how women are portrayed in the world. She spoke out about female oppression, promoted female sexuality and empowerment, and she did this while breaking out of the pop confinements she was stuck in for years. She was raw and shocking. She did this without any promotion, either. Sure, maybe her status got her so far, but quality is what took her even further. As well, her self titled album is a visual one where every song has a music video (and some of these have also received high praise, even). Maybe she needed a massive team to do all of this, but so be it. We don’t get mad at films for requiring more people than other films. Beyoncé has a different approach to making music and that had nothing to do with Beck’s win (again, wouldn’t that mean that Daft Punk would have fallen flat on their face with all of the help they received?).
Don’t get me wrong, I love Beck. In fact, I prefer Beck to Beyoncé. I love much of his older catalogue and have done so since I was a child. He is exceptionally talented and has deserved awards for his work since the 90’s. I personally could not care less who won the biggest awards at the Grammys, as I do not follow them. Just to see Beck getting recognized again is wonderful, though. The amount of people, including professionals, who didn’t know he had a new album (or that he even exists) is appalling, so at least this stunt helped him get his much deserved publicity. This isn’t a preference of my own. This is a comment that people do what Kanye West does and do before they think.
I also love Kanye West’s music and have said so on here many times, so I am not someone who is anti-West. I, too, am getting tired of his stupid antics, though.
People did what West did behind their computers and jumped on an opportunity to be heard by the world. What if Beyoncé had won and West jumped on stage because he was angry that Beck lost? Would people be trying to find ways that Beck should have won? I highly doubt it. I feel that much of what has been said is based on opinion, but much is also based on the fact that it was Kanye West who tried to promote something else. This was the world’s way of trying to prove someone they consider foolish wrong. What’s the point of trying if he is such a fool, right?
You know who didn’t act like Kanye West? That’s Beck: the very man West ambushed. I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to praise West like Beck did, but the very man who was humiliated during the biggest moment of his life took the event as what it is; A stupid thing that should barely be regarded. Beck even found it inspiring that he technically met someone he was a fan of. Again, this does not mean that people should be worshiping West, but Beck has been much classier than a majority of the world right now. Had people complained about Kanye West, that would be one thing that I can understand very easily. It isn’t difficult to be annoyed by West. To bring someone who did nothing in and try to discredit her loss even more is petty on a Kanye West level.
Don’t get me started on this “drop the mic” phrase that’s trending as people try to put Beyoncé in her place (they are doing so inadvertently whether they realize it or not). It’s arrogant and annoying. Even Kanye West handed his microphone back to Taylor Swift during his first outrage at an awards show. You don’t want to be seen as more of a jackass than him, right?
The last thing to notice is that people were just talking about West’s new song with Paul McCartney earlier this year. He was just in a song with Rihanna (McCartney as well). He has been promising a new album since last year. Congratulations! You have helped promote Kanye West for his new album as he had probably hoped you would. The Grammys end up being more talked about for the wrong reasons, Beyoncé is being ridiculed over the one album she should be commended for, and people are talking about Beck’s album as one that trumps Beyoncé’s (as said in a juvenile and tactless manor) instead of why they truly like it. Suddenly, everything is now a contest based on how much you do on an album, not how good it truly is (again, if you honestly prefer Beck, that’s fair game. If you just prefer music because someone does many things and not because you actually like it, then you have a problem there).You also helped the very fool you’re complaining about get the ultimate headlines before his new album drops. All of these outcomes are West’s fault, but they’re all of yours, too.
I await the barrage.
