Billy Fishkin breaks down the Grammy Awards moment everyone is talking about and holds court on ‘artistry.’
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Impetuous lightning rod and Beyoncé defender, Kanye West, was at it again at the 57th Grammy Awards last Sunday night. West abruptly encroached on Beck’s “moment” as Beck’s Morning Phase collection was announced as 2015 Grammy Album of the Year.
Shortly after his brief onstage protest, with the mics still on and only a slightly cooler head prevailing, West sought to explain himself to an E! aftershow reporter:
“Because when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in their face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration. And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day, and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”
Lost in Kanye’s unsolicited Beyoncé defense was actually a solid point, one that is quite consistent with what the music industry has historically defended to the hilt: that there must be a fair reward to artists in order to encourage their continued artistic creation and inspire future artists.
In fact, just moments after West photobombed Beck on stage and minutes before his E! rant, the Grammys effectively voiced that very message in planned, scripted form. Recording Academy president, Neil Portnow, along with singers Jennifer Hudson and Ryan Tedder, expressed the need to strengthen the fight for fair royalties and revenue streams in the face of changing music technologies. It’s an important point, one that I strongly support. As Mr. Portnow posed, “What if we’re all watching the Grammys a few years from now and there’s no Best New Artist award because there aren’t enough talented artists and songwriters who are actually able to make a living from their craft?”
I don’t believe Kanye was really saying anything different. He just used the wrong model. Kanye should have seen that Beck’s winning Album of the Year supports the argument. Whereas Beck did enjoy repeated platinum success during his 90s heyday, Morning Phase is the lowest selling album to win the Album of the Year Grammy since 2008. So, while I don’t imagine he is struggling to pay his utility bills, to be sure Beck is not currently that former single lady whose album sold over 800,000 units in its first three days without so much as a title, stylized packaging, or any advance promotion whatsoever.
No, I don’t think Beyoncé will be giving up her craft any time soon, just because of one less Grammy on her presumably very nice mantle. Beck, however, despite his many albums sold, more closely represents hope to the non-household names, the critical darlings, and, as Kanye himself hopes, the inspirers.
West simply needs to recognize that if Grammys are to only correspond to the best known and the best selling, it won’t be artistic creation that is perpetuated, but rather just the egos and bank accounts of those already on top. He needs to recognize that the threat to fair compensation for musical artists to which Mr. Portnow was referring is not a first world problem.
Having been schooled over the past year by my teenage son, I’ve become a definite appreciator of Kanye’s talents. Yeezus, in particular, is a superbly innovative collection. He has earned his place as a loud voice in the music industry, and I’m all for him using that voice constructively. I just hope he comes to realize that some of his hasty, albeit impassioned stunts only obstruct that constructive potential, and that when he takes a second to pump his brakes before he acts, he’ll realize that musical inspirers like Beck are really part of the same fraternity as Beyoncé and him.
Drive slow, homey.
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Photo Credit: Screen Capture/CBS