Very few folks perceive what it is wish to stroll away with a Grammy. It’s a uncommon and tangible show of appreciation for an artist’s work. It’s additionally not an expertise everybody will get to have, together with those that are past deserving. And sadly, most of the time, Grammy winners are likely to share the same identification and privilege. So, when Harry Styles received the award for album of the yr on the Feb. 5 award present and stated “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” viewers had been confused.
It’s not that Styles is not deserving of accolades and reward: “Harry’s House” was a giant launch of the final yr, leading to a number of candy music movies and a world tour that’s one way or the other nonetheless going. And together with his remark, Styles was seemingly referring to his upbringing with out trade connections in a comparatively small English city. Or maybe he was referring to his boy-band beginnings and subsequent battle to be taken critically as a solo artist. But in the end, the remark didn’t acknowledge the artists who repeatedly get snubbed by the Recording Academy — the individuals who really do not get to win typically.
It’s price breaking down some vital numbers: Styles is the thirty third white man to take residence the Grammy for album of the yr within the present’s historical past. So to say that “people like him” do not typically win was a obtrusive oversight at finest. By comparability, eight Black males and three Black ladies have received within the class. Though she made historical past this yr as essentially the most awarded artist total, Beyoncé was largely believed to have been snubbed for album of the yr — a class she’s by no means received, regardless of being nominated 5 occasions.
This comes at a time when award present voting teams are below better scrutiny. Much just like the Golden Globes, which in 2022 needed to go on a hiatus, the Grammys have additionally in recent times been the topic of controversy and criticism over its lack of variety and “boys’ club” tradition.
The tenuous nature of award present voting was evident in a sequence of nameless interviews Variety performed with varied Recording Academy members. Though revealed previous to the Grammys, the piece is once more being circulated in mild of Beyoncé’s snub, particularly due to one voter’s explicit quote: “With Beyoncé, the fact that every time she does something new, it’s a big event and everyone’s supposed to quake in their shoes — it’s a little too portentous.” Even on the high of her craft, Beyoncé cannot win.
The flaws in Styles’s remark don’t provide an excuse to assault his character, or diminish his achievements as a musician, however you will need to acknowledge the present imbalance of scales in order that artists from all kinds of backgrounds are frequently acknowledged. As it stands now, wins like these do largely occur for folks like Styles, and whether or not you are a fan of his or not, that should change.
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