tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/grammy-awards-8645/articlesGrammy Awards – The Conversation2024-03-04T13:38:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226942024-03-04T13:38:26Z2024-03-04T13:38:26ZFrom ‘Jaws’ to ‘Schindler’s List,’ John Williams has infused movie scores with adventure and emotion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578158/original/file-20240227-30-vrbqen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C4%2C2973%2C2061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Composer John Williams conducts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall opening gala, Oct. 25, 2003, in Los Angeles, Calif.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/composer-john-williams-performs-on-stage-at-the-walt-disney-news-photo/2650695">Carlo Allegri/Getty Images for LAPA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Harrison Ford <a href="https://www.essentiallysports.com/us-sports-news-olympics-news-equestrian-news-as-year-old-hollywood-superstar-takes-one-last-ride-in-indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-his-persistent-fondness-for-horse-riding-is-clearly-evident/">saddles up once again</a> in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” he has an invisible partner along for the ride: composer John Williams, who received his <a href="https://www.classicfm.com/composers/williams/john-every-oscar-nomination/">54th Academy Award nomination</a> for scoring the movie.</p>
<p>Reviews are mixed, but as <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-movie-review-2023">one critic writes</a>, “When Indy and Helena (his goddaughter) get to actual treasure-hunting, and John Williams’ all-timer theme kicks in again, the movie clicks.” </p>
<p>At 92, Williams is the oldest Oscar nominee in Academy history – <a href="https://ew.com/john-williams-breaks-own-oscars-record-oldest-person-ever-nominated-8547953#:%7E:text=Of%20those%20nods%2C%20Williams%20has,and%20Schindler's%20List%20in%201994.">for the second time</a>. <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/john-williams-hollywood-s-maestro-goes-for-more-oscars-history-/6995194.html">The first time</a> was in 2023, when his score to “The Fabelmans” was nominated. Altogether, Williams has been nominated for more Oscars than anyone in movie history except Walt Disney and has won five.</p>
<p>Williams began working in television and film in the 1950s, first as a studio pianist and then as a composer for television and feature films. But it wasn’t until his music for 1975’s “Jaws,” with its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BePfzCOMRZQ">ominous two-note motif</a>, that he left his indelible stamp on Hollywood. </p>
<p>When Williams’ music for “Star Wars” poured out of cinema sound systems two years later, he single-handedly made the symphonic movie score respectable again, after a decade of <a href="https://archive.org/details/hollywoodrhapsod0000marm">rock ’n’ roll compilations and quirky uses</a> of regional material with limited instrumentation. If “Star Wars” hadn’t been a blockbuster, movies might never have returned to the use of big orchestras, which were standard from the advent of synchronized sound in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018037/">1927’s “The Jazz Singer</a>” into the 1960s.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">John Williams conducts a Vienna Philharmonic performance of the main title from ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ in 2021.</span></figcaption>
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<p>I am a <a href="https://www.arthurgottschalk.com/about/">music professor, composer of orchestral works</a> and lifelong student of film music. My admiration for John Williams has only deepened as he has continued to produce greatness.</p>
<p>Whether it’s disaster films like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069113/">The Poseidon Adventure</a>,” blockbusters such as the <a href="https://www.classicfm.com/composers/williams/harry-potter-soundtrack-famous-themes-composers/">first three “Harry Potter” films</a> or stirring dramas like “<a href="https://example83813.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/schindlers-list-john-williams/">Schindler’s List</a>,” Williams continues to prove that he can do it all, regardless of genre. His film scores owe much to his deep background in every aspect of music, from a young age.</p>
<h2>The early years</h2>
<p>After a stint in the Air Force, during which he wrote his first film score, for a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/star-wars-composer-john-williams-first-score-a-1952-newfoundland-film-1.3241603">travelogue about Newfoundland</a>, Williams studied at the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music. In 1956 he returned to Los Angeles, where he had once led dance bands as a high schooler under the name “<a href="https://www.metv.com/lists/listen-to-the-awesome-early-television-work-of-star-wars-composer-john-williams">Little Johnny Love</a>.”</p>
<p>He quickly found work as a film studio pianist and came to the attention of renowned Hollywood composer <a href="https://www.henrymancini.com/pages/biography">Henry Mancini</a>. Credited as Johnny Williams, he performed the iconic bass line ostinato – meaning “obstinate” in Italian – for Mancini’s <a href="https://variety.com/2022/artisans/news/peter-gunn-session-henry-mancini-centennial-celebration-john-williams-1235403949/">theme for the television detective classic</a> “Peter Gunn.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">John Williams played piano on the 1959 original recording of the theme song from ‘Peter Gunn.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>Williams became a sought-after studio keyboardist, playing on the <a href="https://www.wtju.net/apprenticeship-john-williams/">film soundtracks</a> for hits such as “West Side Story.” He augmented this work by arranging and orchestrating odd bits of music here and there for television and movies. </p>
<p>His first scores were for television shows such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048893/">Playhouse 90</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049996/">Bachelor Father</a>” and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx7A4sxJi7c">pilot episode of “Gilligan’s Island</a>.” Williams worked with producer Irwin Allen on shows such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058824/">Lost in Space</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062578/">Land of the Giants</a>.” His first feature film score was for <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052719/">1958’s “Daddy-O</a>.” </p>
<h2>The blockbusters</h2>
<p>For Williams’ score for “Star Wars” and many subsequent films, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. “Star Wars” reached the Billboard Top 10 in 1977 on both the Hot 100 and adult contemporary charts – an extraordinary crossover feat that has never been repeated.</p>
<p>His work on “Star Wars” showed that what amounted to an orchestral suite based on the score could sell extremely well as a soundtrack album. This made Williams <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/hearing-the-movies-9780199987719">an important source of revenue for a film</a>, and a highly valued collaborator. </p>
<p>But it was his score for <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/steven-spielberg-john-williams-50-year-collaboration-retirement-1235298681/">longtime associate</a> Steven Spielberg’s 1982 hit film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083866/">E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial</a>” that was Williams’ first score to be embraced by concert orchestras. It introduced audiences to his other side, as a composer of serious concert music. </p>
<p>The suite from “E.T.” was frequently performed by orchestras across the country, <a href="https://online.berklee.edu/store/product?product%5Fid=11222&usca%5Fp=t">to great acclaim</a>. Orchestral demand for Williams’ music rose to such a level that his career as a classical musician became almost as fruitful as his work with film music. Williams’ scores not only moved audiences but also provided each member of the orchestra a meaningful and satisfactory playing experience, thus increasing his appeal to performers of his music.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Danish National Symphony Orchestra performs the flying theme from ‘E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>The “E.T.” music also soars, literally, on film. The scoring of the finale, in which protagonist Elliott and his friends help the alien escape captivity and return to his home planet, is so effective that Spielberg <a href="https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/4705/adventures-on-earth-from-et-the-extra-terrestrial">re-cut the end of the film</a> to match Williams’ music, inverting the normal relationship between director and composer.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In the 1982 movie ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,’ schoolboys help E.T. elude human pursuit and rendezvous with his spaceship.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Williams has written concertos for almost every instrument, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grSuicpzxR8">one for superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma</a>; <a href="https://www.songhall.org/profile/John_Williams">two symphonies</a> and a <a href="http://www.jw-collection.de/classical/sinfonietta.htm">sinfonietta for wind instruments</a>; and a chamber quartet incorporating the Shaker song “Simple Gifts” for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzSmS5JRYdw">President Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration</a>. He is <a href="https://www.bso.org/exhibits/john-williams-and-the-boston-pops">emeritus conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra</a>, which he led from 1980 to 1993, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler.</p>
<p>Williams’ classical education and abilities have played a huge role in the sound and success of his movie scores. George Lucas had reportedly entertained the idea of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-force-is-still-strong-with-john-williams">using classic works for his “Star Wars” soundtrack</a>. Williams successfully argued in favor of an original score, but one that suggested old-Hollywood atmosphere. </p>
<p>His music for “Star Wars” draws equally from the romantic-style work of European film-score pioneers like <a href="http://filmmusiccritics.org/ifmca-legends/max-steiner/">Max Steiner</a> and <a href="http://orelfoundation.org/composers/article/erich_wolfgang_korngold">Erich Korngold</a>; the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/leitmotif">operatic and leitmotif technique</a> of <a href="https://www.biography.com/musicians/richard-wagner">Richard Wagner</a>; and the lush and entrancing orchestration of <a href="https://fondation-igor-stravinsky.org/en/composer/biography/">Igor Stravinsky</a>. All of the “Star Wars” film scores also are informed, as much of his music is, by Williams’ work in jazz and popular music. </p>
<h2>Works with staying power</h2>
<p>Many of Williams’ film scores have become icons of popular culture. The American Film Institute ranks the score to “Star Wars” as <a href="https://www.afi.com/news/star-wars-afi-movie-club/">the greatest film score of all time</a>, and the Library of Congress has entered its recording into the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Star%20Wars-AUDISSINO.pdf">National Recording Registry</a>, citing its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance. </p>
<p>Williams has been nominated for 76 Grammy Awards and won 26, most recently in 2024 for the “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” score. He has received numerous career honors, including the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/john-williams">National Medal of Arts in 2009</a>. But I believe a different honor most exemplifies his illustrious career.</p>
<p>In 2022, Williams received an <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/09/john-williams-knighthood-queen-elizabeth-ii-composer-steven-spielberg-1235126366/">honorary knighthood</a> from Queen Elizabeth II, one of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p51x0lexdo">the final awards the queen approved</a> before her death. Perhaps a fitting title, cinematic as it is, for a life lived so fully and so creatively: The Last Knight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arthur Gottschalk is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.</span></em></p>Composer and conductor John Williams has shown for more than 60 years how music can take movies to new heights.Arthur Gottschalk, Professor of Music, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880802022-08-11T15:25:24Z2022-08-11T15:25:24ZHow Burna Boy set the world alight with his mixed brew of influences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478504/original/file-20220810-590-s2rtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Burna Boy promotes his new album Love, Damini in the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prince Williams/Wireimage</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigerian Afrobeats star <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/burna-boy-mn0003297650/biography">Burna Boy</a> burst onto the global stage in 2018 with a slew of irresistible hits on his third album, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4wXXJEoblA">Outside</a>, accompanied by mandatory fiendish good looks and charm. <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/burna-boy/251682">Grammy</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsvCb59TcDk">BET</a> awards helped firm up his status within a highly competitive global music industry. </p>
<p>Before his international success, which has been cemented by his latest offering <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/burna-boy-love-damini-album-stream-1235109630/">Love, Damini</a> (2022), Burna spent years experimenting with different sounds in London and South Africa and his ragga-inspired vocal style became distinctive.</p>
<p>His 2014 contribution to South African hip hop mainstay AKA’s infectious song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuXDU-V954">All Eyes on Me</a> first put him on the African radar. His smouldering hook on the multiple award-winning track made all the difference and demonstrated he was an artist to watch, channelling both West African and Jamaican musical flavours.</p>
<p>Although he was deemed talented by his South African hip hop peers, his shine remained somewhat muted. He had to return to his native Nigeria to attain the level of success he obviously yearned: awards, global tours and A-class industry connections.</p>
<p>Although he rose in a whirlwind, with an enigmatic combination of singing styles and influences, Burna Boy has, at least for the moment, become mainstream; a slightly compliant agent of the commercial music industry. (The same is true of most of today’s Afrobeats stars, even if this is a Faustian truth everyone might choose to ignore.)</p>
<p>On Love, Damini (he was born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu) Burna still exudes just the right amount of foreboding and palpable intrigue to remain credible as an artist. But how much of his much-touted originality does he have left? Perhaps a way to begin to answer this question is to revisit his musical influences.</p>
<h2>Spotting his influences</h2>
<p>It is difficult not to love club bangers such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-h7ltwACLs">Soke</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPe09eE6Xio">Ye</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7WfPHHXCAY">Gbona</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecl8Aod0Tl0">On the Low</a>, all produced before Burna Boy’s groundbreaking 2021 Grammy win with his fifth album, <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/burna-boy-twice-as-tall/">Twice as Tall</a> (2020). </p>
<p>In most of these songs, Fela Kuti’s influence is crystal clear in samples and the unequivocal lifting of various hooks. For many, it seemed like Burna was Kuti’s heir apparent. </p>
<p>From the late 1960s Nigerian musician and singer Kuti, along with his amazing bands, almost single-handedly pioneered a genre called <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide#what-is-afrobeat">Afrobeat</a>. This sound incorporated strong Pan Africanist politics, intricate call and response singing, and heavy West African drumming laced with enticing jazz and funk riffs. <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/afrobeat-history">Afrobeats</a> is an umbrella term for a more radio-friendly and commercial version of Kuti’s Afrobeat. </p>
<p>Burna Boy’s Kuti credentials appear impeccable. His maternal grandfather, the broadcaster and jazz enthusiast Benson Idonije, had <a href="https://guardian.ng/art/dis-fela-sef-a-benson-idonije-memoir/">managed</a> Kuti in the 1960s. In one <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/bose-ogulu-burna-boy-mom-manager-fela-kuti-dancer-okayafrica-100-women-2019/">interview</a>, his mother and manager, business woman Bose Ogulu, reportedly refers to Kuti as the closest thing she had to a godfather.</p>
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<p>Burna has also been influenced by ragga, dub and grime ever since his days as a student in the UK. The foundations of these genres were laid mainly in Jamaica but found fresh creative wings in urban UK music scenes. This culminated in a hit like Burna’s 2017 song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xho39TPlL4Q">Rock your Body</a>. </p>
<p>Even before the arrival of Love, Damini, Burna Boy had succeeded in melding his diverse cultural and sonic experiences into one powerful aural stew.</p>
<p>Burna has not only cribbed the Jamaican sound. He’s also adopted the rude boy persona with tales of <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/burna-boy-faces-police-probe-for-the-second-time-in-six-years/">private security gunshots</a>, <a href="https://dailytrust.com/burna-boy-shatta-wale-and-rape-culture">rape allegations</a> and a trail of broken hearts that have clouded his already threatening aura.</p>
<h2>Ways to weigh Burna</h2>
<p>Obviously, Burna was aiming to act as some kind of generational spokesperson for a restless and burgeoning <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/17/world/africa/who-are-afropolitans/index.html">Afropolitan</a> brigade. It couldn’t have been otherwise after being fed on a diet of Kuti-inspired Pan Africanism and neocolonial resistance. By most standards, this is heavy stuff for a market and generation captured by instant gratification.</p>
<p>And then he struck musical gold with his eclectic brew of West African rhythms, West Indian jungle grooves and the ubiquity of hip hop. Burna once <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa6DweKPf1A">described</a> part of this gumbo as “pepperoni pizza” with Kuti’s Afrobeat as the dough. There is nothing particularly unique about this recipe. Instead, the X factor can be found in his own winning combination of ingredients – bound with an arresting personality. Of course, there’s also his amazing dexterity in sampling to ponder.</p>
<p>He has <a href="https://theconversation.com/setting-the-record-straight-burna-boy-didnt-create-a-music-genre-called-afrofusion-187189">proclaimed</a> that his brand of music is a new genre called Afrofusion. Probably this is just a way of leveraging newfound success for greater effect. A way to distinguish himself from the teeming throng of Afrobeats aspirers. </p>
<p>To the undiscerning, Burna Boy’s sound is pure genius. But for those conversant with Kuti, with Jamaican godfather of dub, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/reggaes-mad-scientist-65011/">Lee “Scratch” Perry</a>, and similar genres of <a href="https://jamaicansmusic.com/learn/origins/toasting">Caribbean toasting</a> (lyrical chanting over dancehall music), it all seems a bit déjà vu. </p>
<p>There are different ways to weigh Burna. If we put him against Kuti, Perry and the greats of dub, he is arguably minor. But in an incessantly Instagrammed era, endlessly photographed and reproduced, he is a giant bristling with substance, creative menace and yet to be decoded signification. </p>
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<p>Burna was birthed from robust foundations of Afrobeat, hip hop, ragga, grime, drum ‘n’ bass and dub-related sounds. There are hardly any other foundations as deep as these. His work, up till now, has mainly consisted of translating and reconfiguring those jungle-laden sounds for a mass audience. </p>
<p>In this regard, he is a faithful conduit, a vehicle for simmering, unadulterated and quasi-spiritual grooves. Sometimes, it isn’t even certain that Burna recognises the depth of what he is channelling. If he did, he wouldn’t be so eager to pair up with every hot music star that pops up on the scene.</p>
<p>Burna’s lyrics in hits such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=421w1j87fEM">Last Last</a> (2022) are replete with profanity, inanity and nonsense rhymes that sound good to the ears especially if you happen not to understand West African <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38000387">pidgin</a>. This is yet another aspect of his work that can be quite bewildering; the sudden swings between sense and nonsense, pseudo-philosophical gravity and outright puerility.</p>
<h2>Rolling in dollars</h2>
<p>Lately, Burna has launched a campaign to gain even greater success. Just look at his high profile collaborations with the likes of US musicians <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aiCPsNcRMU">Pop Smoke</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxb5GItBjJI">Beyoncé</a> as well as UK pop stars like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byO74UGa8bI">Sam Smith</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDZ25anwgjc">Ed Sheeran</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXeOBkKdiAg">Stormzy</a> or Nigerian singer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNTkoLf5x5U">Wizkid</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/100-years-of-pop-music-in-nigeria-what-shaped-four-eras-181298">100 years of pop music in Nigeria: what shaped four eras</a>
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<p>Already, some of his hits are beginning to sound a little laboured, over-thought or under-thought. But perhaps this hardly matters as long as the dollars, brand endorsements and festival invitations keep rolling in. In today’s music industry, that’s all that counts. </p>
<p>Burna Boy has won the world and retained his brooding sense of menace, but it remains to be seen how much of his true creative soul he has left. </p>
<p><em>This article was updated to more accurately reflect the biography of Bose Ogulu.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanya Osha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With his new album Love, Damini he has conquered the world. But how much of his creative soul does he have left?Sanya Osha, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1817762022-04-28T17:00:18Z2022-04-28T17:00:18Z‘The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical’ as TikTok Grammy-winning sensation: Is the future of musical theatre online?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459862/original/file-20220426-14-tm94u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=389%2C112%2C4395%2C3856&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The duo 'Barlow and Bear,' made up of singer Abigail Barlow and composer Emily Bear, won the 2022 Grammy Award for best musical theatre album for 'The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,' shared over TikTok.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Bear and Barlow/Igor Kasyanyuk)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is musical theatre an event, a sound — or something else? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.grammy.com/videos/2022-grammys-barlow-bear-win-best-musical-theater-album-unofficial-bridgerton-musical-acceptance-speech">2022 Grammy Award for best musical theatre album</a> went to a show that originated as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/4/23009913/bridgerton-tiktok-unofficial-musical-grammy-win-netflix">a TikTok smash hit</a>: <a href="https://onerpm.link/barlowandbear;%20spotify:%20https://open.spotify.com/album/7gXx19GNHIiQ3fIbXxeY1U"><em>The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical</em></a> by duo <a href="https://www.barlowandbear.com/">Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.emilybear.com/about">Bear, a 20-year old pianist, composer and former child prodigy</a> produced the album. <a href="https://www.grammy.com/news/2022-grammys-complete-winners-nominees-nominations-list">She and Barlow both composed music and wrote lyrics</a>. Barlow, a singer who <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/b/ba-bn/abigail-barlow">previously established herself with a massive TikTok fan base</a>, sings <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/music/the-unofficial-bridgerton-musical-reminds-us-why-we-love-musical-theatre">almost all the parts of all the songs</a>.</p>
<p>What does all this mean for the future of musical theatre?</p>
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<h2>Inspired by Netflix series</h2>
<p>Inspired by hit Netflix series <em>Bridgerton</em>, <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/shonda-rhimes-bridgerton-season-2-representation">produced by</a> Shonda Rhimes, <em>Bridgerton: The Unofficial Musical</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/theater/bridgerton-musical-grammy.html">won the Grammy</a> over productions created by established figures such <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-Baron-Lloyd-Webber-of-Sydmonton">as composer and producer</a> <a href="https://www.broadway.com/buzz/202029/the-unofficial-bridgerton-musical-wins-2022-grammy-award-for-best-musical-theater-album/">Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-bridgerton-a-romanticized-portrayal-of-britain-at-the-dawn-of-modernity-152946">Netflix's 'Bridgerton': A romanticized portrayal of Britain at the dawn of modernity</a>
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<p>Musical theatre albums typically circulate as <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195385946.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195385946-e-14">the official cast recordings</a> of staged musical theatre performances including full orchestrations. In this case, Barlow and Bear <a href="https://www.today.com/tmrw/bridgerton-musical-creators-share-story-behind-viral-tiktoks-t207448">began their collaboration over Zoom</a> and together performed all of the roles. </p>
<p>Their collaboration didn’t end there. Over the course of creating <em>The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical</em>, Barlow and Bear played to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/theunofficialbridgertonmusical">other fans of the show via TikTok</a>: They rehearsed their songs, interacted with fellow performers and contributed to the thriving <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201216-how-tiktok-changed-the-world-in-2020">creative fan culture</a> for which the video platform has become known. </p>
<p>In this sense, <em>The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical</em> was an unusual musical theatre adaptation without theatre. They didn’t even need a live performance.</p>
<p>Well before the Grammy win, the album earned a <a href="https://www.barlowandbear.com">top 10 Spotify debut and over 10 million streams in its first two weeks</a>. Their songs continue to be remixed into collaborative videos with <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/discover/unofficial-bridgeton-musical">more than 329 million views</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Burn For You’ Music Video - ‘The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical’ by Barlow and Bear, YouTube.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Not the first TikTok musical</h2>
<p><em>The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical</em> was not the first musical adaptation to emerge on TikTok. In 2020, during pandemic shutdowns, an online fan base of the Disney film <em>Ratatouille</em> began creating, sharing and developing Ratatouille tribute songs — <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/ratatouille-musical-tiktok.html">like an ode to Remy the rat by one user given a (digital) orchestral treatment</a> by another user — until this swelled into a <em>Ratatouille</em> musical TikTok community. </p>
<p>Eventually, leaders of the theatre and digital media production company <a href="https://fakefriends.net/about-us-2022">Fake Friends</a>, <a href="https://playbill.com/article/andrew-barth-feldman-tituss-burgess-andre-de-shields-more-to-star-in-ratatouille-the-tiktok-musical-benefit">Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, adapted the collective project for</a> an online performance.</p>
<p>The performance featured actors <a href="https://www.broadway.com/buzz/stars/andre-de-shields/profile/">André De Shields</a> and <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/b/bo-bz/tituss-burgess/">Tituss Burgess</a> in its online cast with music from several TikTok creators.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Ratatouille the TikTok Musical,’ YouTube video.</span></figcaption>
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<p>With <a href="https://deadline.com/video/ratatouille-the-tiktok-musical-composer-daniel-mertzlufft-actors-andrew-barth-feldman-kevin-chamberlin-virtual-house-interview/">Disney’s permission</a>, <em><a href="https://ratatousical.com/">Ratatouille the TikTok Musical</a></em> streamed for two performances in January 2021, <a href="https://actorsfund.org/about-us/news/ratatouille-2-million">raising over US$2 million for the Actors Fund</a>. </p>
<p>Not bad for a show <a href="https://deadline.com/video/ratatouille-the-tiktok-musical-composer-daniel-mertzlufft-actors-andrew-barth-feldman-kevin-chamberlin-virtual-house-interview/">that began as a 15-second song and only ever appeared online</a>.</p>
<p>As Zachary Pincus-Roth, features editor for the <em>Washington Post</em> enthused, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/12/22/tiktok-broadway-musical-theater-ratatouille/">The most exciting theater is now a figment of our imagination</a>.”</p>
<h2>Cross-platform appeal</h2>
<p>This imaginative approach to digital musical theatre creation as seen in the <em>Bridgerton</em> adaptation, seems likely to continue. The reaction to the Grammy win was mixed among <a href="https://twitter.com/feeltheheath/status/1511003413433229323">theatrical performers</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/diepthought/status/1511429398649581575">critics</a>, but most agreed that an award-winning musical circulating exclusively online was a significant change in how theatre is created.</p>
<p>Although the Grammy win was historic, musical theatre has always circulated through networks of media, popular culture and fandom. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/judy-grammy-nomination-beyond-this-films-rainbow-is-a-wider-complexity-of-queer-musical-theatre-fans-145275">'Judy' Grammy nomination: Beyond this film's rainbow is a wider complexity of queer musical theatre fans</a>
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<p>Long before social media allowed users to create and share music online, audiences performed songs from theatrical productions at home. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-M-Cohan">American composer George M. Cohan’s</a> 1906 song, “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” became <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/O/bo43634349.html">the first musical song to sell over a million copies of sheet music</a>. </p>
<p>Marlis Schweitzer, a professor of theatre and performance studies, has written extensively on the ways performances have been used as promotional sites for other media, including fashion. In her book, <em><a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14627.html">When Broadway Was the Runway</a></em>, she notes that the original cast album of <em>South Pacific</em> (1949) by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II <a href="https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/production/south-pacific/1949-original-broadway-production">topped the popular music charts for 69 weeks</a>. As she and other theatre historians demonstrate, elements of musical theatre often circulated through commercial culture.</p>
<p>For example, as musical theatre scholar <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11339">Stacy Wolf points out</a> the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” was used for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_jESfPLBc">a hair product commercial</a>. </p>
<h2>Musical theatre communities</h2>
<p>If musical theatre of the past was an event, today it is more akin to a community. The musical <em>Rent</em> introduced <a href="https://lfpress.com/entertainment/local-arts/rents-london-shows-carry-on-ticket-lottery-tradition">the pre-show ticket lottery in the 1990s</a>, allowing a wider audience entry into the theatre.</p>
<p>The musical <em>Hamilton</em> amplified access to tickets and online media buzz by
creating a <a href="https://hamiltonmusical.fandom.com/wiki/Ham4Ham">hashtag contest, #Ham4Ham</a>. Fans using the hashtag had the chance to win front-row seats.</p>
<p>But today but just getting a seat is not enough. New audiences want to be part of the process, and scholars <a href="https://www.routledge.com/TikTok-Cultures-in-the-United-States/Boffone/p/book/9781032246079">are paying attention</a>.</p>
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<h2>Goodbye gatekeepers?</h2>
<p>Throughout the creation of <em>Unofficial Bridgerton</em>, locked-down Broadway performers joined in the collective development. They <a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/VIDEO-Broadway-Jumps-on-the-BRIDGERTON-Musical-Bandwagon-20210125">shared ideas and performed songs</a> with Barlow and Bear. </p>
<p>In an interview with <em>NPR</em>, Barlow noted that <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a39627729/unofficial-bridgerton-musical-grammy-2022-win/">theatre is a gate-kept artform and at $200 a ticket not many people can go</a>. In comparison, online adaptations create more access and more interest.</p>
<p>As audiences slowly return to in-person performances, producers should attend to their audiences as creative communities. Across the music industry, <a href="https://variety.com/2021/music/news/gender-equity-music-songtrust-molly-neuman-1234938184/#!">new tools are enabling new kinds of independent creation and collaboration that enhance access and equity</a> among both artists and audiences. </p>
<p>Musical theatre is a popular art form that has often connected people through media networks, whether radio, fashion, record albums, films or television. Today, in an era of social media platforms, new audiences also want to participate. </p>
<h2>Dynamic, ongoing collaborations</h2>
<p>I first heard about Barlow and Bear’s album from a former student of mine who works in the writers’ room for <em>Bridgerton</em>. It’s not a coincidence that Rhimes’s show was source material to inspire new musical theatre creation. </p>
<p>Rhimes’s television projects consistently challenge dominant cultural narratives, ensuring that what people see on the screen reflects the realities of contemporary life in terms of racialized, sexual and gendered diversity. She <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/shonda-rhimes-diversity-normalize-television_n_6878842">calls it “making TV look like the world looks</a>.” In response to her work, creative fan cultures emerge with media platforms facilitating dynamic, diverse and ongoing collaborations. </p>
<p>This attention to the diversity of representation and Grammy recognition for new modes of production are changing musical theatre for the better. Rather than a singular location or sound, theatre of all kinds today is a dynamic experience created across multiple networks, communities and identities. We should recognize and celebrate these talents, whether online, on stage or everywhere simultaneously. The Grammy Awards already have.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bay-Cheng is Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and a Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at York University. </span></em></p>Although a Grammy win for a TikTok musical was a first, musical theatre has always circulated through networks of media, popular culture and fandom.Sarah Bay-Cheng, Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1811912022-04-14T09:25:10Z2022-04-14T09:25:10ZGrammy star Black Coffee: winning the world, losing at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457937/original/file-20220413-9145-6s453p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African producer and DJ Black Coffee plays in New York in 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I first saw Nkosinathi Maphumulo aka <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60996104">Black Coffee</a> perform at Amaros Night Club in Pretoria, South Africa during the late 2000s. Dressed in a casual T-shirt, no one would have guessed he was destined for global glory. Beneath strobe lights, bathed in throbbing house music, clashing voices and perspiration, he could have been just like any other struggling deejay on the make. But he seemed impervious to the spectral faces, shapes and vapours swirling across the ceiling, walls and floors. In the middle of the Pretoria club, Black Coffee manned his throne in a scene where everything hangs in the balance between absolute elation and dissolution.</p>
<p>Black Coffee isn’t very demonstrative behind the decks. He maintains a cool demeanour – but the entire dance floor is going nuts. At the 64th Grammy Awards, he lifted a golden statue for <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/Black-Coffee/37937">Best Dance/Electronic Album</a> for his sixth studio album <em><a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/black-coffee-subconsciously/">Subconsciously</a></em> (2021). Black Coffee makes laid back house music; his touch is cool, restrained and unmistakeable. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2022-grammys-what-fela-kuti-has-to-do-with-west-africas-growing-pop-fame-179899">2022 Grammys: what Fela Kuti has to do with West Africa's growing pop fame</a>
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<p>Over the years, he kept grinding but there was seldom anything sweaty or grunty about his music. His tracks were paired with a unique range of vocalists and musicians – from Drake to Thandiswa Mazwai. He steadily pursued sophisticated sounds and grooves as frenetic waves of house music sub-genres – <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-kwaito-music">kwaito</a>, <a href="https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/02/gqom-hashtags-feature">gqom</a>, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/amapiano-genre-house-south-africa-1191523/">amapiano</a> – swept in and out of vogue. </p>
<p>There is very little, for instance, that connects him with gqom, a genre associated with Durban, his adopted home city. Gqom has a predilection for raw, heavy drum beats and hectic, unhinged grooves. Just as little connects him to amapiano, a jazzy, bluesy, synth-laden house music sub-genre reputed to have been hatched in the townships of Pretoria (though quite different from <a href="https://www.amapiano.co/za/amapiano-vs-bacardi-full-comparison/">Bacardi</a>, an earlier house sub-genre also birthed in Pretoria). </p>
<p>Instead, Black Coffee’s label, <a href="https://soulisticmusic.com">Soulistic</a>, became a base for house music stars Culoe De Song, DJ Shimza, Bucie and others.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Arriving home after the Grammy win.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Ironically, Black Coffee peaked artistically more than a decade ago when he was the wave of the moment. While house music is still popular, he can no longer be regarded as the flavour of the season. Amapiano has got everyone hot, bothered and fleet-footed. But the Grammy selection committees are still too far behind to listen.</p>
<h2>A deejay’s deejay</h2>
<p>Since he became an established global name, Black Coffee always comes across as a deejay’s deejay; a knighted name for the art and craft of the deck. His music doesn’t drip with bodily emissions or call undue attention to itself other than daintily seeping with the moistness of dew into the most silent recesses of the soul. </p>
<p>This is precisely why he is largely an acquired taste in many parts of Africa. However, there is evidently a great deal of courage, consistency and conviction in his craft which has paid off handsomely. House music was welcomed by South African youth on the cusp of political liberation. Somehow it chimed with their longings for freedom, emotional release and creative experimentation. They had no existing rule book and dance music provided them with a powerful imaginative blueprint that supported their understandable optimism. </p>
<p>While South Africa and the rest of the continent were always a bit behind the curve in loving him, Coffee wooed large swathes of Europe, beginning with the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190131-how-ibizas-party-really-started">Ibiza</a> party scene in Spain. And, of course, Diddy, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beats, David Guetta and other equally prominent international music A-listers respect and admire him.</p>
<h2>Turbulent masculinity</h2>
<p>Back in South Africa, Black Coffee has courted controversy. In a video that went viral in 2016 he is seen <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2016/09/26/Black-Coffee-apologises-to-fans-after-slapping-AKAs-manager">violently slapping</a> a fellow artist’s manager at a concert in Polokwane. He apologised. </p>
<p>A few years later came a very public and ugly break up of his marriage to actress and fashion designer Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa amid her <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/s-mag/2021-04-14-enhle-mbali-breaks-her-silence-on-gbv-allegations-against-black-coffee/">allegations</a> of physical abuse and infidelity. He <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/entertainment/2021-04-13-black-coffee-denies-assaulting-estranged-actress-wife/">denied</a> these. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Black Coffee performs a NPR Toy Desk Concert in 2021.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Issues have also arisen regarding the rights to certain songs that he samples on his tracks. There was some misunderstanding, for instance, regarding <a href="https://www.news24.com/Channel/simphiwe-dana-says-dj-black-coffee-beef-was-a-misunderstanding-20150418">his re-mix</a> of Simphiwe Dana’s <em>Ndiredi</em>. </p>
<p>To some South Africans, Black Coffee represents the misshapen heart of masculinity in contemporary South Africa; apparently violent and seemingly arrogant in the face of his ex-wife’s allegations. The country finds itself in the grip of a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/11/24/south-africa-broken-promises-aid-gender-based-violence-survivors">scourge</a> of gender-based violence. It’s perhaps curious that such soothing sounds emanate from a figure who appears so turbulent. But for many others, Black Coffee has emerged almost as spotless as the white blazer he wore to the Grammy ceremony. </p>
<h2>Understated poise</h2>
<p>Even before the Grammy nod, he had been richly garlanded with awards and recognition internationally. Obviously, all of this was accomplished by finding an inner drumbeat and sticking to his own lane.</p>
<p>In times of incredible entertainment industry frenzy, tasteless egotism, self-aggrandisement and rife plagiarism, Black Coffee grasped his moments of victory with what seemed a casual understatedness. Within the public eye, he cuts a picture of refined style and poise.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-is-nigerian-music-star-wizkid-and-why-is-he-taking-over-the-world-179775">Who is Nigerian music star Wizkid -- and why is he taking over the world?</a>
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<p>Arguably, Black Coffee’s tunes are girded by a quest for sublimity. They seem to seek an essence of humanity that is hard to find or appreciate if you don’t cherish the meaning and uses of silence. This is what make his sounds so distinctive amid the congested gathering of current producers and beat-makers. Silence can be applied interchangeably with lightness, another intrinsic characteristic of his productions.</p>
<p>Yet, ultimately, there is a slight sense of disconnect in Black Coffee’s Grammy win; this is a graphic example of winning the world and losing the home; the amapiano wave is cascading crescendo by crescendo, beat by beat, country by country, and Black Coffee isn’t a part of it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanya Osha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite controversy at home and a decade late, the Grammy win proves how much the world loves South Africa’s biggest house music star.Sanya Osha, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1797752022-03-31T13:29:42Z2022-03-31T13:29:42ZWho is Nigerian music star Wizkid – and why is he taking over the world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454346/original/file-20220325-17-1cg2rdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The global appreciation of West Africa’s Afrobeats music has grown significantly in the last decade. Afrobeats stars are touring the world, racking up record sales, winning awards and collaborating with big-name international artists. </p>
<p>In fact, seven of the <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/playlist-africas-2022-grammy-awards-nominees">nine</a> African artists <a href="https://www.grammy.com/news/2022-grammys-complete-winners-nominees-nominations-list">nominated</a> for a 2022 Grammy Award – one of the world’s most sought after music awards – are West African. Most of these make music driven by Afrobeats sounds.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/afrobeat-history">Afrobeats</a> is a broad, generic term for African contemporary popular music with rhythmic and harmonic influences of West Africa’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/highlife-African-music">highlife</a> and <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide#what-is-afrobeat">Afrobeat</a> traditions and Euro-American funk and hip-hop.</p>
<p>For the 2022 edition of the <a href="https://www.grammy.com">Grammy Awards</a>, Nigeria’s <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/wizkid/20080">Wizkid</a> is nominated twice – for best global music album and best global performance. Wizkid <a href="https://www.grammy.com/videos/beyonce-blue-ivy-wizkid-win-best-music-video-brown-skin-girl-2021-grammy-awards-show">won</a> his first Grammy Award in 2021 for the video of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRFS0MYTC1I">Brown Skin Girl</a>, a track he made with US superstar Beyoncé.</p>
<p>The 31-year-old stands out as a leading Afrobeats artist from Nigeria whose music has already made a huge sway on the charts of many countries. Wizkid boasts over 32 hits, more than 70 music awards, 50 singles and four albums, as well as sold out concert performances across Africa, Europe and America. As a result, he commands a fan base of more than 30 million combined followers on <a href="https://twitter.com/wizkidayo?lang=en">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wizkidmusic">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wizkidayo/?hl=en">Instagram</a>.</p>
<p>His songs straddle the rhythmic texture of Nigerian pop that connects with West African diaspora communities across the globe. And when it comes to his career, he set his eyes firmly on America and strategically propelled himself to global fame.</p>
<h2>Career</h2>
<p>Wizkid was born Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun on 16 July 1990 in Surulere, Lagos State, Nigeria. He started singing and recording music at the age of 11 in a group called the Glorious Five. He joined Empire Mates Entertainment record label in 2009. </p>
<p>The songwriter, singer and performer worked hard in the early days of his music career in Nigeria’s highly competitive industry. In one of his hit songs, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7QiLceJSLQ">Ojuelegba</a>, he narrates his experience at Mo’Dogg studio in Lagos, where he toiled for a better life. He became famous in Nigeria in 2011 after the release of his debut album titled <a href="https://guardian.ng/life/music/celebrating-wizkids-superstar-album-seven-years-later-top-seven-songs/">Superstar</a>. The album opened up many more live performance opportunities.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Joro references Fela Kuti.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As a young star who foresaw his music traveling beyond Nigeria, Wizkid seized every opportunity to make connections across the music world. For instance, when US R&B star <a href="https://www.chrisbrownworld.com">Chris Brown</a> (also famous for allegations of sexual violence against women) performed in Lagos in 2012, Wizkid was with him on stage and subsequently collaborated with Brown on the song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v17Ob7pCP8">African Bad Gyal</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike some other Nigerian popular musicians, Wizkid understood the power of transnational collaboration and worked hard to align his music within the structure and texture of American hip-hop and R&B. In a 2019 <a href="https://davidsmyth.co.uk/2019/10/wizkid-interview-evening-standard-11-oct-2019/">interview</a>, he is quoted as saying he did not make music just to be an African superstar. </p>
<p>In 2016, transnational appreciation of his music grew after his collaboration with <a href="https://drakerelated.com/#front">Drake</a>, the Canadian singer and rapper. It is a <a href="https://pan-african-music.com/en/one-dance-wizkid/">popular opinion</a> among Nigerian music analysts and journalists that Wizkid’s collaboration with Drake marked the genesis of his global appeal.</p>
<p>He has since collaborated with top-notch American stars such as Beyoncé, Akon, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj. </p>
<h2>Sexism</h2>
<p>Wizkid’s music career has not been without controversy. Like many of his contemporaries in the industry, he rose to fame amid worries over objectifying images of women in some of his lyrics and music videos. I have argued <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07494467.2020.1753479">elsewhere</a> that sexual objectification of women has been a useful strategy for publicity, and serves as a means of enhancing his social status and commercial viability in the Nigerian popular music industry. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-vixens-and-cash-how-nigerian-hip-hop-music-objectifies-women-149020">Video vixens and cash: how Nigerian hip hop music objectifies women</a>
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<p>Wizkid is particularly accused of emphasising and objectifying female bodies in the songs <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YsSCQpJm7M">In My Bed</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQU99okRgvk">Expensive Shit</a>.
The <a href="https://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/04/17/olamide-wizkid-lil-kesh-banned-by-nbc/">public outcry</a> against sexist messages in his music culminated in the <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/nigerian-body-bans-songs-wizkid-nicki-minaj-and-others">banning</a> of In My Bed in 2015, by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Despite this, his local and international appeal continued to grow.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">With fellow Nigerian star Tems.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Pop’s promised land</h2>
<p>Wizkid has won more prestigious local and international music awards than any of his Afrobeats peers. He has more than 100 nominations in different categories of music awards. Some of his big wins include Artist of the Year at the 2021 Apple Music Awards, two BET Awards for Best International Act, three Soul Train Music Awards, an MTV Europe awards for Best African Act, three Billboard Music Awards – and that 2021 Grammy. </p>
<p>For Africa, especially Nigeria, America is the popular culture promised land. To make it in America is to conquer the pop world. And a US Grammy is the most cherished music award. Following the global spread of West African migrants that consume and promote Afrobeats, the music will continue to gain more listeners across the world as more people yearn for new sounds from Africa. Likewise, the demography of its global consumers on Youtube and Spotify grows as top record labels – such as Sony and Universal Music – sign up and promote more Afrobeats artists.</p>
<p>Propelled by the growing spread of Afrobeats, Wizkid has achieved global fame through a strategic set of music goals throughout his career – and has boosted his image by courting controversy and big name collaborators, infusing Western pop with African flavour in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samson Uchenna Eze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>His rhythmic sounds connected with the diaspora and his collaborations with stars like Drake and Beyoncé elevated his name.Samson Uchenna Eze, Lecturer, University of NigeriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1798992022-03-31T13:29:41Z2022-03-31T13:29:41Z2022 Grammys: what Fela Kuti has to do with West Africa’s growing pop fame<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454474/original/file-20220326-25-4fsq2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Made Kuti performs in Lagos in 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Andrew Esiebo/Getty Images for Global Citizen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are a record number of <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/playlist-africas-2022-grammy-awards-nominees">African nominees</a> for the 2022 Grammy Awards and they are almost all from West Africa – Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Rocky Duwani (Ghana), Femi Kuti, Made Kuti, Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tems (Nigeria).</p>
<p>Most of these artists are also proponents of <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide#what-is-afrobeat">Afrobeat</a> (Femi and Made Kuti, following the musical and political form defined by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-art-provocateur-fela-kuti-who-used-sex-and-politics-to-confront-58599">Fela Kuti</a>) or new breed <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/afrobeat-history">Afrobeats</a> (Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tems). Kidjo, too, has admitted to being <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts/angelique-kidjo-on-mixing-her-influences-1.700044">influenced</a> by Fela. </p>
<p>As with Afrobeat, Afrobeats is music characterised by harmonic and melodic grooves, <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-call-and-response-in-music">call and response</a> choruses and intricately layered syncopation (disrupted rhythms). But Afrobeats is more commercial, radio-friendly and often politically vacuous – easily digestible by mass audiences.</p>
<p>There have been extensive conversations on the <a href="https://bantunauts.com/what-is-the-difference-between-afrobeat-and-afrobeats/">differences and similarities</a> of Afrobeat and Afrobeats. But within this selection of Grammy nominees what is immediately obvious are the lines where the two genres come together. </p>
<p>It is interesting to observe the dissemination of <a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerian-icon-fela-is-long-overdue-for-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-156870">Fela’s legacy</a> in the form of the varied work of his numerous <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-daughters-and-sons-of-fela-in-african-pop-138739">musical children</a> many of whom pay direct homage to him by copious sampling and outright imitation.</p>
<h2>The Kuti dynasty</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/31/fela-kuti-musical-neil-spencer">Fela’s</a> dominance of the music scene spanned the 1970s and 1980s. After he was incarcerated by the Nigerian military authorities in 1984, his son <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/Made-Kuti/38222">Femi</a> steadily began to come into his own musically. Femi is still decidedly more old school Afrobeat than new school Afrobeats. He served a long musical tutelage under Fela, and struggled to carve his own artistic niche but would always be seen primarily as an Afrobeat musician.</p>
<p>Femi, visually and politically speaking, is a much more safer bet than his father. He has avoided needless controversy and partnered with a wide variety of globally accomplished US musicians such as pianist Randy Weston, rapper Mos Def and singer Macy Gray amongst other noted collaborations. Femi has received six <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/femi-kuti/9248">Grammy nominations</a>. </p>
<p>Fela had never fitted the Grammy mould due to his uncommercially lengthy compositions, controversial nature and outright rebelliousness. But none doubted his musical genius. In many ways, he is irrevocably fastened to the classical Afrobeat template in terms of lyrical acuity, political awareness, aesthetic definition and spiritual curiosity. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Made Kuti expresses his freedom.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Initially, Femi may have been tempted to adopt the title of Afrobeat heir apparent and might have short-changed himself in the process. But it is never a wise proposition to try and imitate Fela. Instead what is possible and also judicious is to attempt to assimilate parts of his vast legacy rather than the whole of it. And this is precisely what the current Afrobeats stars are doing.</p>
<p><a href="https://pan-african-music.com/en/made-kuti-free-your-mind/">Made</a>, Femi’s son and Fela’s grandson, is more removed from his domineering grandfather’s influence and so he is able to explore his vast musical heritage at his own pace and with much less external pressure. Yet still Made is closely linked to his father, and music and not controversial politics, is what essentially motivates him. Up for his <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/Made-Kuti/38222">first Grammy</a>, he is more mellow and likeable than his fiery grandfather.</p>
<p>If Femi and Made represent the old guard of Afrobeat and a ever-growing legacy in Nigerian music then Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tems are the poster children of the now and the future.</p>
<h2>The new school</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/features/rise-of-the-african-giant-burna-boy-on-new-music-rolling-stone-cover-12982/">Burna Boy’s</a> connections to the Kuti dynasty also run deep. His maternal grandfather, <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/06/20/floods-of-tributes-for-benson-idonije-at-85/">Benson Idonije</a>, the revered broadcaster and jazz aficionado, was Fela’s manager in the 1960s. Fela himself had been a broadcaster until he decided to cast his lot full time in the music industry. There is a raunchy video of Burna’s mother, Bose, dancing on stage beneath a bare-chested Fela, part of Fela’s sprawling entourage. </p>
<p>Burna has sampled numerous Fela songs – such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-h7ltwACLs">Soke</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPe09eE6Xio">Ye</a> – and he is open about his indebtedness to the maestro. Burna’s sociopolitical vision, cadences and musical flow are lifted straight from Fela.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/wizkid-essence-african-artists-global-interview-2021-9648198/">Wizkid</a>, on the other hand, is slightly more circumspect in his sampling of Fela tunes. But arguably his biggest hit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCUk7rIBBAE">Joro</a>, approaching 200 million views on YouTube, is derived from the “Joro jara joro” refrain in Fela’s famous incendiary song, Zombie. Wizkid also collaborated with Femi earlier in his career as if he were seeking an authentic Afrobeat imprimatur.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/tems">Tems</a>, the youngest of the lot, is probably the least directly influenced by Fela’s Afrobeat. She is more indebted to US R&B and soul music. Her deep, sultry voice is combined with a style and vibe leaning towards the Afrocentric Afrobeat look. But there are many more artists in the wings, angling for the future Afrobeats spotlight – among them <a href="https://www.instagram.com/heisrema/?hl=en">Rema</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bujutoyourears/">Buju</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/joeboyofficial/?hl=en">Joeboy</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/omah_lay/">Omah Lay</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fireboydml/?hl=en">Fireboy DML</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/iamolakira/?hl=en">Olakira</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ckay_yo/?hl=en">Ckay</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jaywillzofficial/?hl=en">Jaywillz</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/asakemusic/?hl=en">Asake</a>. </p>
<h2>Celebrity culture</h2>
<p>Here is where Afrobeat differs from Afrobeats. Fela shunned crass materialism and he had an almost Robin Hood mentality in the dispensation of personal wealth. He avoided the consumerist flexing of today’s pop stars.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Burna Boy samples Fela Kuti on Ye.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Burna Boy has finally come into his own as a mature artist. His politically conscious, Grammy-winning last album, <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/listen-to-burna-boy-new-album-twice-as-tall/">Twice as Tall</a>, rails against colonialism, global oppression and racism. But Burna’s lifestyle and personal values are saying something else. He is enthralled with large and flamboyant chains and necklaces, Lamborghinis and trophy girlfriends and other trappings of celebrity hip-hop culture while also attempting to burnish his mystique as a serious artist. He was difficult to find when the youthful <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-endsars-protests-are-different-and-what-lessons-they-hold-for-nigeria-148320">#EndSARS protesters</a> in Nigeria recently needed local celebrity voices to aid their cause. </p>
<p>Wizkid has no lofty pretensions. His main concerns, also evident in his most recent album, <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/wizkid-made-in-lagos-billboard/">Made In Lagos</a>, are beautiful girls, matters of the heart, club dance floor domination and A-list celebrity status. </p>
<h2>Massive crossover</h2>
<p>Afrobeats is no longer confined to Nigeria, Ghana or West Africa alone. Artists from southern Africa, Rwanda, the UK and Europe have all been bitten by the bug.</p>
<p>The global acceptance of Afrobeats can be perceived at several levels. First of all, there are superstar Beyoncé’s collaborations with Wizkid, Burna, Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade on her <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/beyonce-releases-black-is-king-visual-album-1305320/">Black Is King</a> album. Justin Bieber was quite happy to hop on the re-mix of Wizkid’s global hit, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeMeopQqB6s">Essence</a>. There are also Burna’s collaborations with Sam Smith, Stormzy, Pop Smoke and Jorja Smith to think about. Or Fireboy DML’s chart-storming collaboration, Peru, with Ed Sheeran. </p>
<p>Indeed these massive crossovers are telling an unambiguous story: Afrobeats has acquired global legitimacy because it brings a unique swag and flavour to an otherwise jaded music scene. It’s a swag that has roots all the way back to Fela Kuti.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanya Osha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Of a record nine nominees, seven are from West Africa. The global rise of Afrobeats music owes its soul to Nigeria’s iconic star Fela Kuti.Sanya Osha, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1799102022-03-31T13:29:06Z2022-03-31T13:29:06ZFrom Nigeria to the world: Afrobeats is having a global moment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454699/original/file-20220328-25-1pg6cp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tems performs in London in 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Another <a href="https://www.grammy.com">Grammy Awards</a> season and there is a growing list of African nominees. For African music enthusiasts, it is heartwarming that recognition is being accorded to practitioners in the Afrobeats space. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/afrobeat-music-guide#what-is-afrobeat">Afrobeat</a> and <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/afrobeat-history">Afrobeats</a>, although related, are quite <a href="https://bantunauts.com/what-is-the-difference-between-afrobeat-and-afrobeats/">distinct</a>. Afrobeats is the genre that emerged when West African pop music became cool. Its origins coincide with the media liberalisation that accompanied the “final” wave of democratisation in Africa from 1999. More than this, it is a convenient term for Europe to refer to music coming out of Africa, distinct from Euro-American pop. </p>
<p>Afrobeat, on the other hand, is what Nigerian music icon <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-art-provocateur-fela-kuti-who-used-sex-and-politics-to-confront-58599">Fela Anikulapo-Kuti</a> called his invention, which blended jazz, funk, psychedelic rock and traditional West African chant and rhythms in the early 1970s. Afrobeat typically bears messages of liberation. </p>
<p>There is a relationship between Afrobeats and Afrobeat; indeed, an overlap between Fela’s music, lifestyle and message and today’s Afrobeats practice.</p>
<p>West African musicians (like <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/king-sunny-ade/54">King Sunny Ade</a>, <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/femi-kuti/9248">Femi Kuti</a>, <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/seun-kuti/243369">Seun Kuti</a> and <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/rocky-dawuni/18979">Rocky Dawuni</a>) have been nominated for or won (<a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/angelique-kidjo/9915">Angelique Kidjo</a>) Grammy Awards for several years. But it took an album richly intertwined with Fela’s essence for an Afrobeats artist to earn the same. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/burna-boy/251682">Burna Boy</a>’s African Giant (2019) paved the way for Afrobeats at the 62nd Grammy Awards in 2020 through a nomination for Best World Music Album. Afrobeats eventually had its big moment a year later at the 2021 Grammy Awards where his Twice as Tall (2020) was named Best Global Music Album. </p>
<p>The nomination of <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/wizkid/20080">Wizkid</a>’s Made in Lagos (2021) for the same category this year makes it the third time in succession that Afrobeats is being recognised at the Grammys. Wizkid’s Essence, featuring Tems, is also in the reckoning for Best Global Music Performance. </p>
<p>Afrobeats is having a big transnational and transatlantic moment, and I’ve considered some of the factors driving it. </p>
<h2>The diaspora</h2>
<p>Pop musicians from other parts of the continent have been making music under the Afrobeats banner, but it is the Nigerians Wizkid, Davido and Burna Boy who have each sold out The O2 arena in London or the Accor Arena in Paris. Undoubtedly, Nigerian artists are the trailblazers of the Afrobeats movement. </p>
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<p>Nigeria’s over 200 million-strong population comprises a middle class that ranks among the world’s most migrated. There are Nigerian populations in many parts of the world, owing to the country’s <a href="https://www.dataphyte.com/latest-reports/development/nigerias-infrastructure-gap-may-increase-with-continued-insecurity-corruption/">infrastructural challenges</a> and high level of <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/unemployment-rate">unemployment</a>. Artists are not exempt from this exodus, although success can give them the means to return home. </p>
<p>Consequently, contemporary Nigerian culture – Afrobeats included – is a culture very much on the move. If the artists are not between cities, the consumers are. Members of the Nigerian diaspora are enthusiastic about the experience of a concert with their favourite Afrobeats stars. </p>
<p>A similar logic extends to the culture of downloads and streams. While streaming is unaffordable for many in Nigeria, the diaspora Nigerian is able to afford streaming. So, the poor state of Nigerian infrastructure actually promotes the evolution and propagation of Afrobeats.</p>
<h2>Dance videos</h2>
<p>Related to this is the culture of dance videos – challenges and general routines – orchestrated by Afrobeats artistes across social media platforms that have contributed greatly to the unprecedented global rise of Afrobeats.</p>
<p>The explosion of these dance videos on TikTok, for example, demonstrates that language is no barrier to the acceptance and popularity of the music. CKay’s Love Nwantiti (2019) became the most Shazamed song in the world thanks to the love it garnered on <a href="https://the49thstreet.com/how-tiktok-is-helping-afrobeats-artists-blow/">TikTok</a>. (<a href="https://www.shazam.com/gb">Shazam</a> is an app that identifies songs.) At the height of its popularity, TikTok and Instagram users were making more than <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/pop-star-ranking/2021-october/a-nigerian-singer-released-the-biggest-hit-in-african-history.html">10 million</a> videos a week using the song. </p>
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<p>More recently, Finesse (2022) by Pheelz and Buju also emerged among the most Shazamed songs in the world.</p>
<h2>Collaborations</h2>
<p>The collaborations by Afrobeats artistes with the biggest music stars in the world have made for further global exposure. </p>
<p>For The Lion King: The Gift (2019), US star Beyoncé did the unprecedented by enlisting the services of numerous Afrobeats stars, including Wizkid and Burna Boy. Her Brown Skin Girl featuring Wizkid won Best Music Video at the 2021 Grammys. </p>
<p>A Grammy nominee again this year, the multilingual Angelique Kidjo from Benin is a past winner on four occasions. She cannot be said to be an Afrobeats artist. Yet her recognition of the genre means that she has had to co-opt some of its brighter stars in her most recent work. </p>
<p>Kidjo’s latest album, Mother Nature (2021), nominated for Best Global Music Album, features a host of Afrobeats stars including Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Rexxie and Yemi Alade. Kidjo’s choice of direction is testament to the growth and recognition that Afrobeats has recorded recently. </p>
<h2>Radio play</h2>
<p>The category of Best African Act was introduced at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2005 while the Best International Act: Africa premiered at the 2011 edition of the BET Awards. These were landmarks pointing to an African pop music unable to be confined within Africa anymore. They also represented an improved opportunity for high profile exposure. In 2012, meanwhile, D’banj’s Oliver Twist charted at No. 9 on the UK singles chart and at No. 2 on the UK R&B chart, making it the first Afrobeats song to so do. </p>
<p>The sustained success of Afrobeats songs in the UK and in continental Europe eventually led to the launch of the UK’s first Afrobeats music radio station, <a href="https://thebeat1036.com">The Beat London 103.6 FM</a>, in 2016. It presents Afrobeats as a major genre rather than a side offering. </p>
<p>To date, the most streamed song of all time is One Dance, an Afrobeats song by Drake, with a cameo from Wizkid which has surpassed 2 billion <a href="https://www.xxlmag.com/drake-one-dance-billion-spotify-streams/">streams</a> on Spotify. This is a reflection of the boost Afrobeats artists stand to get from working with American pop stars.</p>
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<p>Wizkid’s Essence, featuring Tems, charted in the top ten of the Billboard 100 after a remix with Justin Bieber. In order to rank the top 50 Afrobeats songs in the US based on streaming, airplay and physical sales, Billboard is partnering with festival company Afro Nation, this year, to launch America’s first ever <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2022/03/25/afrobeats-billboard-to-launch-first-us-chart/">Afrobeats chart</a>. This buttresses Afrobeats as the fastest growing genre in American pop culture.</p>
<p>In the words of Afrobeats star CKay, Afrobeats is the new pop. It’s the next sound that consumers and major labels are looking for. Afrobeats is a conglomeration of many influences from hip-hop, R&B, reggae, fuji, juju, apala, galala, konto, lamba, makossa, soukous, amapiano etc. The core of this music is the percussion, the aggressive drums, snares, shakers and the sometimes chaotic sound mixes.</p>
<h2>Global acceptance</h2>
<p>Musicians typically desire to have a global reach. The importance of America as the world’s entertainment capital guarantees that for the average artist, acceptance in America is tantamount to global acceptance. The Grammy Awards represents the ultimate recognition in music. The categories of Best Global Music Album and Best Global Music Performance thus represent the best opportunities for many artists from outside the US to reinforce their global success. </p>
<p>The quest for global relevance of the Afrobeats movement is further signposted by the announcement that the next edition of The Headies – an awards show dedicated to celebrating excellence in Afrobeats – is scheduled to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, later this year. It is the first time in 15 editions that the annual awards show will be held outside Nigeria.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garhe Osiebe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Afrobeats emerged when West African pop music became cool. It has been boosted by the diaspora, big name collaborations and American culture.Garhe Osiebe, Research Fellow, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/726042017-02-10T16:32:25Z2017-02-10T16:32:25ZAlan Blumlein: the prolific British inventor who gave the world stereophonic sound<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156400/original/image-20170210-23324-sm0dpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=86%2C0%2C1833%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Channel check: one, two.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/stereo-dials-equipment-music-1221148/">InspiredImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The early 20th century was a golden era for scientists, engineers and inventors. Among those from Britain alone, a quick zip through the archives reveals names including <a href="https://theconversation.com/alan-turings-legacy-is-even-bigger-than-we-realise-34735">Alan Turing</a>, <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/rutherford-bio.html">Ernest Rutherford</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/whittle_frank.shtml">Frank Whittle</a>, <a href="http://digital.nls.uk/scientists/biographies/john-logie-baird/">John Logie Baird</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Thomson-Baron-Kelvin">William Thomson Kelvin</a>, and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1956/shockley-bio.html">William Shockley</a> – not to mention many others from all over the world. Another name that should be remembered among this esteemed company is the British engineer and inventor <a href="http://ethw.org/Alan_Dower_Blumlein">Alan Blumlein</a>, who this year is to be given a posthumous <a href="https://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/awards/technical-awards">Grammy Award for technical services to music</a>, 75 years after his death</p>
<p>The extent of Alan Blumlein’s electronic wizardry is apparent from the <a href="http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/blumlein/">128 patents</a> filed under his name while working at EMI. While he worked on electrical elements of many transmission and communications media including telephone lines, television and radar, perhaps his most significant invention is what we now know as stereophonic audio. </p>
<p>His technique used two microphones to record audio, still known as the <a href="http://www.emusician.com/how-to/1334/blumlein-pair-stereo-miking/38232">Blumlein pair</a> and used today, where two microphones are placed at right angles to each other. These microphones should be a special type known as dipole microphones, which can pick up sound in two directions, that is, from the front and the rear.</p>
<table><tbody><tr>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155989/original/image-20170208-28989-1jmly8b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pattern of sensitivity for a dipole microphone.</span>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155990/original/image-20170208-28998-1gtcxvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blumlein Stereo Pair microphone arrangement.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>When placed at right angles to each other, the two microphones combined can pick up sound from all four corners of a room, which captures in the recording the direction from which the sound originates. For example, people standing to the right and to the left during the recording will sound as if they are standing to the right and left of the listener when the recording is played back. This was the first technique devised to capture the direction of sound.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O8hOOuVtcX4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The idea occurred to Blumlein whilst watching a film at the cinema which, as was common in those days, had only one speaker. A single speaker for a large screen is a poor listening experience, and affects viewers’ perception of the film. Devising a way to improve it, in 1931 Blumlein filed a patent describing his “binaural” recording technique.</p>
<p>Blumlein also invented the cutting head that would allow the new stereo recording technique to be backwards compatible with the gramophone records then in use. To enable the simultaneous recording of two audio channels in a single groove in the record he devised a technique that captured the sound information from the two channels’ needles moving in two directions orthogonal to each other (at right angles, i.e. rotated by 90 degrees). For mono recordings, the stylus moved just left and right, but for stereo recordings one stylus moved diagonally in and out and the other stylus also moved diagonally in and out but rotated around by ninety degrees.</p>
<table><tbody><tr>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155987/original/image-20170208-29028-2kp5g6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mono audio stylus movement. A mono-audio stylus moves left and right to replay a mono-audio recording.</span>
</figcaption>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155988/original/image-20170208-28998-yrrgi8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stereo audio stylus movement. A stylus corresponding to the left audio channel moves in a diagonal in out motion whilst a second stylus corresponding to the right audio channel moves in a diagonal in out motion but at ninety degrees.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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</tr></tbody></table>
<p>The combination of Blumlein’s inventions related to stereo recording were used to make the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7537782.stm">first stereo recordings</a> of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1933 at what would be subsequently known as Abbey Road Studios. Interestingly, it took some time before the technology became more widespread – <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-only-rock-n-roll-and-sometimes-its-better-in-mono-63846">the Beatles’ LPs were made in mono</a>, single-channel recordings even 30 years later. </p>
<h2>An inventive mind, largely forgotten</h2>
<p>However, despite his incredible inventiveness, Blumlein’s name was not as well-known as you might expect. Only in the latter part of the 20th century has his genius been fully recognised, partly due to the recognition of this work during the war. He was a senior engineer at EMI when World War II began and the company directed its staff to help the war effort, and it was this that led to Blumlein’s death in 1942, aged just 38, when the aircraft carrying he and the radar equipment he was developing crashed. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156395/original/image-20170210-23354-1a0x7mx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alan Blumlein.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EMI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such were his talents with all things electrical that his death was not widely announced – it was felt that news of his death would spur Adolf Hitler on, believing that the much-heralded radar technology Blumlein was developing had suffered a major setback. Variations of the H2S air-to-surface radar he helped devise became standard issue, and it was only as the RAF’s Vulcan and Victor aircraft retired in 1985 and 1993 respectively that it ended service, <a href="http://mraths.org.uk/?page_id=538">after 50 years</a>.</p>
<p>Alan Blumlein’s work has been recognised with biographies such as the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Life_and_Times_of_A_D_Blumlein.html?id=B2z2ONO7nBQC&redir_esc=y">The Life and Times of AD Blumlein</a> by RW Burns and his work was also commemorated by the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers with an <a href="http://ethw.org/Milestones:Invention_of_Stereo_Sound_Reproduction,_1931">IEEE milestone plaque at Abbey Road</a> acknowledging him as the inventor of the many stages of stereo sound recording.</p>
<p>It is amazing to think that Alan Blumlein did not learn to read until he was 12 years old, yet more than a century after his birth we can hear and see his ingenuity around us everywhere today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Chiverton is member of the IET. </span></em></p>Without Alan Blumlein’s genius, most things would sound altogether different today.John Chiverton, Lecturer in Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/725592017-02-10T04:15:29Z2017-02-10T04:15:29ZAre the Grammys really about good music?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156098/original/image-20170208-17355-1ffxp8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the system broken?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/40744702?size=huge_jpg">'Record Player' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the biggest controversies about the Grammy Awards is whether they measure an artist, song or album’s quality, market share or some combination of the two. </p>
<p>Although the voting members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/div-classtitleaward-ceremony-as-an-arbiter-of-commerce-and-canon-in-the-popular-music-industrydiv/6D721234736777FA7F98B86A89F9BCCB">instructed to consider only quality</a>, there are reasons to believe that the selections are made according to more amorphous criteria. </p>
<p>The voters – a select group of recording artists, conductors, songwriters and engineers – operate in a professional environment, rather than a cultural one. That is, they’re prone to be as concerned with sales potential as they are with artistry. “Quality” is never defined, and anonymous voters, of course, aren’t required to justify their choices. </p>
<p>While there’s no reason to challenge the honesty of the process, it’s safe to assume that it pits commercial interests against cultural ones. It’s also reasonable to assume that, like all electorates, Grammy voters are self-interested and inclined to vote in ways that might financially benefit them.</p>
<h2>A measure of quality or popularity?</h2>
<p>In 2006, professors Mary Watson and Narasimhan Anand <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/div-classtitleaward-ceremony-as-an-arbiter-of-commerce-and-canon-in-the-popular-music-industrydiv/6D7212%5Blink%20text%5D(http://aom.org/News/Press-Releases/Grammy-Awards--Commercial-Appeal-Overtakes-Artistic-Merit.aspx)%2034736777FA7F98B86A89F9BCCB">showed</a> how the Grammy award categories have evolved to legitimize and lend exposure to certain musical genres and not others. For example, the ceremonies resisted including awards for rock until 1979; the same goes for rap music, which didn’t get its own award until 1989. In an earlier article, they also noted the relationship between the recognition of these genres and how commercially successful they had become. </p>
<p>While Watson and Anand didn’t try to prove that the Grammys are often selected on the basis of prior sales, I would argue that this is also the case. </p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.grammy.com/nominees/search">“general field” categories</a> – Record, Album and Song of the Year, and Best New Artist – are open to music in all genres, no classical artist or recording has ever won in any of these categories. It’s probably not a coincidence that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Grammy_Awards_for_classical_music">classical music</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Jazz_Instrumental_Album">jazz</a> have <a href="http://thejazzline.com/news/2015/03/jazz-least-popular-music-genre/">a very poor market share</a>. On the other hand, 2016’s Best Album, Taylor Swift’s “1989,” had already <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6620398/taylor-swifts-1989-5-million-fastest-selling-album-decade">sold five million copies</a> by July 5, 2015. And Adele’s “25,” nominated for this year’s Best Album award, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4070240/Adele-named-Billboard-s-Artist-Year-time-conquering-charts-25.html">sold over nine million copies</a> in 2016 alone.</p>
<p>The general field awards have been somewhat more generous to jazz, where there have been occasional winners in every category except the Best Song. Most recently, vocalist-bassist <a href="http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/">Esperanza Spalding</a>, in 2011, became the first and only jazz musician to win <a href="https://smoothjazzbuzz.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/esperanza-spalding-has-won-the-grammy%C2%AE-award-for-best-new-artist/">Best New Artist</a>. </p>
<p>But then there’s the 1978 Grammys. It’s hard to believe that there wasn’t a better new talent that emerged that year than Best New Artist winner Debby Boone. The daughter of 1950s pop icon Pat Boone, her recording of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07-yKnKRMQ">“You Light Up My Life”</a> topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking 10 weeks prior to the Grammys – the peak of an up-and-down career. Boone and her fellow nominees – pop and rock stars Andy Gibb, Foreigner, Shaun Cassidy and Steven Bishop – hardly inspire confidence that selections are based more on artistry than sales. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many artists and critics have knocked the Grammys for being a purely money-making enterprise, with little relationship to artistic accomplishment.</p>
<p>When Pearl Jam won the award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1996, the band’s lead singer Eddie Vedder <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/grammy-the-movies-20080208">commented from the stage that</a> “I don’t know what this means. I don’t think it means anything.” </p>
<p>In 1991 <a href="http://www.craveonline.com/music/129524-the-grammys-top-10-bashers-boycotters">Sinead O'Connor</a>, even though she won for Best Alternative Musical Performance and was nominated for other categories, nonetheless boycotted the ceremony and refused the award – the first artist to do so – citing its “extreme commercialism.”</p>
<h2>Less popular genres get the shaft</h2>
<p>Looking beyond the big categories inspires more doubt that the Grammys are about quality music.</p>
<p>In 2012, the Grammys underwent a <a href="https://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/press-release/apr-06-2011-914-am">major restructuring of award categories</a>, which were reduced from 109 to 78. Ethnic music categories suffered the most, especially <a href="https://www.grammy.com/nominees/search">American roots music</a>. Organizers consolidated a range of distinct regional traditions into a single catchall – Best American Roots Performance – replacing separate categories for Best Native American Music Album, Best Hawaiian Music Album, Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album and Best Polka Album. The result? Even with the presumption of qualified judges, it’s now impossible to make serious comparisons on the basis of quality. </p>
<p>Some <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/11/entertainment/la-et-grammy-protest-20120211">protested</a> the decision at the 2012 ceremony, arguing that the change was rooted in racism, economics and an assault on small, independent labels. As Scott Billington of Rounder Records (a roots label affected by the restructuring) <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/11/entertainment/la-et-grammy-protest-20120211">said</a>, “It does seem a little bizarre to have Hawaiian records competing with polka.” </p>
<h2>Can the Pulitzer Prize act as a model?</h2>
<p>By contrast, the <a href="http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/225">Pulitzer Prize in Music</a> appears to have little or no relationship to market share. Whether or not the judging process is entirely fair, there’s at least the impression that the seek to reward cultural – not commercial – accomplishment. </p>
<p>The prize is chosen not by a vote of hundreds of industry professionals but by a small panel of experts: musicians, presenters and critics. The prize was long awarded exclusively to classical music and composers. But the guidelines were changed in 2004 expressly to admit music across all genres, including works represented by recordings rather than notated scores. </p>
<p>Since then, avant-garde jazz composer-performers Ornette Coleman (2007) and Henry Threadgill (2016) <a href="http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/225">have received the prize</a>, in both cases on the basis of recordings. “Special citations” for lifetime achievement have also been won by popular singer-songwriters Bob Dylan (2008) and, posthumously, Hank Williams (in addition to numerous jazz and classical composers).</p>
<p>Unlike the Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize has even, on occasion, been awarded to little-known composers, such as <a href="http://carolineshaw.com/">Caroline Shaw</a>, who, as a 30-year-old student, won the 2013 prize for “Partita for 8 Voices,” an a cappella composition release on the small, independent label <a href="http://newamrecords.com/about/">New Amsterdam</a>. </p>
<p>There’s plenty to criticize about the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which still has its own genre bias, favoring classical music with an occasional nod to jazz. The prize has been faulted for being “academic” and out of touch with the public. But preoccupation with album sales is surely not a concern. </p>
<p>At least in the classical music and jazz categories, the Grammys deserve credit for uniformly awarding critically acclaimed artists. And because voters are required to select no more than nine categories when they vote (in addition to the general fields), the classical and jazz categories likely attract voters most familiar with these genres.</p>
<p>So are the Grammys really about good music? </p>
<p>Sometimes, but not often enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Lubet does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After winning his Grammy in 1996, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder said, ‘I don’t think this means anything.’ Was he right?Alex Lubet, Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/555072016-03-02T02:23:01Z2016-03-02T02:23:01ZLady Gaga vs Lorde: why both tributes captured the essence of David Bowie<p>On January 10, 2016, I received a text message from a friend who is a devoted David Bowie fan: “There was an Internet death hoax about Bowie. I’m still shaking,” she exclaimed. Hesitantly, she decided, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s no official news as yet, so I think it’s safe to assume that it is fake.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her skepticism was warranted, given that Bowie had only two days prior released his 25th – and what would become his final – studio album, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/07/david-bowie-blackstar-review-a-spellbinding-break-with-his-past">Blackstar</a>. </p>
<p>But of course, the reports were not fake. The news spread like wild fire as headlines across the globe announced the death of an icon. Blackstar would be his parting gift to his fans and to the world of pop that he himself had helped to shape. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, an <a href="https://theconversation.com/david-bowie-pop-star-who-fell-to-earth-to-teach-outsiders-they-can-be-heroes-52995">outpouring of grief ensued</a>. Bowie-themed nights and tributes began to flow, but the most talked-about homages were the recent performances by <a href="http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/02/lady-gaga-gives-the-academy-awards-a-performance-for-the-ages/">Lady Gaga at the Grammy Awards</a> and <a href="http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/lorde-performed-stirring-bowie-tribute-brits-original-backing-band/">Lorde at the BRIT Awards</a>. </p>
<p>These two performances were polar opposites. Gaga’s tribute showcased a medley of songs, the singer whizzing through many of Bowie’s classics – Suffragette City, Changes, Ziggy Stardust, Rebel Rebel, Fame, Let’s Dance to name a few – at lightning-bolt speed. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Lady Gaga paid tribute with a medley of Bowie’s hits.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The performance – complete with brass section, a dancing robotic electric piano, and references to Bowie’s famous alter egos, Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust – contained all the glitz and glamour one would expect to find at a Grammy Awards performance.</p>
<p>Lorde’s tribute, on the other hand, was much more pared back. Devoid of stage props and Bowie-esque makeup, the singer - alongside Bowie’s band - delivered a haunting rendition of Life on Mars. </p>
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<p>Lorde and Lady Gaga have since been pitted against each other, as commentators, fans, and music critics compare the two performances. Many concluded that Lorde’s was the better, more fitting, and more appropriate tribute. The most frustrating aspect of this comparison, however, is the way in which <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/77293349/lordes-david-bowie-tribute-at-the-brit-awards-so-much-better-than-lady-gaga">Lady Gaga’s performance was derided</a>. </p>
<p>Gaga’s tribute was denounced for being “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/lordes-tribute-to-david-bowie-brit-awards-2016-heartbreaking/">over-the-top</a>”, “too superficial”, “too theatrical” and “too strenuously pop”. Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, tweeted a veiled criticism after Gaga’s performance:</p>
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<p>Lorde’s performance was, by contrast, described as <a href="http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/5-ways-lordes-bowie-tribute-was-better-than-lady-gagas">“subtle”, “real” and “powerful”</a> and was thus celebrated for being more “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/lordes-brits-tribute-to-david-bowie-so-much-better-than-lady-gaga-at-the-grammys-20160225-gn3e93.html">authentic</a>”. </p>
<p>This commentary spoke volumes about who is deemed worthy of paying tribute to an artist such as Bowie. At the core of the Lady Gaga-vs-Lorde debate is the ideology of authenticity, which is deeply embedded in rock-music discourse. </p>
<p>This ideology situates rock and pop music in opposition to each other: rock is supposedly real, authentic, sincere, and honest, while pop music is supposedly banal, artificial, contrived and vapid. By this understanding, rock is thus viewed as superior to pop.</p>
<p>How can Gaga, a supposedly inauthentic, vapid, and contrived pop star, possibly pay homage to such an authentic and real artist like Bowie? Lorde is deemed more worthy of such a tribute because, in spite of her pop identity, she embodies the ideology of authenticity.</p>
<p>Part of what made Bowie such a great contributor to both pop music and pop culture was his ability to be artificial as well as real, to be theatrical whilst being honest, to be contrived <em>and</em> authentic. </p>
<p>The Lady Gaga-vs-Lorde debate is therefore both unproductive and arbitrary. Both performances showcased a different side to Bowie’s artistry: Gaga’s tribute focused on his performative and theatrical side, highlighting in particular his fascination with technology, artifice, and fantasy worlds (Labyrinth immediately comes to mind). </p>
<p>By stripping these things back, Lorde’s tribute celebrated Bowie’s musicality, highlighting instead his songwriting ability through a predominantly musical performance of one of his greatest songs: Life on Mars. </p>
<p>Both of these tributes captured the essence of Bowie. When considered together, rather than being pitted against each other, they can be seen as capturing what quintessentially made him a truly enigmatic and unique artist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kat Nelligan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lady Gaga and Lorde have both paid tribute to David Bowie in very different ways. Debating who did it better is rooted in an ideology of authenticity that pits rock against pop. In reality, Bowie embodied both.Kat Nelligan, PhD candidate, tutor and lecturer in Popular Music Studies , The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224612014-02-03T00:17:35Z2014-02-03T00:17:35ZWhat art can learn from science about awarding greatness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40206/original/yv6s2csr-1391083988.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stars in our eyes </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Terrett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s that season, and the award shows have begun, culminating for many in the Oscars. There are, as always, heavy favourites, films nominated numerous times, shows, musicians and actors. But one has to wonder: what does being a winner mean?</p>
<p>If art were a discipline like science, would we have any less of a problem sorting the wheat from the chaff? Over time, perhaps, but in the short-term: no. The subjective nature of value, a problem noticed among economists (and philosophers) in the mid-nineteenth century, is at the heart of the problem of measurement in anything other than the hard sciences. </p>
<p>Simply put: if we try to measure how anyone values something by their external behaviour, we can never hope to understand the highly complex chain of relations leading to their decision. Thus, in economics, we will never have what we’d hope for in a science: an exact theory that describes what’s going on in an economy at any scale. We cannot account for taste, let alone make an accounting <em>of</em> taste, or tastes, or the sum of tastes.</p>
<p>I used to watch awards shows, especially the Oscars, because I am a <em>bona fide</em> movie junkie, I’d watch anything on a large enough screen. Like everyone else, I entered with my favourites, and rooted for them like thoroughbreds at the track. Like many of you, I found some of the picks puzzling, and disappointment was a frequent emotion. What the hell were they thinking, I’d muse as the clear best picture, most years, was overlooked for some other, lesser work. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40321/original/khwq99yv-1391188701.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Robbed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:There_Will_Be_Blood_Poster.jpg">Miramax Pixtures</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The phenomenon began decades ago for me in music, so I sloughed off the <a href="https://theconversation.com/grammys-remain-out-of-touch-with-the-modern-music-industry-22370">Grammys</a> long ago. I left the Oscars behind about five years ago, soon after <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOohAwZOSGo">No Country for Old Men</a> beat out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3THVbr4hlY">There Will be Blood</a> for nearly everything. I suppose then I finally lost my faith. I’m not going to argue the merits of the pick, I’ve expended too much energy over too many debates with friends and family about that damnable, insane rout. That travesty. And I never once changed someone’s mind. That’s the point.</p>
<p>In science, we have an informal institution that measures value, and it isn’t the Nobel Prize. It’s science. The body that comprises science isn’t made of gold or handed out by tuxedoed or sequined presenters. The sum of science is its publications, bad or good, groundbreaking or incremental. Out of this great enterprise, a picture of nature as it is emerges, replacing notions of how nature isn’t. </p>
<p>Newton and all the rest stand on the shoulders of giants, and we, all of us, benefit from the result. Sometimes important scientists are justly recognised for their contributions, sometimes unjustly, by the Nobel committee. But the real work, the hard work, the good work, sometimes isn’t appreciated until long after the scientists who did it have died. Often, it’s never recognised or attributed to any one or number of scientists, it’s just there in the body of data that grounds some new, successful hypothesis, or old successful theory. Could art be like that? Should it?</p>
<p>I think it could be, and ponder if we wouldn’t all be better off taking the horse out of the race and watching it graze a bit, amble around, and play. See how it survives the seasons. In science, as in art, too much competition can undermine the truth. Too often we see people cheat to get recognition, grants, publications, rather than letting the institution work as it should, slowly over time, separating through experience and experiment the good from the bad. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40318/original/ws58yf4r-1391188166.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Peter Higgs: 40 years for one Boson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://images.pressassociation.com/meta/2.18179497.html">Sean Dempsey/PA</a></span>
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<p>Add to this the way in which art is even more complex, since our tastes vary so greatly, and are often incommensurable. Perhaps we shouldn’t give awards until decades after a piece of art has been out, take a lesson even from the Nobel prize in the sciences, which may wait a while since a paper’s been published or a theory’s been confirmed (as with the <a>Higgs boson</a>, whose namesake devised the concept 40 years before winning the prize). Or maybe, we could just watch and enjoy what we like, let the market decide what’s worth it, over time, and stop getting suckered into watching actors congratulating themselves in overly long, barely bearable Hollywood extravaganzas.</p>
<p>John-Paul Sartre, in <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1964/press.html">refusing the Nobel prize in literature</a>, explained it well, and it applies in art as in science:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The writer must therefore refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution, even if this occurs under the most honourable circumstances, as in the present case.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The institutions that must exist cannot be people, they can only be art and science, or whatever the field is in itself. When we laud people, as we are apt to do, then we lose the soul of the enterprise: the quest to create, to discover, and to revel in truth and beauty.</p>
<p><em>This is a foundation essay for The Conversation’s new UK Arts + Culture section. If you are an academic or researcher with relevant expertise and would like to respond to this article, please use our <a href="https://theconversation.com/pitches/new">pitch facility</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Koepsell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s that season, and the award shows have begun, culminating for many in the Oscars. There are, as always, heavy favourites, films nominated numerous times, shows, musicians and actors. But one has to…David Koepsell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Delft University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223702014-01-27T14:47:47Z2014-01-27T14:47:47ZGrammys remain out of touch with the modern music industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39904/original/2yxsxj2m-1390823931.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nodding to the past in the present.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Sayles/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Given the group’s sonic ownership of last summer with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0">Get Lucky</a>, it seems apt that Daft Punk collaborators dominated last night’s Grammy Awards. They had a total of seven wins, including Album of the Year for <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Daft+Punk/Random+Access+Memories">Random Access Memories</a> and Record of the Year for that ubiquitous single. But for all the evident popularity of the enigmatic French duo amongst younger audiences and the perennial hipness of collaborator Pharrell Williams, theirs was ultimately a victory for old school approaches to music. </p>
<p>The album was a loving homage to the funk, disco and soft rock music of the 1970s and 1980s. It was imbued with retro cool via the use of modular synths and the involvement of veteran musicians Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers. A highly visible (and audible) nod to the past in the present, Random Access Memories can be seen as an ideal representation of the contemporary music world as celebrated by the Grammys.</p>
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<p>Criticism of the Grammys tend to fall into a few well established areas. Probably the most consistent is that the awards merely represent the <a href="http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/02/grammys-fallout-the-subtle-snubbing-of-kanye/">self-congratulation of the corporate music industry</a> and underline the essentially commercial nature of music-making and consumption. But this could hardly be otherwise. An academy devoted to recorded sound is an academy that implicitly celebrates the commodification of music as inaugurated by Edison’s invention of the phonograph and Berliner’s of the gramophone. </p>
<p>Those fans and artists who look for the artistic in music and who criticise the Grammys for celebrating commercialism conveniently overlook the fact that they too access music via commodified forms. Perhaps the problem with the Grammys is the sight of commodification writ large, a monstrous reflection of that part of art that we’d rather not acknowledge.</p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/arts/music/at-the-54th-grammy-awards-everything-old-is-praised-again.html?_r=0">line of critique</a> forms around the Grammys’ focus on essentially mainstream, established music making – music shaped by the industry for industry recognition. Here, the lack of acknowledgement for genuinely new music is seen as problematic, especially so in the supposedly fast-moving world of pop. Given the eligibility dates for awards (1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013 for the latest ceremony), the New Artist category can seem rather behind the times and music that flashes up between cut-off date and ceremony inevitably misses out.</p>
<p>Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, the winners of this year’s New Artist award, were certainly new to the academy, but perhaps not new in pop terms; Macklemore has been releasing music for more than a decade. And Beyoncé might have been on fine form kicking off the main event with a performance alongside husband Jay-Z, but her latest self-titled album, released unexpectedly in December 2013, could not be considered for an award. Taylor Swift, also performing at this year’s awards, was nominated for an album released in late 2012. </p>
<p>Of course, there have to be cut-off points and Beyoncé and her record label know very well how these things work. There are prime times to strategise releases for Grammys, just as there are to capitalise on Christmas and other buying periods. But the time-lag only supports the suspicion of a rather slow-moving industry dragging out the happening in pop for longer than its audience might wish to allow.</p>
<p>Which brings us to perhaps the most fundamental criticism aimed at the Grammys. The industry module they recognise – that built up through the phonographic era of the 20th century – is one that is in the processing of being relegated to history. The changes that have taken place with the production, consumption and exchange of music in the internet age are not just about changes in attitude towards styles or genres of music; rather, they represent a seismic shift in the way in which people – especially, but not exclusively, young people – access music. </p>
<p>The Grammy, named after a nineteenth century invention, simply isn’t representative of the internet-driven manner in which music is now circulated and consumed. Maria Schneider – winner of the Contemporary Classical Composition award – used her <a href="http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/5885352/macklemore-ryan-lewis-daft-punk-adele-among-pre-telecast-grammy">acceptance speech</a> to talk about the time spent creating take-down notices and fighting online music sharing. It was an emblematic moment that showed the tensions between old and new understandings of music consumption, and between creative artists and their audiences.</p>
<p>What all of this highlights is the way in which the Grammys showcase an essentially traditional, established world of music that either doesn’t feel the need to – or simply can’t – reflect the major challenges facing the industry. This is not an issue that those involved in film, theatre and television have had to deal with to the same extent, marking the Grammys as perhaps more out of touch than the Oscars, Tonys and Emmys. </p>
<p>But to make this point is also, arguably, to buy into the youth-oriented focus that has been placed on music – all genres of music – for more than half a century. Contemporary music’s indebtedness to tradition goes far beyond the recognition of “folk”, “country” or “traditional R&B” (all Grammy categories), as Led Zepplelin’s victory in the rock category proved conclusively. Perhaps instead we should see the Grammys as a space in which we witness musical worlds hardening into tradition. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Elliott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Given the group’s sonic ownership of last summer with Get Lucky, it seems apt that Daft Punk collaborators dominated last night’s Grammy Awards. They had a total of seven wins, including Album of the Year…Richard Elliott, Lecturer in Popular Music, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223232014-01-25T10:53:39Z2014-01-25T10:53:39ZThis year Grammys glitterfest looks set to be a Brit flop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39855/original/4cb5xm7j-1390558849.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daft Punk may get lucky </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andre Felipe</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.grammy.com/">The Grammys</a>, that great annual showcase of the American popular music business, may not rank quite with the Oscars. But there is no doubt, that in the prize-giving season, this jamboree of self-congratulation emits a powerful signal through the world’s largest marketplace for singles and albums.</p>
<p>As the 56th edition of this event takes place at Staples Center in Los Angeles this Sunday, the record industry may still be enduring its post-millennial crisis. But on an evening when the best of the current crop join some giants of the past, the web-triggered financial traumas that have beset labels of late will briefly be forgotten in a haze of glittering gongs and champagne fountains.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/1556590/ifpi-2013-recording-industry-in-numbers-global-revenue">Around of a third</a> of all music sales – whether downloads or the rapidly shrinking physical format of CD – are still made in the US, so what happens in the land of popular song sends a powerful message to territories around the globe.</p>
<p>So what might we expect? On the live front there is a powerful blend of established greats – from Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Carole King and Dave Grohl – to an impressive roll call of contemporary stars like Katy Perry, Pink and Taylor Swift.</p>
<p>But while the performances add undoubted glamour and telegenic power to the event, the awards themselves are at the heart of the occasion. The nominees bring together the tried and trusted with a crop of fresh players angling for these prestigious rock and pop crowns.</p>
<p>Most interesting perhaps is the presence of those masters of electro dance Daft Punk, whose most recent album married French beats with the soulful tendencies of two important American artists. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/dec/18/best-albums-2013-daft-punk-random-access-memories">Random Access Memories</a> brings together the original European duo with ace producer-singer Pharrell Williams and Chic mastermind Nile Rogers. The long player and the song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0">Get Lucky</a> are both tipped for honours.</p>
<p>Album of the Year also sees country pop darling Taylor Swift put forward for her smash <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/1066798/taylor-swift-red-track-by-track-review">Red</a>, while a more contemplative singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles may steal up on the outside in this key category, with <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/1870957/sara-bareilles-the-blessed-unrest-track-by-track-review">The Blessed Unrest</a>.</p>
<p>The Best Pop Solo Performance features a string of major current names with Katy Perry’s song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8">Roar</a> rubbing shoulders with Bruno Mars’ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekzHIouo8Q4">When I Was Your Man</a>. But it’s hard to look beyond the exquisite <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZE_IRwLNI">Mirrors</a>, Justin Timberlake’s finest moment of 2013.</p>
<p>There’s even more than a little controversy to keep the pop pot boiling as the much played, but much disputed, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU">Blurred Lines</a> is one of five releases named in the Song of the Year category. The song, on which Robin Thicke is joined by T.I. and Pharrell, has attracted scathing criticism for its questionable approach to issues of sexual consent, and has been banned in some quarters, including <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/12/robin-thicke-blurred-lines-banned-another-university">various UK university campuses</a>.</p>
<p>What of a British presence? UK fortunes have fluctuated quite wildly in the US in the last 20 years – the British Invasion effect of the Beatles which was sustained for decades has long dissipated, with success all too often elusive for ambitious Brits, even if Adele, One Direction and The Wanted have all made recent strides. This time, British stars are few and far between in the line up of nominees.</p>
<p>Those UK performers who do make the cut come in a variety of vintages. Led Zeppelin’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pdj9">Celebration Day</a>, a live album and film soundtrack recorded at the O2 Arena in London in 2007, is up for Best Rock Album. Another huge British star David Bowie is also nominated in this category for his acclaimed return <a href="http://www.nme.com/reviews/david-bowie/14183">The Next Day</a>.</p>
<p>A much more recent songwriter/producer Calvin Harris is named for <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/1066772/calvin-harris-18-months-track-by-track-review">18 Months</a> in the Best Dance/Electronic Album section, and also in the Best Dance Recording category for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ozSeGw-fY">Sweet Nothing</a>, featuring the vocal talents of Florence Welch.</p>
<p>Most encouraging for those based over here perhaps, is the Best New Artist list, with two British talents in the running for this award. Ed Sheeran’s quirky, witty folk-tinged rock has been entertaining UK audiences for a number of years and the Americans have begun to take notice of him, too.</p>
<p>Up against Sheeran is a member of that new wave of singer-songwriters who is attracting praise for both his composition and performance style. James Blake, whose second album <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/dec/16/best-albums-2013-james-blake-number-5">Overgrown</a> won the Mercury Prize last year, blends blues, soul and electronic music in an extraordinarily atmospheric fashion, and the fact he is even mentioned in this company augurs well.</p>
<p>Whoever does carry off the main prizes this weekend is guaranteed months of publicity and promotion, and the lifelong knowledge they have been honoured in this famous cavalcade. Whether the industry’s post-bash hangover recedes that quickly is another issue. The golden days when multi-million album sales were a licence to print money are long gone. The business of music, in an age where video games far outsell singers and bands, will continue to face uncertain times.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Warner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Grammys, that great annual showcase of the American popular music business, may not rank quite with the Oscars. But there is no doubt, that in the prize-giving season, this jamboree of self-congratulation…Simon Warner, Lecturer in Popular Music Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219192014-01-23T03:57:59Z2014-01-23T03:57:59ZThe Grammys: music’s grim battle for industrial supremacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39521/original/633gwxyn-1390278906.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Grammys are about selling the industry, as much as its products.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Paul Buck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Sunday, “music’s biggest night,” the 56th <a href="http://www.grammy.com/">Grammy Awards</a>, will be held in Los Angeles – no doubt with the customary level of humility and circumspection so characteristic of the music industry.</p>
<p>Commentators seem to have two main criticisms of the Grammys: </p>
<p>1) most of the awards go to the wrong artists, because …<br>
2) the whole concoction is fixed from the start, geared more to towards recognising record sales than artistic excellence.</p>
<p>But there’s more to the Grammys than meets the eye.</p>
<p>There is no question that a lot of Grammys have gone to some pretty forgettable artists. The lists of beloved artists who either never won a Grammy, or lost to someone they really shouldn’t have, are indeed <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_15856_the-7-most-unforgivable-grammy-award-snubs-all-time.html">impressive and entertaining</a>. It’s actually jaw-dropping to see how few of the albums installed in the canon as the “greatest of all-time” have even been nominated for an award, much less won one.</p>
<p>But it’s far too easy to fall into thinking this is a show that’s only capable on honouring those artists whose sales figures justify it. If that were the case, it would be a lot shorter and far less annoying. </p>
<p>Behind the pomp and self-importance, those who run the Grammys have long seen themselves as arbiters of musical taste and value. The Grammys are not only meant to <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/02/14/172035944/a-brief-history-of-the-grammy-sales-bump">sell music</a>, but to sell the system that produces it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39519/original/mbpgrmxm-1390278296.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US musician Verdine White, Robin Thicke and T.I.,during the Grammy Nominations Concert in December last year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/PAUL BUCK</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Troubling times for industry</h2>
<p>The Grammys were initiated by a small group of executives from the major record labels in 1957. The first awards show took place in 1958, sponsored by the National Academy for the Recording Arts and Sciences. </p>
<p>As with the Oscars and the Emmys before them, the Grammys were part of a much wider effort made by a large number of industrial associations in the two decades after the second world war to craft and impose what US labour historian Elizabeth Fones-Wolf <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=W4p8-BAs0dcC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=Elizabeth+Fones-Wolf+more+conservative+and+consensual+political+climate.%22&source=bl&ots=VB0iaUkPrk&sig=k36babo-aD3gMA2fXCgawoqsLYg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-e3dUuiMEYTSkwXCkIGQBg&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Elizabeth%20Fones-Wolf%20more%20conservative%20and%20consensual%20political%20climate.%22&f=false">called</a> a “more conservative and consensual political climate”.</p>
<p>The captains of industry were facing a tide of labour militancy, increasing economic competition at home and abroad, and burgeoning civil unrest. As Fones-Wolf shows, in her sterling book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Free-Enterprise-Liberalism-Communication/dp/0252064399">Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-60</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>important segments of the business community responded to this economic and ideological challenge with an aggressive campaign to recast to political economy of America.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She explains that, behind the more obvious fights over politics and policy was a struggle “to reshape the ideas, images, and attitudes through which Americans understood the world”.</p>
<p>Those who saw themselves as the custodians of the future were fighting a war against their own workers and for the minds and hearts of the public. </p>
<p>The music industry was by no means exempt from these forces. It also faced extensive labour militancy and a public – especially younger people – that was turning to other sources of pleasure and entertainment.</p>
<p>At about the same time as the Grammys were created, the music industry was facing one its more serious periodic insurgencies from new forms of music made by independent entrepreneurs. The emergence of musical styles such as rock and roll did more than threaten the social norms of the time. The small record labels and independent radio stations that came with these new forms of music also threatened the infrastructure of the post-war music industry.</p>
<p>Further, there were many other new forms of music emerging from places that executives in New York and Los Angeles thought were a little out of the way, such as Memphis, New Orleans, Detroit or Chicago.</p>
<p>Rhythm and blues, soul, Motown and new and inventive forms of jazz with odd names such as bebop were thriving as well. Those forms of music didn’t evolve in a vacuum. They had small record labels to produce them, new radio stations to promote them and new venues to host their live shows. There was a whole infrastructure rising up that was expanding rapidly as recording technology got better and cheaper. </p>
<p>Those who created the Grammys said they wanted to “elevate the tone” and “raise the standard” of excellence in popular culture. But behind the soothing rhetoric there was a grim battle for industrial supremacy. By creating the Grammys, the major record labels were reacting to the perceived vulnerability of their economic dominance over the production and sale of music. A dominance that continues to this day.</p>
<h2>Selling the system</h2>
<p>So, a few things to keep in mind if you choose to pay attention to the Grammys this year. We are talking about a product – music – that is pervasive and easily replaced, the appeal of which is mercurial and elusive.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39520/original/prcmrfmr-1390278720.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is the system broken?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That makes the work of selling music extremely important to those in the industry. The Grammys still possess that oddly contradictory form of elite paternalism that used to be a genuine feature of capitalism in the era in which they were founded.</p>
<p>While this lavish spectacle may seem a little unnecessary to most of us, it remains a very valuable educational guide to those who produce it, labouring as they are under the pretension that we need to be told what counts as the best music of our time. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Fairchild does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On Sunday, “music’s biggest night,” the 56th Grammy Awards, will be held in Los Angeles – no doubt with the customary level of humility and circumspection so characteristic of the music industry. Commentators…Charles Fairchild, Associate Professor of Popular Music, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.