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Music is hecka mid this year. To me even the good stuff isn’t. There are a few bright spots Like Muni Long’s “Revenge” and that’s kinda it. There is plenty of music out there that other people like right now but aside from a single here or there, a hater having one of the best years of his career on the back of one of the top streaming rap acts, sums up the derivative nature of the industry right now. Towards the end of this article, I am going to discuss how Beyoncé was snubbed by the Country Music Awards. This is either peak unseriousness in the music world or an unsettling new norm.
It’s a relatively interesting topic that only gets more interesting as you dive deeper into the details. They say the devil is in the details, well he’s also in the music industry so I guess it’s fitting. For those unfamiliar with the story, in some interpretations of the Christian belief system the music industry can be traced back to when Lucifer was the music director of heaven. He led a coup d’etat against God, failed, and was kicked out of heaven. Today we’re told he has come down upon the inhabitants of the earth with great wrath, and a less obvious point is, why wouldn’t he use a skill that he is proficient at?
Before I vilify the music industry too much and in lieu of the things happening in regard with Sean Diddy Combs AKA P. Diddy, let me just say that I have found a renewed interest in the music industry. For me again, music has been meh this year. There were albums that did well, several albums that did less than okay, and so much more that is not even on my radar for one reason or another at this time. At the same time, however, I have become, to a certain degree, captivated with the lifestyle of the music industry. The things that come with what is required to make chart topping music have intrigued me in recent days.
I’ve been lowkey highkey serious about joking about making an album one day, Eddy Murphy style. I’ve been listening to some really good music from various artists this year, like Brandy, Sabrina Carpenter, Gunna, Future, Mary J. Blige, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, Jodeci, Muni Long, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Al Green, Prince and more. I’m aware of the Chappell Roans of the world. Also being in Texas it’s only natural to sometimes hold your nose and listen to how Post Malone has been welcomed into country music with open arms. And everyone has been at the bar getting tipsy, country style this year. But from there you start getting into the less desirable music, at least for me, like Katy Perry, Latto, and Ice Spice. Then there are albums and artists that just didn’t do it for me this year: Chloe Bailey, Normani, Khalid, and Bryson Tiller to name a few. So timeless classics has generally been my sound of choice this year, that, “opera bangers,” and Beethoven.
Just under two years ago now, I was working at a sales job, and I went to a conference and was required to work at a booth. After the conference was over, I lost my voice from speaking non-stop. The next day back in the office my manager was harassing me, I used that word liberally, about not making any phone calls. I informed him as best as I could that I couldn’t speak, but from that moment on, that carelessness about my wellbeing made a lot of things clear for me. One of the changes I made from that revelation was to start taking singing lessons to better take care of myself and my voice. So, listening to some of the greats when I’m not studying or getting ignorant, has served several purposes.
Everything going on with Diddy enlightened me to what it takes to make music. Now not everyone needs to be slipping and sliding allegedly to make good music, but there is a debaucherous element to the music industry lifestyle that I wouldn’t mind being part of. That’s all the Diddy commentary you get out of me until some more accusations, documents, testimonies, and tapes go mainstream; join our Newsletter for my take on noteworthy news events every week. Okay, let me get to the Beyoncé of it all. When talking about good music, if Beyoncé isn’t your favorite artist, she is one of your favorite artists’ favorite artist. I’ve seen her perform live in person 5 times consecutively from 2012-2016. Following her Renaissance Album, she released act II of her three-act project, and her 8th studio album, “Cowboy Carter.”
The elephant in the room when it comes to Beyoncé is that she has never won album of the year or record of the year. And here is where things start to get interesting. The Grammy’s have four big awards known as the big four: album of the year, record of the year, song of the year, and best new artist. Album of the year is certainly among the most coveted of the four especially for African American artists, with only 11 black artists winning the award over the Grammy’s 65-year history. The Grammys are awards given by the Recording Academy of the United States to people in the music industry as acknowledgement and recognition for their accomplishments. These are people who are peers to one another giving awards to each other.
All that considered, they must not think too highly of Beyoncé. Despite her having the most Grammys of all time at 32, she does not have album of the year or record of the year. She does have song of the year, and one may be compelled to think that should be enough, but let’s talk about song of the year for a moment. Song of the year is a Grammy award that goes to the songwriters of a song. Beyoncé is a writer that doesn’t really write. Some of her biggest hits like “irreplaceable,” “Drunk in Love,” “Single Ladies” of which she won song of the year for, “Love Drought,” “Halo,” and “APESHIT,” were written by someone else. Her contribution as a writer was for arrangement and maybe adding a word or a line here or there. When she won song of the year in 2010, she didn’t even take the stage to accept the award herself, sending signals to some that she may not be all that concerned with the writing process.
Now to be fair, while by the grace of God I write everything for Life with Ken myself, I have thoughts of help every now and again and when I can, I may get some other contributors. That said, at the end of the day, you must write your own stuff. Or at the very least demonstrate you care about the writing process. Writing is certainly a mainstream topic right now for various reasons, but regarding Beyoncé and music, this may be one of the many potential contributing factors as to why she wasn’t nominated for anything by the Country Music Awards.
On Monday September 9, 2024, the CMAs announced nominations for their November 20th ceremony and Beyoncé got a big ol goose egg. At least they were nice enough to release this news five days after her birthday. For starters let’s be clear, country music’s racism is on full display with their treatment of Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter. There is one actor on record referring to Beyoncé as a dog marking her territory. Several other artists are pulling a Mariah Carey basically claiming they don’t know who Beyoncé is or that she dropped a country album.
Meanwhile Cowboy Carter is one of the best-selling albums of the year and the best-selling country album this year. And when it first came out certain various people including some country stars were talking about the album like it was the best thing since sliced bread. But that all changed once the CMAs came around. Where I am in Texas, I recall a country radio station reluctantly playing “Texas Hold Em” once, at like 9pm at night after most people had likely finished their commute. They did not want to play or acknowledge that black woman’s music at all. What’s messed up about it is country music is a colonized genre started by African American artists.
After you get past the racism there is the politics of country music being a highly gatekept genre. Some people were disenchanted by the fact that Beyoncé didn’t immerse herself in the culture and go to spend some time in Nashville, Tennessee. Then there is the copium of it all, where people just simply wrote Cowboy Carter off as a “Beyoncé album” and not a country album. Among all of that, however, there is my theory of, if Beyoncé isn’t respected in her own genre why would she be respected in country music?
She has been doing music for 28 years and the closest she got to album of the year at the Grammys, was some made up category called Best Urban Contemporary Album for her album “Lemonade,” of which, the recording academy later changed the category to Best Progressive R&B Album. The recording academy doesn’t like Beyoncé. And if the recording academy by their actions don’t appear to like Beyoncé for whatever reason, and they cater to her main genre, country music for darn shore could care less about a disrespected black woman trying to make country music and get acknowledged for it, no matter who she is. Maybe if she wrote more of her music and or cared for the song writing process more, the music world would care about her more.
So, there you go, that is my take on the devious details of the music industry in 2024. I find how the sausage is made to be fascinating right now. This has been a rough year for music, especially with recent events, including the untimely passing of Liam Payne. While I think Beyoncé may win album or record of the year eventually if she keeps trying, I wouldn’t bet on it anytime soon or within this three-act era.
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