Essay Sample on Adele, Beyonce, and the Outcome of Grammy and Emmy Award Competitions

Introduction

Winning and losing is often a common outcome in any form of competition. However, for every victor or loser, there must be a set of reasons to justify the win or loss. In the Grammy Awards competition, Adele emerged the winner while the Lemonade film album by Beyonce lost. Additionally, contrary to the expectations of many, Beyonce's Homecoming album did not secure a nomination position in the Emmy Awards. Following these losses, many supporters and critics of Beyonce have made efforts to explain why Beyonce lost to Adele in the Grammy awards and why the Homecoming album was not nominated in the Emmy Awards. In a bid to explain these two outcomes, this paper will primarily base its argument on the works of Kevin Allred and J. Jack Halberstam's in their books 'Ain't I A Diva?: Beyonce and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy' and 'Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal' respectively. From a broad perspective, Beyonce's loss to Adele brings out the issue of racial discrimination and unfair competition between the Black and other races in America.

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The Lemonade film by Beyonce is generally was made by black women for black women. Lemonade draws its inspiration from the process of making Lemonade from bitter lemons. As such, the film illustrates how black women use their painful experiences as a stepping stone to more beautiful experiences in the future. It depicts the personal struggles of black and the ultimate re-awakening that black women go through. The film focuses on the themes of self-exploration, the vulnerability of black women, and politics, among others. The Lemonade film also brings out the matriarchal subject, which is often evident in most black families and the black community at large. While Lemonade film was generally received with positivity with some reviewers stating that the film was as bold, complex, and resolute just like Lemonade, some reviewers were dissatisfied with the film and termed it as a non-inclusive film that only focused on the Black race. The Homecoming album by Beyonce also revolves around the black community. It focuses on the black culture, black education, and the need to celebrate black leaders and the black culture overall.

Kevin Allred, in his book 'Ain't I a Diva? Beyonce and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy' investigate Beyonce's music career and relate it to feminism, racial discrimination, and politics of self-care, among other factors. In his book, Allred focuses on Beyonce's music career powered by her enormous talent and extrapolates his findings to other black women who have also overcome the challenges that black women encounter (Allred). According to Allred, studying Beyonce's music career exposes some distinct elements of black feminism and politics that are often ignored. In one instance, Allred draws the analogy of a crooked room of one's own in which Beyonce lives as a representation of the difficulties and struggles that a black woman goes through while in the United States of America (USA). The author elaborates on how black women have to change and adjust themselves in order to fit adequately in the America's society like women of other races do (Allred).

To clearly elaborate on some of the challenges faced by black women, Allred discusses one of Beyonce's song 'Pretty Hurts', where Beyonce as a black woman struggles to fit in the society and gets herself into the beauty pageant, but the judges ask her a question about what inspires her in life, but unfortunately, she was unable to answer. Shortly after, in the video, Beyonce submerges herself in the water as an indication of re-awakening in preparation for a better future (Allred). According to Allred, this scene is a pure reflection of the strength and determination of black women while struggling to fit in American society.

In the second book 'Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal' by J. Jack Habersham, the issues of race and gender politics and capitalism are broadly discussed. Habersham, expounds on his ideology of Gaga Feminism stating that it is a new kind of gender politics for a new generation, one that is more committed to the idea of flexibility and is not bound by marriages, a generation that is more focused on capitalism and less fascinated by the concept of the American dream (Halberstam). The author explains how race is the strongest determinant of major crucial decisions in America. To illustrate how race plays an integral role in decision making in the USA, Habersham explains how black families are the most likely to experience parental ties disruptions from the Child Protection authorities compared to any other races living in the USA (Halberstam). Habersham states that close to half of the total number of children in foster care are black.

Additionally, the author illustrates the racial discrimination on gay and lesbians of black descent compared to those of white descent. The white gay and lesbian community are generally considered to be a part of the system, while the black ones are often discriminated against (Halberstam). Moreover, even in the film industry, Habersham explains how not many films feature black men being paired with white women and vice-versa. Often, black men are paired with black women, while white men are paired with white women. As such, Habersham states that interracial comparison is considered to be a non-normal in society and entirely depends on one's race and social class. In an interracial comparison, racial biasedness is often evident (Halberstam).

From Allred's and Halberstam's arguments, Beyonce's Lemonade album lost to Adele primarily because of racial profiling. Beyonce's Lemonade album targets explicitly the black community and black feminism, which might not be appreciated by most of the other races living in America. From Allred's point of view, black women have to work extra-harder to fit and to be accepted in society. Based on this argument, for Beyonce's Lemonade album to succeed and win the Grammy awards, she needed to incorporate elements that resonate with other races, specifically the white race. While the Lemonade album is considered to be a masterpiece by a considerable number of people, it is considered to be a failure by some who feel that they do not resonate with the ideologies presented in Lemonade. Moreover, the arguments of Halberstam's concerning interracial comparison is considered to be a non-normal in the American society and entirely depends on one's race, and social class is evident in the loss of Lemonade film by Beyonce, who is black to the film by Adele who is white. As expected from the racial comparison of Beyonce and Adele, Adele had a higher chance of victory compared to Beyonce, due to the societal norm that in any contrast between a black and a white person, the white person is considered to be of a higher social class compared to the black person. There is a possibility that Beyonce's Lemonade album could have won the Grammy awards if racial and class factors were to be held constant.

The Homecoming album by Beyonce is connected to the Lemonade album since both of them revolve around the black culture and black feminism. Because of the similarities between the two albums, the Homecoming album did not earn a nomination in the Emmy awards. As Habersham argues that race is a significant determinant in decision making in the USA, the decision not to nominate the Homecoming album in the Emmy awards was partly because of racial discrimination towards the black people. Supposing Beyonce was white and that the Homecoming album revolved around the white community, it is highly likely that her Homecoming album would have been nominated in the Emmy awards.

Moreover, from the history of both Grammy and Emmy awards, black artists have always struggled to win these awards. The struggle for black artists to succeed in these awards is mainly due to the weak voters' base in appreciating black artists. White artists are more appreciated by voters in the Grammy and Emmy awards compared to black artists. The disparity in artists' preference is an illustration of the more substantial societal preferential inequality among the black and white communities. Habersham illustrates the gap in appreciation of white and black people from his explanation of gay and lesbian communities living in the US. Gay and lesbians of white descent are more appreciated and recognized by the system compared to the black gays and lesbians who are prejudiced, discriminated, and struggle to survive since the system does not appreciate them. Often the appreciation accorded to the white artists, and generally white people by the society is considerably higher compared to the recognition accorded to the black artists of equal standards.

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it is evident that, indeed, race and social class play a critical role in determining the decisions made by society. Based on the loss of Lemonade album by Beyonce and the subsequent victory of Adele in the Grammy awards as a result of racial discrimination, conclusions can be drawn that there are excellent black artists and in general black people who are never appreciated because of their race. It is also clear that while there are white artists who emerge victorious in such awards purely due to merit, there are a lot of such artists who win awards because of their race.

Works Cited

Allred, Kevin. "Ain't I A Diva? Beyonce and the Power of Pop Culture Pedagogy." Amazon. 2019, https://www.amazon.com/Aint-Diva-Beyonc%C3%A9-Culture-Pedagogy/dp/1936932601. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.

Halberstam, Jack. "Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal." Amazon. 2013,

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/J.%20Jack%20Halberstam%20-%20Gaga%20Feminism%20-%20Sex,%20Gender%20And%20The%20End%20Of%20Normal.pdf. Accessed 20 Oct. 2019.