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Media Representation Of Black Artists Essay

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With their careers held on a tight leash, Black artists are controlled by the media. Representation of Black artists' music is important to drive their careers and success but is demonstrated to be limited by mediums such as the Grammys. The American dream is based on a successful, enjoyable life, promising that anyone can follow their dreams through hard work and determination no matter who you are, or where you come from. The American Dream is not the reality for Black music artists because of the oppressive practices in media representation enforced by the Grammys through racial voter bias and built-in segregation in the award categories. Historically, the Grammys have always demonstrated a pattern of underrepresenting and using bias …show more content…

A psychedelic soul duo, the Black Pumas, found recognition at the Grammys. They ended up receiving “Grammy nominations for the Big 4 categories” but “many reactions were with surprise and confusion” (Conway 643). This explains how the Grammys have already created racist narratives, also influencing the fans. The fans are so used to seeing a duo like this being relegated outside the Big 4 categories, that it is hard to respect these artists because of the view that they don’t belong. The Grammy's influence also goes further than fans, as we can see the internalized racism on Billboard charts. One example is Lil Nas X, a Black male artist that released his song “Old Town Road” in 2019. Old Town Road is a song that “deftly blended country and hip-hop for really the first time, and was removed from the Billboard country charts for not meeting the ‘criteria’ to chart as a country song” (Conway 3). This decision was marked by racial bias as the song became a well-known viral hit, but not including it in the charts just takes away from all the success of Lil Nas X. Due to the limitations on the freedom of Black artists, it is evident that the media and charts aren’t open to Black artists wanting to test out genres like country. This indicates the influence of the Grammys on preventing artists from being able to be represented by who they are as opposed to what they look like. It may not be written in text, but modern-day segregation is looming and limiting growth and opportunity for many Black

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