At the Grammys this week, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis picked up four awards after their explosive debut in 2013 to become one of the biggest hip hop acts in the world. The duo also bucked the trend in their genre at the end of last year by releasing the single Same Love, a collaboration with singer Mary Lambert, championing Gay Rights and completely outspoken in its support of marriage equality. At the ceremony, the three performed this huge hit live, joined on stage by Madonna and accompanied by a mass wedding in an interlude in the middle, of both gay and straight couples alike. The sentiment behind this huge gesture is of course public support for marriage equality from the artists and the industry alike. However, was this performance just a commoditisation of the issue as a sensationalist news story for the ceremony's insistence on one-upping itself for headline grabbing each year? Was the performance just a little too much?
In case you haven't seen it, the full video of the performance can be watched here:
In case you haven't seen it, the full video of the performance can be watched here:
When the movie The Help was released a few years ago, it was embraced by critics and audiences alike as a moving story about the Civil Rights Movement. However, there were members of the African-American community who criticised the film (and the book) for its reliance on a white central character who becomes the catalyst for the change that occurs. Complaints levelled that it took a white person to help black people out of inequality. This same complaint has been aimed toward Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; why is it taking a song about equality by straight people to embrace the issue in the mainstream, instead of a song by a gay artist whom the issue directly touches? I guess the simple answer is that better the song be by a straight artist than the song not exist at all, but I do see where the argument comes from.
The song gives us a personal account of Macklemore's relationship toward sexuality and champions equality. Its rousing lyrics and trumpeting of "no freedom 'til we're equal; damn right I support it" of course underline the importance of its message. That the song has come, not from a balladeer or a sensitive singer-songwriter, but from a credible, current and successful hip hop artist is what makes this all the more unusual however, adding maybe more weight than Lady Gaga precociously demanding equality from her audience, of whom everyone already agrees with her. This is a song targeted toward an audience that aren't predisposed to agree with the 'gay agenda' and for it to have achieved this level of success is surely testament to how far we've come as a society and as a signal that the walls are coming down. I don't think there can be any real protest against the song itself, aside from an angry "we can rescue ourselves" attitude that gets no one anywhere. For a minority to achieve equality, that requires support from the majority too, and sometimes that requires a posterboy, whether part of said minority or not.
The song gives us a personal account of Macklemore's relationship toward sexuality and champions equality. Its rousing lyrics and trumpeting of "no freedom 'til we're equal; damn right I support it" of course underline the importance of its message. That the song has come, not from a balladeer or a sensitive singer-songwriter, but from a credible, current and successful hip hop artist is what makes this all the more unusual however, adding maybe more weight than Lady Gaga precociously demanding equality from her audience, of whom everyone already agrees with her. This is a song targeted toward an audience that aren't predisposed to agree with the 'gay agenda' and for it to have achieved this level of success is surely testament to how far we've come as a society and as a signal that the walls are coming down. I don't think there can be any real protest against the song itself, aside from an angry "we can rescue ourselves" attitude that gets no one anywhere. For a minority to achieve equality, that requires support from the majority too, and sometimes that requires a posterboy, whether part of said minority or not.
The protest comes against the gimmick of turning the right to marriage into a PR exercise. I have no doubt that, for the couples involved, there was no ill-intention intended. The opposite in fact; they were given the opportunity to make a stand and marry their outspoken stance on the issue with their own right to marriage, which is admirable. But aside from their good intentions, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert's good intentions, even Madonna's good intentions toward the community who made her what she is and kept her there, the whole stunt was like a planned two-fingers to an establishment... but sanitised, pleasant, so rooted in good intention and met with such applause that you wonder what the point of it was. The establishment itself can't stick two fingers up at itself. It was meant to be moving, it was meant to uplifting, it was meant to be a landmark moment in the history of music... But as Lady Gaga discovered when she declared Born This Way the "anthem of a generation", you can't orchestrate these things. It feels like a TV producer decided that the Grammys 2014 would be the moment they embraced the gays and therefore we must all thank them for it.
There's a certain feeling of self-satisfaction of being a compassionate majority. I'm not ungrateful of anyone; open-mindedness, liberalism and compassion is what has changed the world I live in and meant that I can lead an open and free life. I'm grateful that society has changed, I'm grateful that homophobia is on the decrease, but am I grateful that the fight against homophobia is the new cause de jour? That marriage equality has become the new Help Haiti, Feed The World or Free Nelson Mandela? Mass movements of course negate change, but with gestures like this, all of a sudden I feel like the poor recipient of charity from the majority who can afford to give it.
There's a certain feeling of self-satisfaction of being a compassionate majority. I'm not ungrateful of anyone; open-mindedness, liberalism and compassion is what has changed the world I live in and meant that I can lead an open and free life. I'm grateful that society has changed, I'm grateful that homophobia is on the decrease, but am I grateful that the fight against homophobia is the new cause de jour? That marriage equality has become the new Help Haiti, Feed The World or Free Nelson Mandela? Mass movements of course negate change, but with gestures like this, all of a sudden I feel like the poor recipient of charity from the majority who can afford to give it.
Every landmark in the fight for equality should be celebrated. When homosexuality became decriminalised, when the age of consent equalised, when the first civil partnerships were announced; these moments were massive steps toward our freedom. The point of Gay Pride is to celebrate ourselves, our diversity, our quirks and our equality. There are those who want complete assimilation, to blend into the rest of society as though sexual prejudice never existed, but to do that would be to concrete over our shared past, to deny our community the identity it forged for itself to overcome its obstacles. A mass marriage was a nice gesture on the part of the Grammys in principle, but who has benefited from the stunt now? In the sheer quantity of media coverage and public debate (yes I'm aware I am contributing myself to this too), it is undoubtedly the Grammys themselves.
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