Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Dear Grammys,
You know you muffed up, right? You totally muffed up. That Album of the Year nonsense was so off base that I thought it was another “La La Land”/“Moonlight” situation where someone would come running in to say, sorry, she read the wrong name, of course Beyoncé won Album of the Year because duh. But that didn’t happen. I’m tired y’all but let’s go back a step.
An album is not just a group of songs that an artist releases at a given time. An album is an artistic statement with a sense of sonic cohesion uniting the songs. There’s some theme linking the songs and the messages and the sound. By this criteria, Harry Styles’ collection of sugary-sweet pop confections on “Harry’s House” is not even an album. Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” is an album and then some. It’s an album that makes her a leader.
“Renaissance” is a salute to disco, an underrated genre that was created by Black, brown and queer people in New York City in order to express their spirit and find community. “Renaissance’s” sonic theme is modernized disco, and it’s not only cohesive, it’s uplifting and inspiring. There’s an ecstatic feel to these high-tempo and midtempo songs that recalls a rapturous night at the legendary Studio 54.
Disco dominated American culture in the late ’70s but its stature crumbled quickly after disco was tragically attacked by the white male rock ‘n’ roll community as an uprising against the queer liberation that disco promised. I don’t mean that symbolically — in Chicago a rock radio station…
Read the full article here
