I have a question for you.
A serious posit if you will; are you truly disheartened and/or upset about the Grammys honoring Macklemore? Or are you just one of those people that feels the need to hear yourself talk so you dive head first into whatever brand of faux outrage people get lathered up about to avoid addressing the crushing reality of living? If you are the former grow the Fuck up and if you are the latter you most certainly are the worst kind of asshole modern American life has to offer up.
The only acceptable answer to this question should be who the Fuck cares.
When is the last time the Grammys have been relevant? Really? Think about it. This is an organization that is notoriously out of touch. It is an organization that jumps on board when movements are at their end. They miss every relevant moment in modern music. Think of every important shift from the past 50 years and now think about how bad the Grammys missed.
They are not designed to be cutting edge.
They are not designed to be innovative.
They are there strictly to pat themselves on the back. They are the Recording Industry Association of America, or as their site says:
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies.
They are celebrating the industry not the art. It is an award for the industries best salesmen1. The shit might as well be held at a golf course in Scottsdale.
1It could be argued that Jay Z making an album to help sell a new smart phone should be the crowning achievement.
Like most businesses, innovation comes from outside the established industry. It isn't until the innovation is has become such an undeniable force in your day to day life that the innovation is recognized. The most important and Innovative artists are either ignored, awarded once their sound is co-opted and absorbed by a lesser version or retroactively rewarded once the rebel spirit that made them interesting in the first place is beaten out of them by old age and the crushing poverty that comes with being an artist on the fringe.
Not winning a Grammy, for a modern artist should be worn as a badge of honor. As a fan you should be happy for them not being on the Grammy committees’ radar. Because the Grammys are designed to award financial success and not art, so get the Fuck over it already.
Over the next few days you are going to see a bunch of think pieces about what it means that Macklemore won, because, well, page clicks. It means very little that he won, despite the narrative that people will be creating to push their own agendas. He is the cipher for people to place their fears, concerns, Freudian bullshit, desire to avoid reality and tackle real issues, etc. He is essentially the musical equivalent of a conspiracy theory, the convoluted idea that you can channel all of your anxieties into so you make the world seem less random.
So get over it people, the majority of the world does not give the remotest Fuck about music the way you do. That is why Katy Perry is huge. It is why Pink has a career. It is why Macklemore won; because most people have more pressing issues to give a Fuck about than a middling rapper who makes capop music that sells the shit out of cars.
Stop worrying about shit you can't control.
20 years from now nobody is going to give a Fuck about Macklemore but they will still be checking for Wu Tang, Black Flag, The Who, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, etc; all of whom never won a Grammy.
So who really won?