Why Kanye’s Tantrum Was One Of The Best Things To Happen To Beck At The Grammys

Kanye West’s failure to grab the spotlight created even more buzz for Beck’s already brilliant career.  

The day after Kanye West interrupted Beck’s speech at the Grammys Spotify streams for the ’90s alternative rock singer shot up over 500%.

 

Kanye West has issues. But if you watched the Grammys on Sunday and saw him interrupt Beck’s speech after winning Album of the Year you probably already knew that.

On the other hand, if you’re Beck, don’t worry, this is all going to work out just fine. But first, if you missed the show here’s the breakdown of what happened.

• Beyoncé and Beck were nominated for Album of the Year.
• Beck won Album of the Year for Morning Phase.
• Kanye rushed the stage to interrupt Beck’s speech.
• At the last second, Kanye decided not to grab the mic.
• Beck invited him to “come back” onstage.
• Everyone thought Kanye was kidding.
• Kanye wasn’t kidding.
• Kanye said in post-show interview that Beck should give his Grammy to Beyoncé.
• Humanity thought to itself “Oh my God, what a d*ck.”

So what’s the big deal anyway? Why did Kanye try to take away Beck’s Grammy “moment?”  Didn’t Beyoncé win two Grammys earlier that night? She won one for Best R&B Song (“Drunk in Love”) and one for Best R&B Performance (also for “Drunk in Love”), right?

Well, it turns out that winning Album of the Year is a pretty big deal. Of the biggest winners of the night, Sam Smith won three out the four biggest awards with the fourth going to Beck for Album of the Year. Smith won for Best New Artist, Song of The Year and Record of the Year (“Stay With Me”).

Going into the Grammys everyone had assumed that Beyoncé would win Album of the Year and that the other nominees (Pharrell, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Beck) were just window dressing on Beyonce’s done deal.

There was good reason for believing that the aptly titled Beyoncé album would win. It was a huge commercial and critical success selling five million copies, becoming the fastest selling album in iTunes history and spawning five hit singles including the unforgettable “Drunk In Love.”

So should Beyoncé have won instead of Beck? Probably. Beck even said he thought she was going to win. But that’s another story.

Either way, the Beck win was a surprise to everyone and Kanye reacted by jumping out of his seat and storming the stage in protest. At first, the audience (and social media) thought that Kanye was making fun of himself for interrupting Taylor Swift’s 2009 MTV Award speech when she beat Beyoncé for Best Female Video.

When Kanye lectured the Grammys in a post-show interview about how they needed to respect “artistry,” that’s when things got really interesting and social media caught fire. People thought, “He really wasn’t kidding!”

Spotlighting Beck
So let’s talk about “artistry” and put the spotlight where it belongs – on Beck. Beck has been making music for over thirty years and there are only a handful of more dedicated, humble artists

committed to the craft more than Beck. Early in his career he took lo-fi alternative music and fused it with folk, soul, hip hop and funk to create a new genre of music. He was, in many ways, a funky ’90s hipster version of Bob Dylan creating his own genre.

So after all these years in music, finally, at 44 years old Beck scored his first ever Billboard #1 for Morning Phase. Though the album sold a fraction of what Beyonce’s record sold, Beck is just as dedicated to “artistry” as anyone – even Beyoncé.

You could very easily say that having Beck’s moment, the moment where he got to celebrate the very pinnacle of a long career, only to have it taken away from him from by Kanye West, totally sucked (for lack of a better word).

Shirley Manson of Garbage even said in a Facebook post, West made himself look “small and petty and spoilt.”

But when we woke up there was the silver lining. Beck, because of Kanye, would now be introduced to a whole new generation of music fans that didn’t grow up in the ’90s. On Monday “Who Is Beck” Internet searches shot through the roof and, according to AdWeek, Spotify streams shot up over 500%.

So, in addition to congratulating Beck for his win, we thought it fitting to post some of hist best videos and a full discography for new fans discovering artist. Oh, and thank you, Kanye!

Favorite Beck Videos & Discography
Check out our three favorite videos from Beck and check out his full discography below.

1) “Loser”

Recorded after a homeless Beck returned to LA from New York after failing to break into music scene. “Loser” grew from trying to get the attention of bored coffee house audiences. The song would eventually become a Top 10 Billboard hit.

2) “Where It’s At” 1997 Grammys

Beck’s album Odelay was nominated an Album of the Year Grammy in 1996 but lost to Alanis Morrisette. Beck did win for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Where It’s At.”

3) “Waking Light” from the album Morning Phase – Tonight Show

 Beck performing “Waking Light” from the album Morning Phase, his first ever #1 album.

Beck Discography

		1994	Mellow Gold	Geffen / DGC
		1994	Stereopathetic Soulmanure	Flipside Records
		1994	One Foot in the Grave	K Records
		1996	Odelay	Geffen / DGC
		1998	Mutations	Geffen / DGC/Bong Load
		1999	Midnite Vultures	DGC
		2002	Sea Change	Geffen / Universal Distribution
		2005	Guero	Interscope
		2005	Guerolito	Interscope
		2006	The Information	Interscope
		2008	Modern Guilt	DGC / Interscope
		2014	Morning Phase	Capitol / Virgin EMI
		2014	Song Reader	Capitol / Virgin EMI

Source: AllMusic.com