Around the same time Kanye West was explaining why he didn’t think Beck deserved the Grammy for Album of the Year, Bob Dylan was awarded the MusicCares Person of the Year Award for 2015. In his acceptance speech, Dylan praised the people who’d inspired and supported him. He also listed those who he felt had never given him his due, and Dylan went well out of his way to emphasize why those who’d dismissed him weren’t as great as those who’d praised him (among the detractors named were Leiber & Stoller, Ahmet Ertegun and Merle Haggard). He complained about critics who focused on his voice while giving contemporaries like Tom Waits and Dr. John a pass. And he mocked “a very popular soul-singing sister”—who was identified as Marsha Ambrosius—after she sang the National Anthem at a Floyd Mayweather fight. “She sang every note that exists, and some that don’t exist. Talk about mangling a melody. You take a one-syllable word and make it last for 15 minutes? She was doing vocal gymnastics like she was a trapeze act. But to me it was not funny.”
Has Bob Dylan earned the right to be an asshole in a way that Kanye West hasn’t? Or is it easier to forgive pomposity if it comes from an artist whose work you happen to enjoy?
This past winter, when it was announced that Paul McCartney and West would be collaborating, the tongue-in-cheek joke on Twitter was that West would help boost “this McCartney guy.” But news outlets immediately took what was meant to be an obvious bit of irony as serious ignorance regarding McCartney’s career. Pundits ranted at how “ridiculous” it was that Kanye fans didn’t know who McCartney was. But the assumption itself was much more ridiculous—and reflective of a cultural gap that’s both generational and racial. Kanye’s fans know who Paul McCartney is, they just don’t care as much as you’d like them to. And because so many hip-hop fans aren’t begging for the approval of the rock elders, a lot of folks are invested in making them feel like they’re arrogant for it.
Why do the opinions of elderly white rockers matter so much when it comes to music being created and consumed in 2015? Whether it’s Keith Richards or David Crosby, these Baby Boomer icons don’t determine what is or isn’t musically valid to anyone under 55. And even praise from guys like McCartney and the late Lou Reed doesn’t mean much to an audience that wasn’t waiting for their co-sign. Which is exactly how it should be: a new generation has to have its own standards and its own voice.
Respect your elders, but don’t look to them for validation.
Article Appeared @http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/03/classic-rockers-beef-with-kanye-west.html