Steve Bryant – Thoughts on Success, Music and Media

The Grammy Opening

Want people to hear your point of view and possibly agree to help your cause? Then turn up the lyrics so people can hear them. What you opened with was anger and noise, nothing more.

Many white men have done despicable things through history. So have many black men. While there are times when, as a white man, I am ashamed of what some other white men have done, I have never been ashamed to be white. No one should be ashamed of their background. Want to make fun of white or black people as a whole, as Kendrick Lamar did with white people during the Grammy opening? If so, then you are no better than those you ridicule.

I understand musicians taking a stand. We have always done that throughout history. The songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger helped to change the very repressive culture in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. They did what Kendrick Lamar tried to do with the Grammy opening, except they criticized the people who were doing wrong, regardless of their color, creed or national origin. And, almost equally important, you could hear and understand their lyrics. They didn’t need an ensemble of dancers and a hoard of pyrotechnics to make their points.

The hate I witnessed in the Grammy opening served to fuel an already hateful and damaged country. I am a musician, an American who happens to be white and a writer who tries to point out good things in this world. Right now, more than those things, I am sad for what this Grammy ceremony has become.

© 2018 Steve Bryant – No portion of this or any blog can be reproduced or copied and posted on any online site or read aloud on any audio or video media without the express permission of the author.