Beyonce Giselle Knowles is a pop legend. In her 10+ years in the music industry, Beyonce has outworked, outtwirked and outperformed many of her peers with ease and skill. She's sold countless albums, won 16 Grammys and she deserves almost every accolade she's been awarded. But Billboard's decision to a...nium Award is a headscratcher.
We're only 11 years into the new millennium and we've already decided to crown Bey the queen of the next 1,000 years?
Of course, Beyonce isn't the first artist to be awarded with a seemingly bizarre "millenium" award. Michael Jackson famously got a "millenium" award at the 2002 VMAs, or at least he thought he did. (Jackson fans will still argue that MTV pulled a switcheroo on Michael) But he actually got a real life millennium award from the World Music Awards in 2000.
Mariah Carey was also crowned the "best selling female artist of the millenium" that same year by the World Music Awards. Keep in mind that Soundscan only started tracking sales data in 1991, which means that Mariah only began "competing," if you will, in the last 9 years of the millennium. Also, take into consideration the fact that "records" of any form were only sold in the 20th century, rendering the "millennium" part of the award is pretty meaningless. Even Mariah herself seemed stumped about the accolade in her acceptance speech.
The intent behind these awards is obvious: Deify a favorite pop star by rewarding them for their entire body of work way before they die. It's red meat for the base and the bigger the star honored, the larger the draw in audience. It's a vanity award, really. But you could say that about most award shows. Unless you're Kanye West. Who, as we all know, takes awards shows very, very seriously.
The World Music Awards waited until the end of the millennium to dole out their awards last time, but it appears that Billboard wants to jump ahead of the pack and crown Beyonce the best at the beginning of the millennium rather than waiting for 2999. "Single Ladies" and all of its leotard glory would surely be a distant, faded memory at that point in time. It'll be the equivalent of renaissance music to future generations.
It's possible that Billboard doesn't mean to crown Beyonce as THE artist of the millennium with their award, but then again that's exactly what the name implies, so that's their fault for the misconception.
Perhaps we should just stick to awarding artists for a decade worth of work. Heck, we can even deal with centuries, cause you can argue that Michael Jackson was indeed one of the greatest artists in the last century. But trying to crown someone for the past or future thousand years is one leap too far. It's like calling an album the "Best Album in the Whole Galaxy." It's too big, too broad to have any real meaning in the moment that it's being given.
If we're gonna make up awards for Beyonce, how about "Best Hair Flip While Standing In Front Of a Wind Machine," "Lace Front Artist of the Year" or "Best Use of Bedazzled Costuming by a Pop Star." Just cut this millennium nonsense out.
http://www.barkbiteblog.c...g-one.html