It strikes me as quite strange that performers at the Grammy’s last night can praise the #Me Too movement in protest against sexual harassment, whilst participating in an awards ceremony that rewards artists for singing about “Bitches”: the winner of Record of the Year (24K) contains the lyric “Bad bitches and ya ugly ass friends”, whilst the winner of Best Rap Performance (Humble) tells us “Bitch, be humble”.  The awards also validate the objectification of women (which might be considered a contributory factor to the presence of sexual harassment in society) since it gives honours to songs such as 24K whose accompanying video features a night out with men who are fully dressed, yet for some reason surrounded by women in bikinis (one can only assume that women do not tolerate the sweltering heat of Las Vegas at night as well as do men!!)

Like the film industry, the music industry is a major reflection of culture, it strikes me as hypocritical in the extreme for it to proclaim alliance with a movement against sexual harassment whilst it continues to tolerate and perpetuate discriminatory language and imagery.  When music no longer refers to black people as ‘nigga‘, and women as ‘bitches‘ then maybe we can start to take its social commentary seriously.