Just look back to Anaconda's rise last summer, when Nicki's song's rise up the charts was accompanied by a glut of other "butt" songs, many using phrases and tropes adapted from African-American culture. And Nicki's larger issue - about artists appropriating black culture while failing to recognize its original creators - was valid.Īs long as we've had modern music, we've had black erasure in music - dating all the way back to Elvis Presley and his rock 'n' roll sound he adapted (and became the face of) from black soul musicians. Why point out these examples? To prove, with the facts of the nominees, that Nicki isn't wrong to say that the vast majority of female bodies represented in the VMA nominees are white and "normal"-sized.Ģ. Who's Ed Sheeran dancing with in Thinking Out Loud? Most of the women surrounding Bey in 7/11 as they dance on the balcony and in the bathroom? The "Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold" that Bruno Mars is serenading in Uptown Funk? Or the two other artists nominated in the Best Female Video category? Kendrick Lamar, Bad BloodĪnd, for comparison, the nominees for best female video: Let's look at the Video of the Year nominees:
With the exception of Kendrick Lamar's Alright - which itself makes a powerful statement about race in America - the vast majority of the women in these videos are skinny and white. And while some of her tweets did point to Bad Blood's record-breaking run (both Anaconda and Bad Blood made Vevo history with their respective debuts), her beef with the VMAs is much larger than one specific video. Taylor assumed that Nicki's criticism was specific to Bad Blood.
Nicki wasn't subtweeting Taylor – she was criticizing the VMAs as an institution. Here's why Nicki's VMAs tweetstorm was more than just a "rant" - and why Taylor owes her an apology:ġ. The situation unfolded like a typical celebrity feud, as fans took sides and other stars (like Kim Kardashian) chimed in.īut unlike other silly star-on-star beefs, the exchange between Nicki and Taylor illuminated a painful-yet-important reality as old as modern music itself - the erasure of non-white voices in music - and asked who's responsible.Īnd by stepping into the conversation to put Nicki on blast, instead of standing by her valid complaints of the VMAs' lack of representation, Taylor Swift revealed herself to be not quite the perfect feminist icon she's presented herself as. "Maybe one of the men took your slot." she asked. Taylor, whose Bad Blood video nabbed a Video of the Year nomination, jumped in to chide Nicki for being anti-women. Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift are two of music's highest-profile stars, and on Tuesday evening, the two singers engaged in a Twitter back-and-forth after Nicki criticized the VMAs for snubbing her record-breaking Anaconda video and ignoring non-white artists as a whole. Watch Video: Katy Perry and other celebs join the Taylor Swift-Nicki Minaj Twitter warīritney and Madonna's kiss, Miley's twerking, "Im'ma let you finish" - the VMAs, for better or worse, have always been able to start a conversation.īut a conversation about race and gender in the music industry? Now that's actually something worth talking about.
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