Last night in Real Time with Bill Maher, the HBO presenter highlighted how the “Equality of Results” philosophy was alive and well at the 2021 Grammy, insisting that “music is difficult and most people suck.” He then compared the reaction to the award show with the “trophy syndrome” that started in the 1990s, when every American child received a trophy “no matter how good or bad they are at something”.
During the “New Rule” segment of his show, Maher stated that “certain people make music better than others and it’s okay to reward them for it”.
“This is called meritocracy,” he added. “And it is the opposite of guaranteed results. Equal results as opposed to equal opportunities? We used to call it another name – ‘trophy syndrome’. “
Maher claims that the result of this concept is that children today have “a totally deluded and undeserved belief in their enchanted brains and talent”.
“It’s not that the whole generation wants to be famous, they think no being famous is not fair. “
He then pulled out a Rolling Stone article that claimed that streaming boosted the top 10 percent of the best artists and inhibits equal results, as the bottom 90% of musicians only see 0.6% of streams. The article states that almost 40,000 tracks are released on Spotify per day, but a “small class of artists” sees most of the streaming activity.
“Yes, these are called good ones,” insisted Maher. “I mean, yes, of course, great occasional talent can fall through the cracks, but in general it’s just the case that most people who try their hand at music write songs that don’t make the whole world sing.”
“Wait, let me see if I understand,” said Maher. “Talented artists that people like are heard more than the less talented that they don’t like?”
“Stop the printers. Yes, that is meritocracy! ”, He added. “If people don’t like your music, your mom can’t make them listen to it.”
You can check out Maher’s full “New Rule” segment above and pick up new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher Friday nights at 10 pm ET on HBO.
Michael is a music and television addict who likes many things that are not complete and total boredom. You can follow him on Twitter – @Tweetskoor
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