#424:Beck, ‘Odelay’

GEFFEN, 1996

In 2015, Beck won the Grammy’s Album of the Year beating out Beyonce who was nominated for her self-titled album. People were shook. Critics were also perplexed by the win, not because Beck was not talented but because his album was not significant in moving the industry. Vox explains it well here stating that the timing seemed to be perfect for Beck’s win even though it wasn’t necessarily game-changing for anyone.

But gosh, how his fans defended the choice. I cannot think about Beck without remembering all of the guys who lectured me about why Beck is more important to the music industry than Beyonce simply because, and I quote, he plays all his own instruments, even though Beyonce plays her own instrument as well- her voice.

I remember smiling through so many conversations knowing these boys believed that Beck was God’s gift to American music simply because he plays his own instruments, records it all himself, and produces it all himself, and yadda, yadda, yadda.

I also remember feeling my soul shrivel inside knowing that none of these guys knew that Beck is a wealthy Nepo-boy who made his career by being:

• ironic

• having access to brilliant musicians and training

• sampling hip hop, jazz, blues, soul, and other music without acknowledging the legacy of the late 1970s and ‘80s Black emcees who invented the sport of sampling.

He won another Grammy for this album, ‘Odelay’. Upon its release, he did a good job fooling white men into thinking this album was the first time a musician sampled other music. 

Turns out, he has always been catnip for artsy white men. If I have to hear another man talk about how they don’t like hip-hop but they like Beck, I am going to lose my damn mind. 

So, my nepo baby receipts: 

Let’s create a little family tree. 

Bibbe Hansen is a Jewish bohemian, beat-pop darling who frequently sat on a couch with Edie Sedgwick in front of Andy Warhol’s camera. She was featured as one of his stars, casually being filmed in explicit independent films and also making music with Jack Keruouac’s daughter, Jan, in the band, The Whippets. 

Bibbe’s first husband, and father of Beck, is David Richard Campbell. He is a musical genius who has worked on over 450 gold albums including Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’. He was also a prominent member of the Scientology religion. Together Bibbe and David raised their family in Scientology and all the perks that came with it for wealthy celebrity members.

Oh, and Bibbe’s dad was a famous pop artist named Al Hansen. He was close friends with Yoko Ono and John Cage. He was also a frequent guest/contributor of The Factory. We have here a *very cool* pattern of intergenerational, cool-kid wealth.

All of this is fine. Whatever. Plenty of brilliant and extraordinary people are related in Hollywood. Nepotism doesn’t always cancel out talent and craft. 

The problem with this family tree is that instead of celebrating his family’s legacy, Beck seems to dismiss it.

He tells a David Copperfield story of growing up in poverty without resources. That is one of his big shticks - according to his mythology, he has done everything his own. He writes everything alone, plays every instrument, and produces every song in the lonely darkness of an empty studio. Frustratingly, none of that is true. He has collaborators, including his prolific dad who has produced most of his songs. 

One more thing, he grew up living in a house formerly owned by Marlon Brando and even spent much of his childhood in Europe with his artist grandfather. There are moments when his mother was in financial ruin but his background is still that of white American art elite.

I don’t know if his rags-to-riches story is told to justify how he samples artists from communities cut off from the commercial music world. But his fan base buys this idea of his utter “alone-ness” in his creativity. It is the main selling point for his fans to justify why he deserves awards more than anyone else.

Listening to ‘Odelay’ was uncomfortable for me because every song pulled me back to those moments in 2015 when I told myself to close my mouth and smile so that maybe these boys would stop talking at me about why Beck is more worthy of my worship.

I am not alone in my critique. The music group, The Evolution Control Committee, made a compilation album in 1998 called Deconstructing Beck. They took songs from Beck’s albums including Odelay and sampled them to bits. It was a statement piece about Beck’s use of samples and his entitlement to do so simply because he had the cash to clear them. They made it clear that this new music was elitist and cut off the people who invented the genre (aka all of late 1970s Hip Hop artists like DJ Kool Herc) simply because they did not have the legal nor financial backing that artists like Beck have.

It widened the conversation about copyright laws and who gets to buy their way around them and who doesn’t. 

Beck and his lawyers tried to sue the Evolution Control Committee for the album but could not because the performance group is, and remains, anonymous. 

Beyond that, his use of sampling feels chaotic and almost too mathematical on ‘Odelay’. Through this album, I have learned nothing about Beck the person except that he owns expensive recording equipment. 

I feel sad that I cannot separate this album/any of Beck’s work from the context of how his fans mansplained “art” to me for six months straight in 2016. Maybe in another life, I would listen to Beck without thinking about how so many guys get away with being uninteresting and are celebrated for it.

But, alas, it is 2024 and I’ve had nine years to stew over how annoying I find Beck and his fanbase.