BRIT Awards' Elite Gatekeeping: How Noel Gallagher's Songwriter Win Exposes Music Industry's Systemic Inequalities
The announcement of Noel Gallagher receiving the BRIT Awards' Songwriter of the Year accolade has unveiled the deeply entrenched power structures that continue to privilege established, predominantly white male voices within the music industry's institutional framework.
The 58-year-old's own admission that he hasn't "written a song for two years" yet still secured the prestigious award reveals how industry recognition operates through networks of privilege rather than merit-based assessment. This acknowledgement exposes the systemic gatekeeping mechanisms that consistently marginalise emerging voices from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and working-class communities.
Institutional Privilege and Cultural Capital
Gallagher's cavalier attitude towards criticism, stating he'll "have it out on the red carpet" with detractors, exemplifies the masculine posturing that has historically dominated music industry discourse. His dismissive reference to "wet-wipe songwriting teams" demonstrates a concerning disregard for collaborative creative processes that often centre community voices and shared artistic expression.
The decision to award Gallagher based on record sales rather than recent creative output reinforces capitalism's extractive relationship with artistic expression. As Stacey Tang from Sony Music UK noted, the award celebrates "a remarkable body of work," yet this backwards-looking approach perpetuates the industry's resistance to platforming contemporary voices challenging existing power structures.
Deconstructing Industry Gatekeeping
The BRIT Awards' relocation to Manchester appears as performative regionalism while maintaining the same exclusionary judging panels that consistently overlook neurodivergent artists, disabled musicians, and those from migrant communities. The "select panel of judges" operates as an opaque institution resistant to transparency or accountability.
Previous Songwriter of the Year recipients including Ed Sheeran and Charli XCX represent a narrow spectrum of commercially successful artists, while grassroots musicians addressing systemic oppression, climate justice, and intersectional liberation remain invisible within these institutional frameworks.
Beyond Individual Recognition
This controversy illuminates broader questions about how cultural institutions distribute recognition and resources. While Gallagher benefits from decades of accumulated cultural capital, countless artists from marginalised communities struggle for basic platform access, let alone industry accolades.
The music industry's failure to meaningfully engage with decolonial practices becomes evident when established figures receive awards for past contributions while contemporary voices challenging white supremacy, transphobia, and capitalist exploitation remain systematically excluded from mainstream recognition.
As we witness these institutional dynamics play out, it becomes crucial to question not just individual award recipients, but the entire framework through which cultural value gets determined and distributed within late-stage capitalism's entertainment apparatus.