8. Michael Jackson Loses, But Don’t Worry, Be Happy
The Grammys made an incredible number of horrific choices throughout the 1980s, and they opted to cap off their decade of bad decisions by awarding one of the most annoying songs of all time. Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” was undoubtedly successful, becoming the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard charts, but most listeners would still call it a saccharine denial of reality during the drugged out, politically tumultuous 1980s.
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” won both Song and Record of the Year in 1989, with at least two songs clearly more deserving facing off against it: “Fast Car” and “Man in the Mirror.” Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” was a landmark single for black female singer-songwriters, proving black women were just as adept at folk music as the white men who dominated the genre for decades. “Man on the Mirror” was everything “Don’t Worry” wasn’t, managing a political message acknowledging there were problems in the world in dire need of being fixed, a message presented through an outright gospel explosion by the most famous musician of all time.
That the Grammys would ignore even Michael Jackson, one album removed from rewarding him more than any other performer in history, proves they are downright afraid to reward any musician whose art portrays courage.
