NPR

BET Awards Wields, And Exerts, Its Influence Beyond Black America

No matter how loved or loathed, last night's show proves why it's often the most talked-about night in pop.
DJ Khaled, backstage at the 2017 BET Awards, helped set the stage for one of the year's biggest barometers of pop. / Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

The BET Awards, like black America, is never a monolithic affair.

Every year the show, airing live from L.A., is the most talked-about event in black music which, by extension, often means its impact reverberates throughout the pop sphere. The New York Times' Jon Caramanica said as much last February, when he wrote that the Grammy's would do well to look to BET (Black Entertainment Television) — "which has three award-show franchises reverent of music and its performers" — for inspiration.

The show's annual attempt

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