Racism In The Music Industry
It's been close to two months since the death of George Floyd. We’ve lived through two months of one of the largest movements in U.S. history. However, these events have been lived, and protested against over and over again for hundreds of years. Black folks in this country have endured centuries of fear and pain refuting against a government that has disregarded their existence and importance. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement, many injustices have surfaced to the exchange of mass media, including the policies, structures, and cultural impacts nested in the racism that follows the music industry. I am by all means not an expert or nearly as educated as I wish to be on the matter, but I wanted to share what I’ve learned so far about the inequality that exists in an industry we claim to be so diverse.
Music Education:
As with many things, the racial imbalance in the music industry starts in school. Higher education lacks a diversified thinking and representation for art, literature and of course music. Current educational programs teach Western music as being defined mainly by European traces. Music culture should be taught as being part of a global system as opposed to just isolating it to the European musicians and composers that people get in most classes. Not many institutions prioritize works by people of color in their curriculum, and as a result students are being taught an inaccurate depiction for how the history of genres, music styles, and lyricism came to be. Music programs across the country are discrediting the massive cultural impact that Black artists and composers have had in defining music over the years.
Major Labels:
Besides gender inequality being one of the most noticeable issues in the music business, for years the industry has also had a very poor record of hiring minorities for top positions. “The Power 100” is an annual list created by Billboard, which hosts the names of the most influential people in the American music industry. It is incredibly evident to see the disproportion of Black executives on that list, and just how much more obvious can it be, that when there is a lack of Black leadership, the industry begins to hurt. How can labels expect to support and advocate for diverse artistry if there are no people in power who have lived through and know of the nuances and storylines that minorities carry? Since the start of the BLM movement record and label companies have been getting away with donating money without pledging to make systemic changes.
Projected in the media, award shows continue to fail in crediting and honoring Black artists in annual celebrations that are intended to commemorate the contributions of culture to the art of music. Year after year, Black artists are nominated mainly under R&B and Hip-Hop categories, as so many other artists continue to borrow artistic styles from those so called “urban” artists and are labeled/nominated under “pop” categories. The term “urban” has segregated Black artists because of the color of their skin, and while much of the industry has already parted ways with the term, many charts and award programs still use categories like “Latin Pop” and “Urban Album”. As the industry goes on to define music genres, it is obviously still also defining who can partake in them (remember “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X?).
The Black Artist:
The music business is booming, but rarely do artists get to see much of that return. “Royalties” is the way that music rights-holders get paid through the sale of their creations when distributed, performed or embedded in other media/monetized. As of today those rights-holders can earn anywhere between between $0.006 to $0.0084 per song listen on a streaming service. All of this is to say that through streaming, artists are not making living. Most artists make the majority of their income through merch sales and touring. The benefit of being under A&R, publishing, and label management is the budgets that can be set out to help artists create and market their work. Minority artists are most often given disproportionately lower budgets to work with than many of their white counterparts. When under a label, artists are also paid in ”advances” for a body of work, and it is a sad common that like the budgets that are set out, many Black artists are underpaid in comparison to their white counterparts under the same label. We can’t deny the fact that the respect and support for an artist is being clearly defined by the color of their skin.
For an industry whose backbone is supposedly created on the premise of diversity and multiculturalism, the music industry still lacks the systemic change it needs to see that. However, there are some ways that we can all continue to protest the racial injustice in music. How about purchasing directly from Black artists and Black-owned labels? Maybe attending concerts for independent Black artists? Or how about reading up and sharing the work of Black artists and music journalists? The music industry is powered by music listeners, and when we begin making a more conscious effort to support and listen to Black creators, we can help dismantle the inequality that has plagued the industry for many years.