FEATURE:
Hostage to Fortune
PHOTO CREDIT: @john_matychuk/Unsplash
Rather Than Retrain… Why We Need a Strong Music Industry Now More Than Ever
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TODAY is World Mental Health Day…
PHOTO CREDIT: @ericjamesward/Unsplash
and, in a year where this day seems more important than ever, I think that music plays a huge role in mental rejuvenation and improvement. Not only are millions around the world suffering with worsening mental-health, but musicians are also seeing their livelihoods threatened. Whilst music is still being made and that has not stopped, gigs are not really happening - and this is a valuable part of many people’s well-being. Also, venues are a vital part of the economy, and the music industry itself is such a huge part of the economy! Between gigs, sales and streams, artists put so much into the pot, yet they are being ignored. Most venues are closed right now, and so many musicians – who normally would be touring – are unsure what the future holds. Artists do have access to emergency funds, but the bailout the Government offered the arts earlier this year has either not been distributed to those in need or it will not last. Chancellor’s Rishi Sunak’s announced this week that artists and those in the industry might need to retrain and look for other careers, as unemployment is to be expected; not everyone can be protected. As you can imagine, many across the world of music had something to say! NME takes up the story:
“Sunak told ITV News that people “in all walks of life” will have to consider changing the jobs they do in certain industries.
“I can’t pretend that everyone can do exactly the same job that they were doing at the beginning of this crisis,” he said.
“That’s why we’ve put a lot of resource into trying to create new opportunities.”
So the dopes in gov telling musicians and people in arts to retrain and get another job what and become massive cunts like you nah yer alright c’mon you know LG x
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) October 6, 2020
Responding to his comments, Liam Gallagher wrote: “So the dopes in gov telling musicians and people in arts to retrain and get another job what and become massive c**ts like you nah yer alright c’mon you know LG x”.
Johnny Marr also hit back at Sunak on Twitter adding: “This is someone running the country. How about you not have your movies, TV shows, Netflix etc during lockdown? All the music, paintings, art in the culture since time began. Moron.”
Badly Drawn Boy also criticised Sunak’s comments. He said: “How about a government that thinks positively and works closely with people in the creative industries (and others) to find solutions to keep them in the important work they are already trained in”.
The only reason that the music industry has thrived for so long and has changed the course of the world is that musicians and those in the sector have been allowed to perform and they have been able to do what they love. I know that the life of a musician, for example, has never been smooth: it is that career people talk you out of as it seems to be risky and a ‘dream’ that has flaws and can end in disaster. Whilst many have dreamt of being a Rock star or going on international tours, the music industry is much more than the artists themselves – from venues and crew through to those in offices, the industry is complex, huge and vital!
IN THIS PHOTO: Chancellor Rishi Sunak/PHOTO CREDIT: Press Association
Maybe a lot of the massive artists will be able to ride this current storm, but there are thousands of promising young artists who are, essentially, being asked if they wouldn’t mind abandoning their careers and dreams and retraining in case there is no way forward for them! Venue staff and those right across the industry are not being given necessary reassurance that the Government will provide financial support until things start returning to some form of normality. Being in the music industry is much more than a dream. It is a thriving and wonderful industry where everyone works hard and are fuelled by passion. I shudder to think where I’d be as a person if COVID-19 has come along in the 1980s and 1990s and the music industry had been rocked then. Would we have most of the great artists we grew up listening to?! If they all fell and were unable to continue, would we have most of the musicians today?! Venues would have closed, and I think there would be a very reduced and scarred industry. Right now, I think new music is at its strongest in terms of its promise and the talent we have. There is so much diversity, so much powerful music, and so many incredible future stars that have had to put their plans on hold. It is not as simple as artists taking other jobs and making ends meet that way. Will these people come back to music, and will there be an industry for them to return to?!
IN THIS PHOTO: Tim Burgess
It might seem unreasonable for the Government to pledge billions more to the music industry, but I do think there needs to be as much action and guidance as they can so that we can retain as many people as possible. Venues across the U.K. are struggling, and so many of those who work in music are going to be heading towards Christmas without a solid job or any clue as to what 2021 will bring. I want to bring in article from The Guardian, where Tim Burgess wrote down his thoughts and provided this passionate defence of why the music industry is so valuable and cannot be treated with such a cavalier and ignorant approach:
“We totally understand that everyone is facing hardship at the moment, but there was something offhand in Sunak’s words – people felt dismissed and undervalued. What Sunak didn’t seem to take into account was that musicians and actors have been working other jobs for years – as baristas, chefs, roadies, graphic designers or bartenders, and in so many roles in the ironically named “gig” economy – to fill the time between, well, gigs. When I tweeted that many musicians and artists already had second jobs, the writer and journalist Ravi Somaiya nailed it with his reply: “Nobody remembers Renaissance accountants.”
It’s said that in certain parts of Shoreditch, in London, or Manchester’s Northern Quarter, you’re never more than 12 feet from a singer in a band. But it’s a long time since the heady days when you could write a song, release an album and live off the income from royalties and record sales – nowadays you’d need well over a thousand streams just to be able to buy a coffee (unless of course you’re working as a barista, in which case you can probably just make yourself one); and increasingly music is being offered for free to an audience who get their music from streaming platforms. Even before the pandemic, it wasn’t looking good for any artists who were just starting out.
PHOTO CREDIT: @wansan_99/Unsplash
The worry is that the next generation of performers will come only from certain sections of society. It felt as if the chancellor was rebranding the arts sector as some sort of luxurious, decadent hobby, and now it was time for everyone to get their hands dirty – perhaps literally, as we are very short of people to pick fruit. Is that part of his masterplan: to plug the gaps left by the exodus of migrant workers with people from bands? We could divide them according to skillsets – drummers keeping a steady beat as they scoop up armfuls of berries, bass players keeping locked in with them and working to a rhythm, while the singers wander around randomly picking selective items of fruit when the mood takes them.
Acting, creating art and playing music have buoyed up the UK’s economy for decades. In 2018 alone, the music industry contributed more than £5bn to the UK economy, and the Conservative’s own figures show that in the same year 296,000 people were working in music, performing and the visual arts. The government has even been happy to persuade tourists to head to our shores via pictures of the Beatles, Florence Welch, Shakespeare, Stormzy, beautiful theatres and aerial photos of fun being had on an industrial scale at Glastonbury. Has all this been forgotten?”
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch
The reason the music industry is so broad and exciting is because it picks its talent from all walks of lives and corners of the globe. Every gender, genre and sound is accommodated for and represented, and there is greater choice and more hungry and talented artists coming through now than we have ever seen! If we have an industry where only the elite and best-of will survive, then that will be a disaster. It would lead to hundreds of venues closing, businesses closing and, worse, a very unsure future for music as a whole! On a day when we are supporting good mental-health and raising awareness, there are countless people in the music industry who are tackling serious mental-health struggles because of what is happening. We have already seen so many music publications and venues close or be threatened; this will only intensify as the Government distances itself from the responsibility of protecting and preserving an industry that not only contributes so much to the U.K. economy, but enriches the lives of so many people. The music industry in the U.K. is one of the strongest in the world, and it would be a tragedy and unimaginable curse to…
PHOTO CREDIT: @iamarnold/Unsplash
LET it die.